Appreciate Your Experience Is Bias
My experience
Can prevent me
From experiencing
Other
Experiences
This is a chapter from our book Futurework
– A Guidebook for The Future of Work
Bias.
It is a powerful word.
What associations did it bring to mind? Did you think about yourself? Well you should.
Because you are biased.
Again observe your immediate reaction to that provocation. Did you immediately accept it? Or did you instinctively refute the assertion?
Quite likely your mind associates the idea of bias as a negative character trait. Which is not surprising, as the term bias has commonly become associated with the quality of negative bias. Despite the fact that like so many things in life, there is both good bias and bad bias.
In other words – society has developed a bias against bias. Which in most cases is a positive development. However there are some vital forms of positive cognitive bias that are extremely valuable for our survival and wellbeing.
I personally have a deeply ingrained bias to stop at red traffic lights. I certainly hope you have the same. We could not go about our daily activities without biased beliefs and behaviour.
The problem is that false biases have a hugely damaging impact on society and individual wellbeing. We are often the worst judges of the validity of our own biases – because we are…
Biased.
We are also highly experienced. Regardless of what stage of your career or life you are at, you have become expert at being you. No one else on the planet has as much experience at being you.
Which is why experience forms such a critical element of our identity. At one level we are the sum of all our experiences.
At another level, defining ourselves as this can prevent us from being open to even greater possibilities.
Realising experience is bias can be destabilising.
Causing us to question who we are.
Realising experience is bias can be freeing.
Causing us to vision who we might become.
We need to value our experience, while putting it to one side. As the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald declared, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
This mental juxtaposition is known as cognitive dissonance. A state in our minds where two concepts are dissonant (in conflict) rather than consonant (in agreement). This conflict creates internal stress and the drive to make a change so that the concepts align more harmoniously.
In the case of the conflict between valuing our experience for the beneficial knowledge gained, while at the same time devaluing it for the potentially harmful bias gained, many choose to simply deny or ignore the bias. Blindly continuing in the direction that “in my experience” is the best one to take.
Instead know that your experience is valuable – while also appreciating it has resulted in bias.
Safe in the knowledge that red traffic lights mean stop.
While being open to the possibility there might be other meanings worth exploring.
Like pause. Wait. Reflect.
Then head in a new direction.
Growth Habit
Reflection: Where in your life and work have you fallen into a habit based on past experiences that might no longer be useful? How much space do you leave for others to share experiences and ideas that differ from your natural biases?
Conversation: Notice a moment in a discussion where you are providing advice based on your personal experience. Realise that this suggested direction might be the best course of action or might not be. Practise remaining secure in the value of your experience while positively encouraging alternative suggestions – taking time to consider the value of these possibilities more fully.
Action: Identify something you routinely do based on past experiences. This might be as simple and low risk as the music you listen to or the commuting route you normally take. Or it might be a more significant activity like a team meeting structure or project delivery process. Experiment with doing something different instead and observe the difference. Beware of your natural biases – so if the first alternative does not work for you, avoid immediately validating your existing routine as being the best approach. Try something else. Repeat. Grow.