Blink

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I started reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell a few days ago. The recurring theme in the book is that when we have too much information about a situation we get clouded by the details and miss the important parts. Researchers are able to predict something more accurately from 15 seconds of video than they are from 15 minutes of video

There's a particular excerpt I want to bring attention to;

When it comes to the task of understanding ourselves and our world, I think we pay too much attention to those grand themes and too little to the particulars of those fleeting moments. But what would happen if we took our instincts seriously? What if we stopped scanning the horizon with our binoculars and began instead examining our own decision making and behaviour through the most powerful of microscopes?

In HR we're often forced to choose between our instincts and the evidence, we interview identical candidates but the decision comes down to how we 'feel' about it. We rationalise a lot of things, we try to fit things into boxes and make things logical, but life isn't logical. Opposites attract, ideas that shouldn't work do. If it wasn't for going with an idea and letting it evolve, innovation wouldn't happen.

Any situation - the more we think about it becomes more confusing, the pros and cons take over and instead of taking action we end up sitting trying to decide which is the 'best' option to take. When often, there is no best option, there is just what is. 

You'll have to forgive me for the reference but in Sex & the City when Miranda is trying to decide what will happen with her relationship with Steve she writes a pro list & a con list. It is not the list that helps her make the decision but her gut, her emotions, when she looks up and remembers a moment she had with Steve. 

Great decisions, moments that we remember aren't based on logic or rationale. I think of the turning points in my own life, the times when I've done something that was the right move - it was never measured. 

Instinctively we know what is the right thing to do. It's all about whether we're able to unlock the door and realise it.