Monday, October 16, 2023

It Pays to Complicate Your Thinking

Whether facing a workplace conflict or following a juicy social media post, we should have the ability to acknowledge that there are probably a lot of different sides to the story

By Robert Vriesema, Representative

Have you noticed that we tend to approach life in an either/or, black/white, right/wrong mindset? Called binary thinking, social scientists tie this to survival instinct—needing to make quick judgments for survival.

Most grievances start in this kind of thinking—a situation occurred, and it was wrong. Most workplace conflicts start with this kind of thinking—your coworker is just doing it wrong.

Manuel measures twice and writes the length needing to be cut on the 2x4, but Gary measures once, checks his tape placement twice, and memorizes the cut length. Both Manuel and Gary get it right, and sometimes get it wrong. Their supervisor has an opinion about the right method and is looking to reduce waste. Gary gets disciplined, but Manuel, who uses supervisor’s method, does not. Insert your workplace scenario here! Factually, much of the work you do can be done differently.

Part of the work of your steward or representative is uncovering and highlighting that there is more than one way to look at your grievance or workplace issue. Representation is often about getting “more complicated.” But this involves going against something core to our nature.

With the introduction of social media, those social scientists thought that having access to lots of different viewpoints would help us create a more inclusive and welcoming society. This hasn’t happened. Polarization—or binary thinking—has become more and more prevalent.

Perhaps it’s because we are presented with a choice of thumbs up or thumbs down to the posts we see. Or because those algorithms deliver us increasingly personalized content that leads us to more and more posts about what we’ve already liked and seen. This creates the effect of reinforcing the ideas we have and perhaps makes them seem more popularly held.

For example, because I happened to look up ferrets for my nephew one day, I was suddenly deluged with ferret-related content in my social media. I can’t seem to get away from those ferrets now! I’ve learned that “cat noodle” is a hilariously complicated name for a ferret.

Even in analyzing polarization, it’s easy to fall into binary thinking.

Evidence suggests that the way to counteract these tendencies is to open ourselves to complexity. Whether facing a workplace conflict or following a juicy meme-trail on social media, we should have the ability to acknowledge that there are probably a lot of different sides to the story.

We should approach the situation with curiosity, much like my ferret-loving nephew. Acknowledging that there is complexity and that all persons are likely somewhere on the right-wrong spectrum goes a long way to counteracting binary thinking.

Doing this isn’t about changing your opinions—it’s about giving yourself permission to explore.

At work, it could show you a new way to do the same thing you’ve been doing for years—and you may find it more enjoyable. It could, just possibly, let you walk away from frustration of always seeing your colleague doing it wrong and toward it having zero impact on your mental load by acknowledging they are doing it differently—no harm, no foul.

Intrigued? Are there ways for you to complicate your thinking and gain some relief for yourself at work?

It Pays to Complicate Your Thinking

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