Leaders, coaches and practitioners who aspire to excellence typically recognise the imperative for life-long learning. Given the diversity and complexity we encounter when working with humans there is an ongoing need to assimilate new information. Within a professional context as with other aspects of our lives we figure out how the world works through inquiry and sense-making. It all begins with a question. Young children ask questions constantly as they strive to discover more about the world around them and how things work. They then proceed to make sense of things and this is based not just on what answers they were given but also their own experiences and ongoing explorations as they move through the world. What is striking is how much of this is done independently. As grown ups we can learn much from this approach. If we wish see the world as it is and to figure out how things operate in reality it follows we must enlist the same tools of inquiry and sense-making.
WHAT IS TAUGHT VERSUS WHAT WE LEARN…
Many of us have had the jarring experience of discovering that what we were taught in school, at university or in textbooks does not entirely reflect what we encounter in practice. In some cases there are clear discrepancies and the version we are taught does not always hold up when exposed to real-world conditions. At the very least we typically discover that the simplified version taught in lectures and replicated in textbooks does not adequately account for the complexity of human performance and does not always apply to the fringe cases that we frequently encounter especially when working with athlete populations.
Beyond reconciling theory with reality, there is a need to establish real-world efficacy in a practical setting. Whilst formal education might be our starting point, the bulk of our practical knowledge as leaders, coaches and practitioners is acquired through independent learning and empirical observation. Application under real-world conditions is something that we need to continually figure out.
Accordingly, professionals who operate in any realm of human performance must learn to become an autodidact (i.e. somebody who is able to educate themselves) and engage in independent empirical study. Just as deliberate practice offers a robust route for performers to acquire skills, it follows we should take a similarly deliberate and systematic approach to finding out what we need to know and establishing how it applies in a real-world context. For instance, making best use of our ongoing empirical observation means adopting a process for capturing these observations and having some mechanism to engage in regular reflection to distill and consider these findings.
“Groups search for consensus; individuals search for truth”
Beyond being an independent learner, it follows we must also hone our abilities to think independently. We should develop our powers of inquiry to continually verify and calibrate what we learn against what we see in reality in order to update our model as we go. Being an independent thinker means asking the right questions and then using our sense-making powers to make up our own minds and figure out what to make of it all. In addition to being deliberate in our approach, it follows that we need to give due consideration to the respective elements involved if we are to remain rational and avoid pitfalls at each step in the process.
INQUIRY…
Becoming an autodidact begins with asking questions. Moreover it is imperative to learn to ask the right question, in the right way and of the right people. This applies whether what we are seeking to find out about pertains to leadership, management or practice. Developing our powers of inquiry is therefore central to the discovery process. Inquiry encompasses asking questions, interrogating the information available and investigating further.
Scientific inquiry includes formal research investigation in an academic setting and also empirical study in an applied context. In either case, our investigation needs to be purposeful and properly directed - we need to be asking the right questions. There is a further need to be systematic in our approach and apply a level of scientific rigour to take all relevant variables into account, including confounding variables.
Both forms of inquiry generate a wealth of data, not all of which is necessarily useful or meaningful. Given our unprecedented access to seas of information from these sources and many others and the growing discrepancy in signal versus noise in the digital era, it pays to be selective in where and how we source information. By extension we need to develop a filter and cultivate our powers of investigation to interrogate the source.
EXPLORATION…
Gathering an array of perspectives is necessary to most thoroughly explore the problem-space. The parable of the blind men describing the elephant illustrates how important it is to consider the problem from all angles. In a previous post we described the idea of triangulating a position - and a corollary of this idea is that we need to first capture and consider a diverse range of viewpoints.
This exploration will often lead us into areas that are adjacent to our area of specialism. Casting our net wider to explore other domains also allows us to uncover insights and discover universal principles that apply to our own domain. We should however be aware that there is higher potential to be misled when we venture into unfamiliar territory.
We must also be considered in how we interrogate that information to derive the meaningful insights and avoid being misled. It serves to hold off from making too many inferences from prima facie evidence or what we see at first glance. Superficial knowledge leads to facile solutions and often erroneous conclusions.
