Blinded by Our Experience
by Dr. Keith E. Webb

"Experience is the best teacher."

That's what Julius Caesar said. But once we have experience in a matter, that very experience also pre-conditions our minds and causes us to jump to pre-mature conclusions.

Our experience is an asset as well as a liability. It gives us grids or categories in which to make sense of the world around us. But it also "colors" what we see because we make false assumptions based on previous experience.

Our minds are not able to take in and process all the data that comes at us. So, without realizing it we make "leaps of abstraction" and categorize and generalize information according to our experience.

Cross-cultural leaders are all the more likely to come up with wrong conclusions based on interpreting host-country behaviors according to home-country experiences.

The Magician's Secret
When I was in Jr. High School my older brother Randy was a semi-professional magician. He practiced for hours and would test his skills on me - if I could not spot the trick, then he was ready.

Magicians know that if they give you what you expect to see, your experience will tell you "that's it" and you won't question it. Like sawing a person in half. You see her get in the box, and you see her feet moving and her face smiling, so she must be stretched out in that box, right?

Magicians capitalize on the brain's workings. "Every trickster's hope, says Jim Steinmeyer, who designs illusions for magicians, is 'finding smart people who bring a lot to the table - cultural experience, shared expectations, pre-conceptions. The more they bring, the more there is to work with, and the easier it is to get the audience to make allowances - to reach the 'right' conclusion and unwittingly participate in the deception,'" says a recent NY Times article.

The article goes on to say, "Experts make the best victims because they jump to unwarranted conclusions. The savvier they are, the quicker they jump, because they see at a glance which way a story is heading."

It's Easy to be Blinded by Our Experience
A lot of leaders talk about the power of their intuition. Actually, intuition is largely based on experiences. And those experiences lead us to conclusions - right and wrong. Cross-cultural leaders have an additional challenge to not "intuit" host-country conclusions based on home-country experience.

Coaches are susceptible to this condition as well. Unconsciously we make judgments based on our experience. Here are a few examples: When someone is outspoken, our experience may tell us that this person wants to "take over". When a man gets a position, our experience may tell us that a gender bias was at work. Or when someone spends money a certain way, our experience may tell us this person is a spendthrift. In fact, these conclusions may be completely untrue.

It Gets Worse
And here's the worst of it: because we feel we have expertise in an area we are more confident that our assumptions are correct. Instead of helping us, our experience may lead us to confident but faulty assumptions.

Overcoming our Blindness
Two ways to use our experience yet limit its liabilities are:

1. Ask clarifying questions.

• Please describe the situation.
  
• What other factors are involved?
  
• Could you give an example of that?
  
• What leads you to that conclusion?
  
• What other possibilities have you explored?

2. Share your experience and your thought process.

• My experience leads me to X, based on A, B, and C.
  
• How do you see it?

Clarity and openness are key. Making your assumptions conscious and testing your own thought process is essential. Only then can you use your experience to see clearly.

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Copyright © 2008 Keith E. Webb & CRM

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Dr. Keith E. Webb is a trainer and experienced cross-cultural leadership coach helping organizations, teams, and individuals multiply their cross-cultural impact. Find free articles at http://www.CreativeResultsManagement.com.