We are creatures of habit.

Basing all our plans, decisions and actions on “received wisdom” is an example of that.

Daniel Kahneman hit the nail on the head in his inspiring work on human rationality and irrationality, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.

Kahneman was a winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, and distilled a lifetime of research into our conscious and unconscious thinking.

Right now, are you thinking fast or slow? You might want to read Kahneman’s book, or a precis . .  There is a 4 minute video that explains my personal take on the “Art of Pareto” here . . . 

In positions of leadership, it is critical we get to grips with this human trait, consciously, in our decision making processes.

Interestingly, we have just experienced 13 months where we threw “received wisdom” out of the window.

The changes we made to respond to the global pandemic and related non-negotiable changes to working practices are a great lesson. We did not have the luxury of time to design, change or operate in our normal timescales and we made unprecedented progress in many areas. 

Many of us are still amazed by what was achieved in the absence of the fear of judgement of “received wisdom”.

An approach to institutionalizing the benefits of what we have learned can be found in the works of the 19th century Italian sociologist, economist and philosopher, Vilfredo Pareto.

I hope you get maximum value from even 20% of this brief article.

It has significant implications for how we navigate the choppy waters of transformation and change over the coming months and years.

You can get this brief read here ..