We’re often too reluctant to just say “I don’t know.” The result is uninformed opinions and ineffective public debate.
Terry Newell is currently director of his own firm, Leadership for a Responsible Society. His work focuses on values-based leadership, ethics, and decision making. A former Air Force officer, Terry also previously served as Director of the Horace Mann Learning Center, the training arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and as Dean of Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute. Terry is co-editor and author of The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships That Make Government Work (CQ Press, 2011). He also wrote Statesmanship, Character and Leadership in America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government (Loftlands Press 2015).
All in The Ways We Think
We’re often too reluctant to just say “I don’t know.” The result is uninformed opinions and ineffective public debate.
It’s natural to apply labels to ideas and people. But this convenient shorthand can cause problems, damaging our need to respect and work with others.
Fake news is everywhere, but alertness and reason can defeat its intended impact.
Unless we want to continually be surprised by crises, we need to institutionalize imaginative thinking and create incentives to prevent and prepare for disasters.
Stories can spread like a virus. When they do, they can complicate our ability to think clearly.
The decisions we make may not be as free as we think when they are primed by a subconscious process.
We like ourselves - a lot! That’s a good thing, but there are some funny and unexpected ways it can show up.
Many people are confused by scientific discussions about the coronavirus. Knowing how scientists approach their work can help.
It may be natural to think in “us vs. them” terms, but that tendency can be overcome when seeing “them” as really part of “us” is good for everyone.
As humans, we have an innate tendency to think in “us” vs. “them” terms. Culture can soften or exacerbate that inclination.
We all have mental models of “the way the world works.” We seldom challenge them. We should.
Without closure, we’d never make decisions. Yet premature closure chokes off needed thinking.
Concerns about our status in a group can lead our emotions to overtake logic. But this is not inevitable.
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, we are beginning to confront a host of ethical issues. More will be coming as AI moves from science fiction to fact in our lives.
Because we’re good people, we sometimes permit ourselves to do things that are not so good. Knowing why can help us be better when we want to be.
Stories take facts and weave them into meaning. A nation needs unifying stories. Without them, it is like a ship unable to find a harbor.
The next time technology captures your time and energy, ask yourself: am I really living the life I want to live?
Anger is human but can destroy human dignity. More awareness of the thinking potholes it puts in our paths might avoid us driving so dangerously ahead.
Neuroscience is being used by some to shape what we buy and how we vote. Our emotions can be used, by neuro-manipulation, to drive out our reason
We owe our greatest achievements to optimism. But we have suffered some of our worst tragedies from unfounded overconfidence. We need to make sure we don't cross the line that divides them.