When you're growing up, it's easy to have a skewed sense of what you "should" be doing. We're...
Have you ever thought you knew an explanation to a situation then made a decision, and ended up being wrong or regretting it?
The answer is probably... YES.
How do we sway the chances we make good decisions in our favor?
By thinking more clearly!
We often tell ourselves convenient stories that help explain why a situation has panned out a certain way. We explain away why something is the way it is, by taking the convenient more simple route...It is our human tendency to do so, and there's nothing wrong with it.
This is called a "Narrative Fallacy", and it can be a limiting way to think!
In this blog post, I explain what a narrative fallacy is, and why is can be dangerous in your decision making!
I Ain't Saying She a Gold Digger...
A common narrative fallacy, that I just heard today came up.. and I thought it'd be a perfect example to think through.
Let's take the Kim and the Kardashian family for example.
If you asked someone why the Kardashian's are successful, often their success will be explained away as a by-product of the the Kim and Ray-J incident.
IF this were true, with the track record of most rappers and the power of the internet, there would be a LOT more billionaire family empires being built right now!
This simple explanation writes off the business prowess and sheer effort of Kris Jenner, and the rest of the Kardashians.... to say the very least!
How many rap/hip hop groupies and their families haven't built billion dollar empires? How many are significantly less successful?
This is just a simple example of a common narrative fallacy, but we have these come up in our everyday lives more frequently than we can sometimes even recognize!
When making a statement or assumption.... think about how many other similar situations have occurred, that have not yielded the same result.
What Exactly is a Narrative Fallacy?
A Narrative Fallacy is an error in our thinking. It is a limit in our ability to think objectively, and process information in a logical way. Sometimes, as humans, we prefer a convenient story over rational fact.
Over human history, we have used stories to pass on information. As humans, we have an innate love for stories! Stories contain emotion and our brains use emotion to process things.
There are many "stories" that we can probably recall, that span across millennia:
Noah's Ark, Pele the Hawaiian Goddess, Atlantis, just to name a few!
Now I don't mean to debate the accuracy of any or all of these stories... but these are just a couple examples that Humans have used to explain probably more logical explanations.
When in a more immediate situation where rational and logical thinking is required however, stories can be dangerous!
How a Narrative Fallacy can Lead to Poor Decisions?
When over simplifying, in an attempt to provide a logical order and explanation to a situation, we expose ourselves to operating under the risk of what is called a narrative fallacy.
This can lead us down many wrong paths, and sure... a convenient explanation sometimes feels good in the short term, but it can sometimes term long term... self-inflicted pain.
Narrative fallacies can sometimes lead us to look at a problem in the wrong lens!
Let's take the stock market for example... I have heard the fallacy that states that you should purchase stocks in the items that you buy.
If we look at this rationally and logically, we would think... How many items do I purchase per day, and how many of these stocks perform successfully over the long term? How many businesses have I purchased items from that did not perform well as a business?
Anyone rent movies from Blockbuster? What would have happened if you purchased stock from this company?
Well.... this is where this thought process would lead you... to massive losses.
Another broader example of a narrative fallacy would be the story you tell yourself in your head when you are dealing with a problem!
I have experienced myself, and our team operating under narrative fallacies in recent past... and once I was able to identify them, I was able to help more effectively solve our problems!
One common narrative fallacy that I found our customer service team using was that a customer was not satisfied, because a customer was unreasonable. For a period of time, I thought... perhaps this could be true! I mean... not everyone is reasonable, and there will be few that are unable to be pleased no matter what extent we go to.
How this impacted our company however... was that it, in a way made us complacent to the improvements that we could make as a team!
Once I identified this narrative fallacy I found that yes, although there will be people that are unreasonable... we should take away every opportunity for a deal to pose challenges... and to take our customer experience to the next level.
Exposing just this single narrative fallacy has been transformational in our customer experience, and has given our team the clarity we need to improve what we do. Had we never identified it... I think the same excuses would have been made, and my eyes would have never been opened to the improvements that could be made!
