In Our Right Mind

Several years ago, I read an article by learning and business theorist Chris Argyris. It stuck with me. He talked about how smart people typically succeed at whatever they try … and as a result, they never learn how to learn from failure. So when their usual problem-solving strategies don’t work, they can’t learn from the experience. They repel criticism and get defensive and blame others. Whoa! He was talking about me! So I reread it every few years. And every time, I discover something new.

If you want to learn about your own defensive reasoning process, give it a read.

I remember thinking, when I was young, that I didn’t want to look back on my life with regrets about what I did NOT do. The thought made such an impression on me that I’ve lived much of my life under its shadow. I became a high achiever. But I rarely ran risks. I lacked courage.

So I really enjoyed a recent post by Marcia Reynolds on fearing regret more than failure. She offers 4 points for increasing our courage and comfort with risk. I’ve gotten pretty good at 3 of them. Now it’s time to misbehave.

On another note, look who flitted through the back yard this week and then leaped over the rooftop in a single bound.

 One of my clients recently attended a course urging him to listen for and be attentive to “disconfirming information.” He was struck by that phrase, probably because the head of his organization operates at the other end of the continuum: she only wants to hear evidence that supports her current point of view.

I first learned about disconfirming evidence from Meg Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science, who talks about how living systems grow and change as a result of disequilibrium, not equilibrium. Think about it. When are you more likely to grow: when everything you encounter is just mirroring what you already know, like the woman my client reports to, or when something new and different drops into your world?