Continuously examine whether you have updated information, the right dose of gut-feeling, and a holistic understanding of the circumstances or people. Being objective not only takes intelligence, but wisdom.
People all have emotions, perhaps we all have some unconscious bias as well. The point is how to keep our mind fit, being objective and making effective decisions consistently.
Being aware of our unconscious bias, and understanding our perception is subjective, is the first step to becoming more objective: Perception is one's interpretation of reality - when we experience something and see the world, our mind interprets it. Perception is based on one’s thought processes which are influenced by one’s beliefs, thinking style, cognitive understanding, insight, or surroundings, etc, leading us to judge others, all of which may be positive or negative. Therefore, it is subjective, varies from person to person, culture from culture. It is not absolutely true, but it is what we believe to be true. It can be shaped by our biased thinking and also by the environment around us. No two people's realities will be totally identical at a given time. That makes each of us a unique human being.
Theoretically, there are differences between personal reality and actual realty. Even though everyone lives in actual reality, we experience actual reality through the filter of our personal realities, which, again, is ultimately based on individual perception. Perception differs, according to what an individual or a group is able to understand of this common reality psychologically or physiologically. The positive mind often has more positive thinking about the environment and brings us the bright side of situations. In this regard, optimism or pessimism bias perhaps also causes some confusion for us to diagnose the root cause of the problem or make more objective judgments. Having a learning attitude allows us to become cognizant of the different perceptions in order to make sound judgment of things and people, etc, in a more objective way.
Both the art of intuition and the science of analytics have the role to play in making objective judgment: With unprecedented uncertainty and complexity, gut-feeling based judgment is often subjective. Decision-makers today must have enough knowledge, not just any knowledge, but relevant and updated knowledge to make their decisions rich in information, objective in process. As to judgement, it must be based on the best information available, well processed and interpreted accurately. Take advantage of the power of mind (the software)-the human brain (hardware) can process huge amounts of information unconsciously without it ever rising into consciousness. It's important to dispassionately examine circumstance via fact-finding, analysis, objective evaluations and comparison.
True, in modern societies, we are becoming more sophisticated. Information has a variety of meanings: colloquial, professional and technical, etc, people are multifaceted as well, with multidimensional thought processes, multi-core professional competencies, multicultural background, or multilayer personalities, etc. Again, being objective starts with a learning attitude. Intelligent people ask tough questions to themselves or others: When and in which situations, is your gut feeling not working at all? When and under what circumstances is information not being handled properly or interpreted accurately and causes misjudgment? If the problem is familiar or you know some people extremely well, intuition brings you quick logic to make an objective judgment. But in most circumstances, an informed gut feeling is more likely to be working with more information and possibly even relevant and accurate information, and could, therefore, at least, eliminate some poor choices. An (information + intuition) based judgment has lots of connotations of finality.
Being objective, with judgmental Intelligence is the combination of multiple intelligence such as mental agility and psychological excellence, do not ignore the power of us - collective insight: It’s widely known that there is stereotypical thinking, unconscious bias, or preconceived notions about how things should happen and how people are evaluated. Many times, people are thinkers of convenience, but thinkers of consequence. They take the easy path, think and work at a superficial level rather than spend the time to observe deeper and understand what is going on underneath. Poor judgement would have significantly negative effects if made without regard to emotional, social, or situational variables that pure objectivity would ignore.
In the societal setting, being objective is a cultural thing. The cognitive gap, misbelief, or conventional wisdom, etc, disconnects many things which are supposed to be interconnected, it becomes glue to stifle changes and the barrier for connecting the dots to capture insight. Sometimes, the challenge is objectivity doesn't just spawn from the "in one’s mind" place. It is actually a power greater than the single mind and something impossible to accomplish in one’s thought only, it is embedded in the collective mind which is culture or the whole ecosystem of the things. If a team clicks, it may reach a shared insight of the situation which is always better than individual belief. Therefore, we need to work together, clarify some concepts, instill new knowledge, and update certain rules. Collectively, we could improve decision effectiveness and professional maturity.
It is imperative to identify what causes manifestly intelligent people to frequently make poor judgement. Be objective without being too judgmental; be self-respected without being egoistic; continuously examine whether you have updated information, the right dose of gut-feeling, and a holistic understanding of the circumstances or people. Sound judgement and effective decision-making not only takes intelligence, but wisdom.
0 comments:
Post a Comment