
Cognitive Bias Awareness: How to accept and act on changes
Bias
• We tend to go with the first bit of research that backs up what we already believe.• We see patterns in incomplete information.• We will go for the easy answer over the more complicated one.• Too much information drives us back to the old, simple idea.• We accept as truth things we have heard repeatedly.• We are drawn to what we are familiar with.• The extreme or shocking idea is more attractive or believable than the boring, mundane.
(B. Benson)
We look to what worked in the past. We listen to who ‘shouts’ loudest. We listen to what we hear repeated most. And we almost always go for the simple solution or go back to our original ideas. But is that the best idea when it isn’t just ‘careers not yet invented’ but a completely new way of working? Technology’s exponential ‘destructive’ innovation means the transformation of work: the rendering of some jobs obsolete and the creation of new jobs, happening faster than we can train for them. The job for life is being replaced with seven to ten completely new careers for life. A gig economy, where workers are employed for short term stints, like a musician performing in different clubs weekly, has replaced full-time, year-round company employment. Agile planning allows for quick progress. Five-year and ten-year plans are replaced with 5-month plans. Business thrives by quick incorporation of new technology. Learning will be needed as a ongoing fact of life.
So, is a traditional academic education the answer? It could be. What are other ideas? I am NOT suggesting NOT going to college. Just make sure that education is matching with the outcome desired.
When considering the necessity of approaching college and career in a different way, the reader needs to know that the tendency will be to reject any ideas of doing anything different or new. Try to hear the whole argument, aware of the human tendency to do everything the way it has always been done. Whether or not you hire a college choice advisor or take on that job yourself, this is a starting point for every parent.
Many of these were true for fifty years. Or longer. We don’t want to entertain that our beliefs are not as valid as they once were.
The Industrial Age worked one way—for a very long time. The Technology Age doesn’t work that way. So what do we need to adapt for ‘now’ and the future?