Lose your blind spots
The human tendency to judge ourselves by our intent — not our impact — makes us blind to how others perceive our behaviors. This is a blind spot, and it can stymie productive debate, and hardwire us into defensive reasoning.
This blind spot can block just about everything, especially in a crisis situation, but it doesn’t have to be this way – if we are aware of the danger! The authors suggest four strategies from which you can pick and mix. to improve your self-awareness. These strategies combine discussion and experience as well as individual and group development:
- Simulation. Simulate a collective way of working in an acute crisis situation to establish constructive discussion, collaboration, and decision-making norms and discover the value of synergy.
- Facilitation. Choose a veteran in your team to diagnose counter-productive dynamics and step in to lead the team back to healthy and productive conversations.
- Coaching. We are all vulnerable to creating roadblocks for ourselves. A coach will help you expand your thinking to uncover and address your own barrier(s).
- Training. Our inter-personal skills need to be worked at. Experience fosters self-awareness and development.
By reducing your blind spots, you will gain the ability to be faster and more agile with your team, especially when the outlook is foggy.
“Don’t Get Blindsided by Your Blind Spots”
by Amy Edmonson and Aaron Dimmock, Harvard Business Review, November 2020)
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