Monday, October 10, 2005

I've noticed that many people get caught up trying to justify why they are right, as opposed to attempting to reach their goals. I mean this specifically in the context of organizations, but it could hold true for quite a few situations

So many organizations initially form to create positive change. They know what change they would like to see in the world. Let's feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, create equality...

After not too long, the group (or individual) creates an action plan... their specific vision of how they will make this change manifest. After a while, people gain experience; they develop their theories and their opinions based on their own observations.

However, many fall into the trap of defending these new opinions and theories because it's the action plan they think will work best. In arrogance, they seem to stop admitting their own ignorance and cease to evaluate their methods. The group begin to break apart because, instead of focusing on the goal of making the world better, they are too busy defending the opinions and methods they have formulated.

I've seen many good groups fracture due to this lack of evaluation. Even the most liberal group can get caught in the conservation of their own beliefs. I've been guilty of this before, but I'd like to think that reality smacks me around afterwards. I'd like to think I know my ignorance.

In my opinion, any good scientist will tell you that whatever we think will be wrong one day. They would approach the world knowing that they will never understand how anything truly works, but what is most important is that we refine ourselves and our tools in the attempt to understand. True exploration embraces ignorance, because it is our ignorance that allows us to explore anything in the first place.

Here's a scary thought... statistically speaking, you are wrong in any particular thing you say, despite the research or validation you find in books or other people.

Take jars of jelly beans, for instance.


A completely unassuming jar of jellybeans

If I ask you to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar, whatever quantity you give as your guess is very likely to not be the correct answer.

However, if you take many people's guesses as to the number of jellybeans in the jar and average them, the number is usually quite close to the actual quantity. Sometimes, the number is only off by fractions. Try it yourself sometime.

Anyway, I think that realizing our own ignorance is one of the most important qualities of exploration and learning. Once we embrace our limitations, we begin to focus on how our methods are flawed and how we can improve them to achieve our goals.

Whether the subject is an organization or a person, we must always take a moment to adapt and reevaluate why we are doing the things we are doing. Asking ourselves how we can do better is infinitely more important than declaring why we are right.

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