INsight/ Three Bias Traps

Photo by Chalis007 on Unsplash

Manila, 1 April 2020 — Where do you spend most of your time: in your personal, social, or observed world?

In Grow3Leaders this week we kick off our April theme of Perspectives: Leaders take multiple perspectives in situations. Where to start unpacking that?

In a conversation today, what came up is how Millennials can find it very difficult to deal with Boomers who have a different perspective on life and how to live it. The reasoning went that Millennials highly value individuality and freedom of choice in their Personal World, engage actively in social media in their Observed World, yet encounter lots of friction and conflict in their Social World in dealing with Boomers, since “we Millennials seek our own space and boundary.”

The Three Worlds Model offers a way of unpacking such conflicts by exploring different perspectives, and take in more than one. What the model suggests is that we all live in three worlds simultaneously and that these worlds manifest in our life everywhere and all the time.

The question is, do we consciously take in the perspectives offered to us by these three worlds and let them inform our decisions in a particular situation, or do we let ourselves be biased by our default preferences for one of the three worlds? That preference can produce bias and that can be a trap for leaders who want to take multiple perspectives in any situation in order not to leave out important information when we make decisions.

In this post, we look into Three Bias Traps, informed by the Three Worlds Model. In my experience as a coach, I have observed that each of us tends to have a natural preference for spending more time inhabiting one of the three worlds. Bias means that we might start and stay with one perspective, rather than moving on to explore others too.

In my case, I found that I have been susceptible to the People-Centered Bias Trap as I tend to value relationships as very important in almost all situations I am in. Without an effort to take in perspectives from the other two worlds, this bias can cloud my judgment.

Let’s take a look at each of the Three Bias Traps:

Bias Trap 1: Self-Centered

This is one we are all familiar with. What easily comes to mind are terms like selfish, egocentric, narcissistic, or withdrawn, solitary, and shy. To outsiders, it’s often clear that a person who is stuck in this trap has too much going on in the way of I and ME.

Inhabiting our Personal World in a positive way is essential for a healthy life and leadership growth, and involves how we give space to our dreams, passions, values, expectations, feelings, and fears. Healthy self-regulation is also part of that and is critical for leaders.

If for some reason or life event, we end up spending more of our time in our Personal World to the detriment of inhabiting our other two worlds, it’s either too much of a good thing or points to a serious imbalance that needs some work.

Bias Trap 2: People-Centered

I already started alluding to this bias when I mentioned my own tendency to value good relationships in my Social World over information that comes to me from taking perspectives of the other two worlds. People who are showing signs of being stuck in the people-centered bias trap are sometimes referred to as people-pleasers. They often find it hard to say no and stand up for what’s important to them.

We know that this can lead to unhealthy outcomes, especially if they fail to set and protect personal boundaries around their own values in their Personal World and/or when they fail to be guided by healthy career challenges coming from their Observed World.

Inhabiting our Social World in a positive way, with its focus on YOU and WE, is essential for living a healthy life and becoming an effective leader. It’s where we learn how to be curious and empathetic, collaborative, and both responsible and accountable for good relationships with a commitment to outcomes.

Developing strong interpersonal skills and healthy relationships is a challenge for many aspiring and emerging leaders. Leadership, it is often said, is a contact sport. Putting yourself ‘out there’ where people can criticize you is a challenge, outside the proverbial comfort zone. From the perspective of our Social World, our leadership shows up, in both healthy and unhealthy ways, in our conversations and in how we build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders and others in our networks.

By continuously working on our awareness and our leadership skills and behaviors, we grow into balanced leaders who avoid getting stuck in the People-Centered Bias Trap.

Bias Trap 3: Systems-Centered

A bias for the Observed World is easily observed in people around us who always talk about tangible and measurable things and find it much harder to talk about the ‘interiors’ of what they observe, including their own feelings, emotions (Personal World) and their relationships with others in their workplace (Social World).

Getting stuck in this Systems-Centered bias trap seems to be an occupational hazard for many scientists, engineers, planners, and other mono-disciplinary specialists, as well as professionals who spend large amounts of time in front of screens. The tendency to negate any consideration of interiors of the ‘objects’ they deal with produces a flatland view of the world as simply a collection of IT and ITS without interior depth.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Many of the world’s greatest scientists, like for example Albert Einstein, navigated this bias to develop a holistic, profound, and balanced understanding of life in the three worlds.

It’s essential for leaders to be fully aware and engaged with our Observed World. It’s where we are challenged to level up and play ‘a bigger game’ and generate significant results and impact from our work. We need to learn to make sense out of complexity in our work and world.

To make that happen, it’s all the more important for leaders to make sure they are equally well developed and articulate in their Personal and Social Worlds, and avoid getting stuck in the Systems-Centered Bias Trap.

Taking Multiple Perspectives

Which of these three bias traps is putting your leadership growth at risk? Each of us has our favorite (default) perspective where we tend to spend more of our time and attention. What is yours? In which of the three worlds do you live most naturally and happily so far?

To level up our leadership, we need to grow beyond these favorites and master taking multiple perspectives rather than spending too much time in our default perspective, which can become a trap. To practice taking multiple perspectives, mental models will help us. The Three Worlds Model is one such model.

Work In All Colors to bridge divides between worldviews is another. Taking multiple perspectives helps us find new ways to solve problems, including the intergenerational conflicts between Millennials and Boomers we mentioned above.

Building a toolkit of models and practices will help us become integrally informed leaders who understand what’s really going on in each situation we find ourselves in, and who can make meaning for ourselves and others to create positive change in that situation.

Navigating the three bias traps and moving on to develop equal familiarity and skills to lead from our Personal, Social, and Observed worlds will greatly help us in showing up as effective leaders.

All of this leadership growth work is easier, faster, and more fun when you do it together with others. That’s why we created the Grow3Leaders community where you join together with three workplace colleagues you have invited to work together on creating a change.

Joining is free of charge—not free of commitment. Look forward to seeing you inside.