Let Question Be Your Co-Pilot

Evaluate new ideas and make better decisions by challenging your assumptions

By Andrea Hill

My son recently purchased his first commercial property. It was his first real estate purchase, and as anyone who has purchased real estate knows, the experience can be unsettling, particularly the first time. After the transaction closed, he said that as anxiety-inducing as the financing process had been, completing the deal left him with a feeling of euphoria that he equated to fearlessness or personal power. Why, he wondered, would something so commonplace as buying property cause him to feel first so anxious and then so victorious?

The answer is very, well, human. Whenever we face uncertainty, our limbic system sends out “Danger! Danger!” messages, even if the unknown we face offers no existential threat. The most primordial part of the human brain developed when humans were just another snack in the food chain, and while neuroscience still has a long way to go before it understands the brain’s staggering capacity, we do know that our brain still approaches the unfamiliar with extreme caution.

The most primordial part of the human brain may be causing you to be cautious when a bit of boldness would serve you better.

This is terrific for helping us avoid truly dangerous situations, but not so helpful when it comes to innovation and change in our businesses. That same fear response to novelty kicks in when we must consider diversifying our product offering, buying new equipment, or hiring a new executive. The most effective thing we can do for our business is to embrace the benefits of ongoing change, and yet it is the thing that we are wired to resist.

The concept of fear response to novelty is what some people might call fight-or-flight response, but it’s more subtle and therefore more accurate. The prevalent understanding of fight-or-flight response is that when faced with something that scares them, individuals will face it, freeze, or run from it. But we are far more complex than that. It’s more useful to think in terms of a spectrum, from low fear response to novelty to high fear response to novelty. Not only does the level of fear differ from person to person, but it also differs within each of us relative to context.

For instance, if you are comfortable with computers and learning new software, then your fear response to considering an entirely new computer system will probably be low compared to a person who finds computers overwhelming. But if you find establishing new relationships to be difficult, then hiring a new decision-maker in your company could be the thing that triggers your anxiety.

Commit to Questions

Most of us go through our days using a fair amount of autopilot. That’s useful, because if we had to actively think about everything we did we would get very little done. The problem with autopilot though, is that it’s largely governed by the same ancient parts of our brain that cause us to react as if novelty is a threat. So, when an employee suggests a novel idea for your business, you may not question why you say it’s a bad idea and move on. You may just assume that you know it’s a bad idea.

But do you? Or is your limbic system doing the thinking for you?

This is why it’s important to stop and think about our reactions to suggestions and ideas as we encounter them. The easiest way to learn this practice is to make a commitment to evaluate every instance in which we are asked to respond with a yes or a no. Yes-and-no situations are not the only times when our limbic system may be masquerading as executive function, but they present an easily recognized trigger to practice a new mindset.

Once you have paused at the point of yes or no, start by challenging your assumptions. This is easiest to do with a piece of paper. Write down every assumption you have about the topic, without stopping to consider whether the assumption is correct or incorrect. You will have time to edit your thinking later.

For example, I was recently asked by my team to consider purchasing Canva (a graphic design software) for employees in my marketing group. My immediate inclination was to say “no.” So I stopped to ponder my thinking. My list of assumptions included:

1. Canva is for non-professional designers.
2. We have a professional design team here, so we don’t need a tool for non-professionals.
3. We already pay a lot of money for Adobe Creative Suite, and Canva would be an unnecessary duplicative expense.
4. Our design output would be less professional using Canva.
5. Non-designers on our team may try to use Canva for expediency instead of working with designer team members, which could reduce the quality of our design output.
6. Canva is expensive.

Once you write down your list of assumptions, challenge them. As I worked through this list (which took 25 minutes), I changed my mind. I learned that Canva was affordable and could be an excellent complement to our Adobe suite and that our professional designers could create templates that non-designers and clients could use in Canva, speeding up the entire content creation process. The one assumption that was correct, #5, we mitigated by creating a company guideline about the proper use of Canva. I generally have a low fear response to novelty, but my limbic system had clamped down with a hard no on a tool that could bring a great deal of benefit.

Your limbic system is incredibly effective for alerting you to as-yet unencountered dangers. But if you want the euphoria and personal power that come from successfully navigating change, learn to stop, think, and check your assumptions. Your business future depends on it.