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?

2. “My idea is
the best!”

3. My driving is . . .
WORSE
THAN
AVERAGE
AVERAGE
BETTER
THAN
AVERAGE
“illusory superiority”

4. Our brains
are lazy

5. Everyday
routine
Start car
Scan the
scene
Stop when
necessary
Arrive
Montreal
summer
Start car
Encounter
detour
Decipher
road sign
Feel lost
Deal with
stress
Get lost
Replan

6. How can you tell a dog’s age?
How do you
know?
Everybody
knows!

7. Hear
Evaluate
Believe
Hear
Believe
Evaluate
How we think
we think
How we think

10. We need
to be right

11. They tell me
I’m smart
I’m
disappointing

12. Ask me!
Ask me!
Which
child
were
you?
Don’t
look at
me

13. Carrots and sticks

14. Are you reasoning
to be accurate?

15. Things go poorly,
it’s luck, conditions,
beyond our control
Things go well,
it’s our skill, good
decision making
“self-serving
bias”

16. Every decision
is a bet

17. “Agile approaches
are universally
applicable.”
Want to bet?
CAD 50.00?

18. Chosen
Option
Outcome
A
Outcome
B
Outcome
C
Outcome
C
What are the
options?
What do we
know about
each?
What are the
chances of each
outcome?

19. What was the
worst decision
you made in the
past year?
What was the
best decision
you made in
the past year?

20. Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity

21. How to make
better bets

22. Needed: “positive” and
“negative” capabilities
•Knowledge
•Skills
•Competencies
•Silence
•Patience
•Doubt
•Humility

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?

25. Probabilistic
thinking

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

31. Use the team

32. This helps us
build a better
foundation
for our bets

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

35. Sue Johnston
sue@itsunderstood.com
www.itsunderstood.com
@itsunderstood