Summary of the Blinkist summary :
In a constantly changing world, it pays to change your mind
You probably pride yourself on sticking to your guns and staying true to what you believe in. But the world is now changing faster than ever before. It means knowing how to think isn’t enough anymore. You also need to know how to rethink so as to integrate new information into your belief systems and strategies.
Train yourself to think like a scientist. Scientists are always curious about what they don’t know, and they’re constantly adapting their views to fit with incoming data. Scientists don’t begin with answers but with questions. They carefully test their theories and rely on evidence, not intuition.
View your business strategy as a theory that you need to test
You might not know what you don’t know
Humility is the cure for our incompetence blindness. When you adopt a humble attitude and admit that there’s a lot you don’t know, you open yourself up to learning new things and becoming more competent. Adopting a humble mindset will not undermine your self-confidence. Both traits can co-exist. Confidence is about self-belief, whereas humility is about questioning whether you have the right methods.
Three key things to change people’s minds
• Find common ground
• Present fewer, stronger arguments in favour of their case. Because weaker arguments dilute stronger ones. If you pile on lots of reasons to support your arguments, then your opponent will simply discredit the weakest one. And once they’ve rejected some of your arguments, it’s much easier for them to disregard your whole case.
• Show a scientist-like curiosity toward their opponents
Even the most ignorant beliefs can be changed
One of the most effective ways to change people’s prejudiced ideas and beliefs is to show them how arbitrary those beliefs are. Show them it’s only pure chance that they believe these things at all.
Motivational interview & reflective listening
Sometimes the best way to get people to rethink is to interview them, ask them questions. Because it’s much more effective to help people discover their own reasons to rethink rather than simply giving them your reasons for a rethink.
Usually, when we’re trying to persuade someone, we do a lot of the talking, but motivational interviews emphasize listening and reflective listening (Acknowledgement of another person’s view and feelings)
When people refuse to think, it’s often because they want to hold on to their own freedom to choose rather than disagree with your arguments. It’s important that you let the person know that they’re capable of change, but they’re also free to decide for themselves.
Binary Bias
Framing the issue in black and white as if people must agree with one of just two sides such as climate change ① the truth ② climate deniers, fall into the trap of binary bias. This is when in our quest for clarity, we simplify a complex range of viewpoints into just two categories.
People are more likely to change their minds when an issue is presented as complex; as having many different perspectives. If you want someone to rethink, you’re better off showing them that there’re lots of opinions to choose from. This approach encourages people to focus less on the emotional, irrational business of picking sides, and more on the actual issues.
A learning culture
The organisational culture impacts the team’s ability to rethink. Adopt a learning culture allows the team to have the ability to rethink and reassess their decisions.
In learning cultures, the highest priority is growth, and rethinking is routine. Employees maintain an element of doubt about their methods, and they’re always aware of just host much they don’t know. Companies with learning cultures are the most innovative and make the least mistakes, not those with performance culture.
A learning culture can be instilled by providing psychological safety to employees. When people are psychologically safe, they feel comfortable taking risks, knowing that they won’t be punished for doing so. They trust their coworkers and managers enough to be able to admit when they’ve made errors. It means mistakes and problems can be identified and ironed out.
While in performance cultures, like boss saying failure isn’t an option, employees are routinely punished for failing, so they scramble to cover up their errors.
Define yourself through values
How do you define yourself? When your sense of self comes from the beliefs and opinions you hold, it makes it far more difficult to change them. Because your whole identity is based on them, you end up getting defensive and clinging on to opinions, even when evidence suggests they’re no longer valid.
Define yourself through values, not beliefs. Your core values won’t need to change throughout your life, but your beliefs about how to advance them probably will.
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