In my book All Change! the lead character Franck at one stage, when he is starting to lose faith in his project management capabilities, says over and over to himself " I am right. I am right. I am right!" He seems to get confidence and energy in the certainty of correctness. This need to be right is something that connects, engineers, accountants and perfectionists of all sorts - connects them in a locked in spiral of doom.
The reasons for the spiral of doom are several but I shall only cover three of them. The first is most aptly explained by Prof Kathryn Shulz .
The second is the fact that in our new world of change. We have been brought up from an ealry age to believe that there are right answers and they are right forever. But in our New World things which were once wright have a habit of becoming wrong. Long term planning doesn't. Investments aren't, If you've watched World after midnight (below) the message would have hit home.
Strauss and Howe also warn us that the next generation on the rise (in America) are likely to be comprised of pragmatists. Pragmatists are far less inclined to be obsessed with whether they have the 'right' solution - and far more inclined to ask "Will it work?"
If you are going to be competing in business against pragmatists in our new fast changing complex world where your conviction and speed of decision making is damped down by worry that you could be wrong then beware, being right could be worse than being wrong...
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