How Quick Answers Make Us Stupid
Leaders who give quick answers end up surrounded by low-functioning sleepwalkers.
Quick answers propagate shallow thinking, irresponsibility, and low engagement.
The need for quick answers makes us fear the disruption of new thoughts. But if you think what you’ve always thought, you will get what you’ve always got.
Everything is remembering until someone says, “I don’t know.”
Quick answers:
- Reflect past experience.
- Seem right at first. You don’t intentionally have stupid ideas.
- Short-circuit deep thought and exploration.
- Produce conformity rather than creativity.
Note: Every situation isn’t a moment of exploration. Give quick answers when new employees ask for the location of the restroom, don’t ask, “Where do you think it is?
Affirm:
When someone says, “I don’t know,” say, “Great! Now we can start thinking.” Our awkwardness with not knowing is one reason we think so little.
The moment of uncertainty is the tipping point of trajectory.
Respect and protect:
Don’t interrupt thought. Protect it.
#1. Look for uncertainty. Thinking begins where certainty ends. Those who know the answer end up defending their position.
The enemy of thought is the illusion that you know.
#2. Listen for sighing. Some people sigh when they get to the point of not knowing.
#3. Watch eye movement. Some look at the ceiling when they think. Others look at the floor.
#4. Pay attention to tics that indicate thinking.
- Pen clicking.
- Leaning back.
- Fidgeting
- Wide eyes.
Deadly diversion:
Listen for answers that divert from the question.
Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman explains cognitive ease in Thinking, Fast and Slow. “… when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution.”
The most obvious substitution happens when you ask, “What do you want?” This question is almost universally replaced with, “What don’t you want?”
How might leaders encourage real thinking?
My favourite line when there’s a quick answer required is “I don’t know. YET…”
My second favourite is “Do you want it right now, or do you want it RIGHT?
Hey Mitch… the word “YET” really helps. I’m so glad you added it.
Bingo!
The reply “Do you want it right now, or do you want it RIGHT?” is priceless! I hadn’t heard it before, but will likely borrow it! Thanks!!
Excellent post. It’s almost as if the default should be “I don’t know”, except for easy questions.
I had clients ask an important legal business question of their lawyer, who said “I don’t know, I’d have to research the precedents”. Client;”how long will that take?” Lawyer;”about 20 minutes, come to my office in half an hour”. I like that lawyer.
The question diversion is rampant.
When someone says, “I don’t know,” say, “Great! Now we can start thinking.” I like the emphasis on the word ‘we’ – it takes away the need to always have the answer and builds trust in a team. Together ‘we’ can find a solution. Thanks Dan.
Nice, Dan. Good stuff.
I am reframing one of my team building games. The idea before was to collect medicine to “save the world.” Now, it looks to be a post-apocalyptic game to collect medicine to prevent the Slinks (your sleepwalkers, the un-engaged) from turning into Zombies (the actively dis-engaged). The Medicine, of course, is stuff like you suggest.
Your thinking goes into my files for “Debriefing” the exercise. Should be fun stuff!!
Hi Dan – Thanks so much for yet another thoughtful post. I really like your comment ‘”the need for quick answers makes us fear the disruption of new thoughts.” New thoughts could create change and many are not wild about change because of the many struggles of life that are maxing them out already. It is easier to just react with a quick response that will hopefully maintain the status quo instead of setting intention around responding in a thoughtful way that could create change. I think this also links in nicely with your comment from Daniel Kahneman indicating people can state what they don’t want more easily – it is safer, easer and doesn’t require much thought or lead to a need for change.
Right! I agree with you Kathy
Great post Dan.
Many of the organisations that I work with seem to value, consciously or otherwise, pace over substance. The organisational rhetoric is littered with ‘quick wins’, ‘low-hanging fruit’, ‘at pace’ and other euphemisms which emphasise the urgency with which everything is required to be done. This results in what I describe as ‘unthinking action’ …the territory of the low functioning sleep-walkers.
Another term which rings the alarm bells is where organisations are ‘on a journey’; a clear indicator for Deadly Diversions!
Great points, Dan. I especially appreciate your tip “Look for uncertainty. Thinking begins where certainty ends.” I have been paying attention to where knowing resides in myself – how do I know I know. It’s a deeply felt experience in my gut and supports the precious dance between trusting my intuition and challenging my beliefs.
I like to say, “The answer exists & it is someplace or someone has it”. We just have to find it.
Or, “Let me think this through.” New & better processes have been developed with this thinking.
We just need to identify and recognize that we are not an end 🔚! As humans we are constantly learning new things and constantly processing both new and old information and data. What seemed or seems an answer today may just be a hypothesis for broader deliberation and /research in the next couple of days if not minutes…
There’s nothing like a real Wrong Answer any day!
My minute’s thoughts 💭