Sue Johnston of It's Understood Communication presents at Scotia Agile Conference, Online, June 24, 2021
Being Wrong: What if the smartest thing you can do is give up the need to look smart?
1. Scotia Data Office
Agile Conference
June 24, 2021
Sue Johnston
BEING WRONG
What if . . .
the smartest thing you can do
is give up the need to look smart?
23. “We need to teach how
doubt is not to be feared but
welcomed. It's OK to say, "I
don't know."
Richard P Feynman
Physicist and Nobel Laureate
24. Challenge your beliefs
• How do you react at the edge of your knowledge?
• What if you were not afraid to look incompetent?
• When was the last time you said, “I don’t know?”
• What’s a safe context to express “decent doubt?”
• How could you test your assumptions?
• How might you show yourself and others
compassion when facing the unknown?
26. Probabilistic questions
Probabilistic questions
• What matters here?
• What else might influence this?
• What are the chances of this
happening?
• What makes us think that?
• What’s our confidence level that this
will happen?
Courage and tact
in equal measure
27. •Ask humble, genuinely curious
questions
•Challenge your own ideas – train
yourself to test alternate hypotheses
• Focus on accuracy
• You might be wrong
• Be open to diverse viewpoints
•Work in groups – easier to see others’
biases than our own
28. “I have no special talent.
I am only passionately
curious.” Albert Einstein
29. “It doesn't matter how
beautiful your theory is, it
doesn't matter how smart you
are. If it doesn't agree with
experiment, it's wrong”
Richard P. Feynman
30. • What’s likely to happen if you do X?
• What’s your level of confidence?
• How do you know?
• What would need to be in place for that to work?
• What else might be true?
• How can you find out?
• What are you not seeing?
• Am I examining for discovery or for confirmation?
• What biases might lead you astray?
Curious questions
33. “You have never been
in this exact moment
before . . .
so you don’t have to
pretend that you know
exactly what to do.”
34. Learn more
Thinking In Bets - Annie Duke
Thinking Fast And Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Better By Mistake - Alina Tugend
Being Wrong - Kathryn Shulz
Not Knowing - Steven D’Souza/Diana Renner
Humble Inquiry - Edgar Schein/Peter Schein
The Advice Trap - Michael Bungay Stanier
Leading Geeks - Paul Glen