Matters of Mind

I was surfing through the web and came across this brilliant collection of the tricks that mind plays based on the cognitive bias that gets built.

As a marketeer, this definitely intrigued my sense. Definitely worth a dekko.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases 

Creative Thinking - Enablers and Disablers

Often at work, we come across situations that need creative solutions. Frequently we face situations where resource constraints lead us to decision paralysis. 

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this excellent article on mind traps.

1. Anchoring Trap: Over-Relying on First Thoughts

2. The Status Quo Trap

3. The Sunk Cost Trap: Protecting Earlier Choices

4. The Confirmation Trap: Seeing What You Want to See

5. The Incomplete Information Trap

In my corporate experience I have seen many such instances. The most frequent decision trap that I have come across is about The Sunk Cost Trap. Usually to protect our decisions that may have been taken based on information available at a point in time, which does change significantly in a fast changing world, and yet people drive / support these prior decisions, mostly because they do not revisit their assumptions.

I have seen the Anchoring Trap often happen when the first thoughts are those of the Top Boss. If the Boss makes the initial Kickoff thoughts, the rest of the discussion then just goes into implementation of the idea rather than creative constructive approaches.

On personal front, the Confirmation Trap is probably the most common trap that we come across. We like conformance, we love selective hearing, and staying in the comfort zone comes naturally to us. Thus its only natural human behaviour to align with the Confirmation Trap.

The article made me think !

Famous People on Communication

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now. 
Woodrow Wilson 

People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were. 
Edward R. Murrow 

Never mistake legibility for communication. 
David Carson 

Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible. 
Frank Moore Colby 

Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood. 
Freeman Teague Jr. 

The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. 
George Bernard Shaw 

From listening comes wisdom and from speaking, repentance. 
Proverb 

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation. 
Mark Twain 

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. 
Samuel Johnson 

I like to talk with people who express my thoughts clearly. 
Unknown 

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. 
Rudyard Kipling 

Uncooked truth, like uncooked vegetables, is healthier. 
Vadim Kotelnikov 

If you can't answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names. 
Elbert Hubbard 

A bore is a person who talks when you wish him to listen. 
Ambrose Bierce 

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything. 
Oscar Wilde 

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. 
Harry S. Truman 

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. 
Robert Frost 

The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively, but says nothing. 
Henry S. Haskins