The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

When I read the profiles of John as an introvert and as an extrovert, my mind kept returning to the thought that both of these stories were about the same man; that each told the story of that man in different circumstances. Immediately, my mind led me down the road of creating the story behind John. Was the extrovert John his normal persona, but introvert John showed up on a melancholy day? Or perhaps, Jon was usually very introverted, but we caught him on a particularly optimistic day in the extroverted scenario? I found myself wanting more details; wondering why he had not spoken with the pretty girl from last night. Why did he need the stationery? How does he know so many people in the paper store? Obviously, he is not a total recluse if he had the opportunity to see the pretty girl. My reaction is explained easily enough by author Malcolm Gladwell, "We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for." (Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking , 2005) Gladwell clarifies that when we are missing the details we crave to fill these gaps in the stories, we feel the need to create them ourselves. He further defines this behavior as “rapid cognition” which is, “…the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.” (Gladwell, 2005) We utilize rapid cognition on a daily basis to judge people and situations all around us. It is a subconscious process in which we size up a person or situation in approximately t...

... middle of paper ...

...e up from the unconscious - from behind a locked door inside of our brain - but just because something is outside of awareness doesn't mean it's outside of control." (Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking , 2005) While rapid cognition is a subconscious process that has been created within us throughout our lives, it is possible to increase that reaction time to allow for more analysis of the information we are given. Being able to do so can increase the effectiveness of a leader, and improve change management on any level of an organization.

REFERENCES

Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking . In M. Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking . New York, NY : Little, Brown and Company.

Gladwell, M. (2005). www.gladwell.com. Retrieved August 7, 2011, from http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html