Exploration thus means not just going wider but also deeper. The inquiry process continues in the form of delving deeper to peel back the layers and asking further questions as we go. In other words further investigation is central to uncovering the signal beneath the noise and putting the data into context to derive meaningful information.
‘JUST THE FACTS’…
Rather than relying on the explanations and conclusions of those presenting the information, it pays to do the work to come up with our own interpretation of what has been presented. This helps to dispel any mystique in how the topic is presented and allows us to see past the hype to uncover whatever useful information lies beneath.
In order to drill down to what is meaningful, it is necessary to parse narrative from data. As far as possible we should seek to extract whatever new findings are provided and consider this information separately from whatever arguments and explanations are being offered.
SENSE-MAKING…
There is work to be done to turn information into knowledge and ultimately attain real wisdom. Sense-making encompasses how we derive meaning to acquire knowledge and arrive at the insights that lead to real understanding. Honing our individual sense-making abilities becomes ever more crucial as others succumb to group-think and the fallibility of institutions becomes increasingly apparent.
Adapted from ‘DIKIW’ model proposed by Anthony Liew: Liew, A.. “DIKIW: Data, Information, Knowledge, Intelligence, Wisdom and their Interrelationships.” (2013).
The first step in the sense-making progress is synthesis, whereby we assimilate multiple information sources and diverging perspectives to piece together something resembling a 360-degree view. From my own experience, studying history provided an excellent grounding as it requires the learner to gather a range of different accounts of the same events and consider the provenance of the source - i.e. evaluate whether they were in a position to know and identify potential bias or other agendas that might influence their account or explanation of events. These considerations help to inform how much weight we give to each piece of evidence as we assimilate multiple sources to arrive at an independent viewpoint.
TWIN THREATS…
Arguably the biggest barrier to continued learning is our own ego and an inflated sense that we have everything figured out. This calls for epistemic humility. The other threat is excessive credulity, which might lead us to be misled entirely or misdirected away from the kernel of truth in the information provided.
So on the one hand we need epistemic humility and to leave room to doubt. On the other, we should cultivate a healthy sense of scepticism and a critical eye in how we entertain and interpret what is being presented.
An extension of epistemic humility is tempering the confidence we have in our ability to exercise our critical thinking as we step out of our domain or venture into unfamiliar areas. Applying our critical thinking faculties successfully requires a level of domain-specific knowledge. Whilst we might be an astute observer within our own area of specialism that doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t be taken for a sucker when we step out of our lane. We need a frame of reference and a fundamental understanding of the area .
ACCOUNTING FOR PERVERSE INCENTIVES…
There are numerous perverse incentives at play that motivate institutions and individuals to mislead and misdirect the would-be learner away from the truth of the matter. Clearly these are things we need to be aware of and take steps to correct for in our sense-making process.
To use the most obvious example there is no shortage of snake oil salespeople and charlatans in different disciplines, not least in the virtual world. There are also abundant examples of presentations, workshops and even industry-funded research publications that are primarily driven by furthering the interests of private companies - that is, selling product. It is perhaps a little more subtle but public institutions such as academic institutions and professional bodies are also naturally incentivised to inflate their own status and authority, which leads to a tendency to spin information and craft narratives that serve these interests.
Academic research is far from immune to these tendencies. Science is done by humans and the source will typically have their own bias, such as a pet theory or allegiance to a particular school of thought. They may also be seeking to advance their own agenda - not least supporting their claim to the status of indisputed authority on the topic among their peers within the field and in social media land. Given these motivations and the incentives involved it is almost inevitable that there will be some degree of motivated reasoning in what narrative is chosen and how findings are presented.
I recognise that this might all be sounding a little cynical and indeed it is crucial we stay within the realms of healthy scepticism rather than succumbing to cynicism. In order to exercise critical thinking this requires that we first entertain information with an open mind to have any opportunity to establish its veracity, rather than dismissing or discrediting it out of hand, which robs us of any opportunity for enlightenment.
Equally, these incentives do exist and often they are contrary to the stated mission of searching for truth, so we do need to adopt appropriate counter-measures. It follows we should not blindly trust the interpretation that is being offered and simply take the authors’ conclusions at face value; rather we must look past the narrative (and read beyond the abstract) to scrutinise what was done and what the data actually show.
