Transcript of Slides:
1. One Truth that All Great Teams and Team Members Must Know and Act On…
2. Without Intention…
3. We’re Not Open-Minded
4. Not You, Not Me, None of Us!
5. “A resolve and determination to think and act in a certain way, usually for a specific end result” Definition: Intention
6. “Any fool can know The point is to understand” – Albert Einstein
7. Our Minds in Many Ways Have Evolved to be Closed – Why?
8. Survival! Since those early primitive days, when life was all about surviving, our minds shaped to quickly make decisions and categorize into polar extremes: life or death, like or dislike, good or bad, friend or foe, success or failure.
9. The Opportunity? Our minds have grown to decide in mere seconds or fractions of seconds: are we running towards or away? For protection, this has become our default operating mode in today’s world, even though we no longer have the same threats, or debatably anything even similar, from our early ancestral days.
10. The Opportunity (Continued) Our minds constantly scan the world, judging issues, people, situations and ideas in terms of life or death, like or dislike, good or bad, friend or foe, success or failure.
11. Why Care?
12. We can be running away based on ‘bad’ judgements, or what we might reference as prejudgments, defined as forming a judgment, prematurely and without having adequate information Prejudgments are in many ways, guesses at best, when we’ve offered the guilty verdict in the courts of our minds We may be right, but we may be wrong.
13. Effective Teams and Team Members: Get that issues, people, situations and ideas involving their team and working world are worth more than a guess! More than a guilty verdict!
14. Ineffective teams and team members who are closed-minded and judging demonstrate behaviours which include: • Having an “I am right” and/or “you are wrong” mentality • Dismissiveness • Not listening • Rejecting other ideas and beliefs without further consideration • Resistance to change • Not open to trying new ways Stuck in “This is the way that we always do things”.
15. “Having or showing rigid opinions and beliefs, or narrow outlooks; being unreceptive and resistant to new and different ideas” Definition: Closed-Mindedness.
16. Closed-minds can easily stay closed Intention is the key!
17. What experts say about what has an impact on closed-mindedness: Bounded Rationality Cognitive Dissonance Selective Perception/Confirmation Bias.
18. Bounded Rationality “Closed-mindedness can come from the belief that I ‘know enough,’ and I’ll be bounded by how much I know – where my knowledge falls on a range of low to high in any particular area” Our rationale about anything can only be as rational, as we’re open to developing our rationale (Did you get that?).
19. Example: Bounded Rationality If we don’t particularly like a colleague, this decision about not liking them, is bounded by the current information that we have about them Of course, there can be more to the colleague than the information that we have, that is not actually part of our decision-making process.
20. Cognitive Dissonance “Closed-mindedness can come from our minds wanting to have harmony and comfort with their dominant beliefs of right and wrong A key principle of cognitive dissonance says that if we are truly connected in some way to our position, even when presented with contradictory facts, we tend to become even more passionate, supportive, and defensive about our original position” A lack of harmony within our mind, and particularly between our beliefs and the information that we have from the outside world.
21. Example: Cognitive Dissonance If we believe someone is disrespectful, and they do something that is actually respectful, we may have cognitive dissonance, as we have conflicting inconsistent information in our minds about this person In an effort to be more comfortable, our minds want to harmonize the dissonance based on our dominant beliefs, which in this case, is the belief that this person is disrespectful To achieve this, we may justify and brush off this person’s respectful behaviour i.e. “They must want something… This is a one-time miracle… This won’t last…” etc.
22. Selective Perception & Confirmation Bias “Closed-mindedness can come from our minds being selective, saying ‘yes’ to some information, and saying ‘no’ or ‘missing’ other information altogether” Our mind’s tendency to gather information that supports our dominant beliefs and reaffirms past preferences, and to filter out and discount new information that challenges those beliefs and contradicts past judgments.
23. Example: Selective Perception & Confirmation Bias If we have a favourite colleague, we can collect – selectively perceive – information that confirms our bias that this person is great Now, if this favourite colleague of ours does something to someone else or even to us that is not so great, which directly challenges our bias of their greatness, we can have a tendency to employ selective exposure, distortion or retention of this information – which means that we avoid, ignore, alter, or forget the unbecoming behaviour – in order to support our belief that they are wonderful
24. Closed Mindedness Can Keep Teams From Being Great
25. “A willingness to consider new and different ideas; being unprejudiced” Definition: Being Intentionally Open-Minded.
26. OPEN: How to Be Intentionally Open-Minded with The Four Essentials Objectivity Probe Expand Notice
27. Essential #1 Objectivity Defined Investigating the source, to distinguish facts from feelings and beliefs, in search for truth and reality/
28. How to Achieve Objectivity? Investigate where you got your point of view on right and wrong? Distinguish the facts versus beliefs behind your point of view on right and wrong?
29. Essential #2 Probe Defined The act of exploring, searching, uncovering, examining and investigating.
30. How to Probe? Challenge why your point of view might be incorrect, or not totally accurate Empathize with why someone else’s point of view might be equally correct, if not more accurate than yours.
31. Essential #3 Expand Defined Increasing, stretching and ultimately enlarging something or making it fuller.
32. How to Expand? Get curious and seek new information and experiences to have a more informed point of view.
33. Essential #4 Notice Defined The act of perceiving, discerning, observing and becoming aware.
34. How to Notice? Consider what new understanding that you have through Objectivity, Probe and Expand!
35. The truest test to being open-minded with someone or something – having new understanding! Understanding doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing or liking
36. Is your mind intentionally opened or defaulting to closed?
37. Activity • What are you/your team open-minded about? • What might you/your team be closed-minded about? • Using an example of what you might be closed- minded about from the previous question, apply OPEN • Moving forward, how and when might you/your team apply OPEN to ensure an informed point of view and greater understanding?
38. “The mind can assert anything and pretend that it proved it” – DH Lawrence
39. Get more intentional with being open- minded, as an individual and as a team, to each other, those you serve, new ideas and change!
40. Get More Intentional with Being Open-Minded • Get your complimentary ebook: “Four Essentials on How to Audit and Open Your Mind” • Includes detailed “Being Open-Minded Worksheet” • Get your brief complimentary online training video introducing you even further to Being Intentionally Open-Minded
41. Questions: TF: 1.855.438.9565 Email: randy@honeconsultingcom For More Information http://honeconsultingcom Randy Kennett Founder, Hone Consulting Registered Corporate Coach™ Let’s Stay Connected: http://linkedincom/in/randykennett Thank You!