Reprogram Your Brain's Algorithms
You are like a robot.
Before I go further... let me also reassure you, that you are nothing like a robot.
Both statements are true. As the “Genius of the AND” from ‘Built to Last’ famously identified, great leaders have the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in mind at once… and know both to be true.
So just as humans have emotions and robots don’t, robots make decisions based on algorithms and we do too.
Red light = stop. Hungry + kitchen = open fridge. Door + people x 2 = pause... or push ahead depending on how you’ve been programmed.
As human beings, not all of our decisions in life can be reduced to simple algorithms. Think of your favourite song. Or someone you love deeply. Now try explaining the precise formula.
If everything could be decided through algorithms, pros and cons lists would be far more useful than they typically are. They would provide definitive answers, rather than a vague sense of greater clarity.
On the flipside, most of us are blissfully unaware of our own decision-making algorithms – and how leading... or misleading… they can be.
While the future constantly evolves around us, too often our routines remain anchored in the past. Need clarification during a meeting? Do you instinctively:
a) Seek opinions from the others around the table?
b) Momentarily pause to head online for substantiated facts?
c) Break out of the room for more diverse input?
I’ve facilitated many meetings and it’s an incredibly rare leader who’s reprogrammed the habits of themselves and their team to go beyond their default setting of seeking opinion within the room.
Which in many cases is okay because they have wise knowledgeable peers.
And in many cases isn’t okay because they have wise knowledgeable peers. Or in the words of billionaire Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla – experience is another word for bias.
So just as the machines now make themselves smarter by using Machine Learning to reprogram their own instructions, remember to keep reprogramming yourself.
In other words, remember to sometimes forget.
Reprogram your future
To schedule a call with Futurist Dave Wild to better read the signals of the future please contact our Business Manager at andrea@dave-wild.com