Taking your thoughts at face value can lead to undesired outcomes. This is especially true when you make a quick decision about what to do next in your quest to achieve your ultimate goal.
Your brain can play tricks on you. Psychologists and other researchers call these tricks “cognitive bias” and I call them Brain Bias.
A common Brain Bias in your decision making is “What You See Is All There Is” thinking. WYSIALI is the acronym I’ll use.
WYSIALI works like this:
You make decision looking only at your present circumstances, your present surroundings, and your current knowledge. It’s as if you’re trying to make a decision about the larger world while trapped in a windowless room that doesn’t give you access to anything outside your own immediate experience.
Let’s think about this: Your present circumstances may not allow you to see that your decision will be limited and possibly limiting. You’ll view the possible decisions you can make based on changing where you are now rather than on the most likely way to get the outcome you desire.
Our current knowledge can be incomplete. What we know is also based on our personal assumptions – which may or may not be true. And, in some cases, our knowledge is actually wrong!
If you’re making a decision based on your current situation (what you “see”) with your current knowledge (which is limited at best), your brain may just be biased against the decision that will be most successful for you.
This WYSIALI decision making is very common in the employment world. Very often, people make decisions focusing on leaving their current job rather than on the pro’s and con’s of the new job they’re considering. They’ll even ask co-workers for opinions about whether or not to take the new job. Unfortunately, your current co-workers are in your current situation. They’re also looking through the lens of “what they see” now. If you’re looking for advice on an important decision, get that advice from people who are not in your current situation. They’ll be more objective about the decision.
Be very careful of the WYSIALI Brain Bias. Always look for ideas outside your current situation and knowledge before making an important decision.