ENGAGEMENT AND EXTERNAL INPUT…
Learning requires a feedback loop. One part of this involves continually seeking to verify our mental models of how things work against objective reality (i.e. what we see under live conditions with real humans). In the absence of a teacher or a coach, engaging in independent learning requires that we create one or more mechanisms to connect with the outside world to share ideas with a diverse group of people on a regular basis, not least to avoid finding ourselves in an echo chamber.
There is benefit to thinking out loud, which of course requires an audience. Articulating our thoughts and explaining our rationale serves its own purpose. In doing so we get a deeper understanding of our own thinking on the topic and it helps us to reason things through.
“Writing is a protracted form of thinking... ”
On a personal level, a major reason why I write is for the opportunity it affords to explore different topics, organise my own thoughts and reason things through. Over time it has become the primary vehicle for my own independent learning (this is my confession to the reader: I have been using you all these years). Sharing these thoughts also creates the opportunity for receiving feedback from readers and prompting follow up conversations with professionals across the world.
Putting our thoughts out there also allows us to expose our reasoning and ideas to the scrutiny of others in a way that lends some objectivity. These interactions further provide the means to unmask any cognitive biases that might be distorting our perspective and unduly influencing our thinking. The back and forth often yields new insights and helps shine a torch on things that we might have overlooked.
However the objective is not to seek validation or to arrive at consensus. It is entirely appropriate that independent thinkers should have differing views - indeed perfect agreement and alignment should be considered the exception rather than the norm. The purpose of the exchange is more about calibration. And of course debating ideas provides the benefit of learning others’ perspectives and gleaning insights to improve our model and update our thinking on the topic. The prerequisites for deriving these benefits is that we are able to engage in good faith discussion, which means choosing the right forum (so probably not twitter) as well as a receptive and well-informed audience (see previous), and that we enter into it with a spirit of seeking to learn rather than staunchly defending our ideas.
INERTIA AND READINESS TO UPDATE THE MODEL…
“The model of the thing is never the thing”
Our mental model of how things work naturally becomes more intricate and evolved over the years as we continue to learn and practice under live conditions. However, inevitably the model will remain incomplete or inadequate in some way. It can only be an approximation of reality, albeit one that bears closer and closer resemblance to how things work in real life as we continue to learn and uncover more insights. On that basis, we should be continually seeking to update and revise our mental models, rather than simply accepting whatever version we have come up with and then seeking to validate it.
As the old adage adage goes, the trick is to never stop learning (on the basis that when you think you’ve got it all figured out you’re done). The longer we have been practising and the more established we are in our profession the greater the need to guard against inertia and escape the sense that we have it all figured out. It is accordingly crucial to maintain a sense of curiosity and fascination about what we might find out. Another facet of epistemic humility is ensuring we are genuinely searching for answers, irrespective of whatever preconceived ideas we might have and without any undue preference on what the ultimate answer might be.
There is a need to continually ask ourselves ‘what am I missing?’. Each encounter present a different puzzle to solve so we should keep our eyes open and try to appraise each case with fresh eyes to ensure we do not overlook anything. Sometimes the differences are subtle but periodically we will encounter edge cases that deviate from the norm entirely and require us to come up with new and different solutions. In some instances this may lead to profound realisations that prompt us to radically revise our model.
IN CLOSING: REMAINING NEUTRAL…
As we proceed on our mission to figure things out, it pays to resist forming any allegiance to a particular group or school of thought. Membership of any group tends to distort our thinking and bias how we entertain new information according to the source and their associations. In-group status simultaneously creates a tendency to relax our standards and apply less scrutiny when the information comes from other members of our tribe, whilst instilling a tendency to view the same information with suspicion if it happens to be shared by somebody who represents the ‘other side’. Each of these consequences is problematic in its own way.
The quickest and surest way to avoid either scenario is to resist the urge to be part of any group. It takes courage to stand alone and remain neutral but this is the price of retaining our ability to see things clearly and think independently.
Cover photo credit: Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash
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