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​Ever heard of the sunk cost fallacy, earned dogmatism or corporate meeting syndrome? Our article on the intelligence trap will show you why it happens and how you might avoid it. Have you been involved in a failed project where the project lead was very intelligent? How could this happen?
 
Here is a quick glossary of some of the common pitfalls that intelligent people with high IQs can fall into:
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• Solomon’s paradox: The tendency to make wiser decisions for others than for yourself. The biblical King Solomon, famed for his wise judgements, failed to educate his only son, leading to the downfall of his empire. Are you doing this with your team or people you manage? What advice would you give yourself instead?

• Framing: the manner in which a statistic is phrased makes us more or less likely to believe it (Positive Frame) The project has an 80% success rate vs. (Negative Frame) The project failed 2 out of every 10 instances. How can we use this effect  to help us influence opinion and at the same time not be manipulated by it?
• The sunk cost fallacy: where people throw good money after bad, because we can’t handle the emotional cost of losing what we have already invested. Are there some current business decisions where it’s better to reverse the decision and learn from it rather than keep on the wrong path?
• Earned dogmatism: people are less likely to accept new information in a field they have previously studied, even if they have since forgotten their original studies. How can you keep your knowledge and skills up to date and be open to new ideas?
• Corporate meeting syndrome: the presence of competition and interpersonal dynamics can affect group performance far more than the average IQ of the group. So how can you make team meetings more effective and get the best out of the attendees?

What else can we personally do about this? There are several tricks and tools that individuals can adopt to try and overcome intelligence traps. One of the best is to actively try and think the opposite of what you just thought, becoming your own devil’s advocate. When thinking about business problems, imagine that you are discussing someone else’s challenges rather than your own. This “self-distancing” restores a less-biased, more open-minded attitude. Reflective practices such as mindfulness also seem to encourage a wiser, more rational stance, reducing errors such as the sunk cost fallacy.

Here at Da Vinci’s Workshop we aim to equip our delegates with as much understanding and as many strategies as possible to overcome any unconscious biases.

​Links to further reading:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132180-100-how-to-upgrade-your-thinking-and-avoid-traps-that-make-you-look-stupid/
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What makes a leader? How do we choose our leaders and are we choosing them in the best way?

Humanity has a tendency to coalesce into groups of leaders and followers, but who decides who the leaders are, how and why?
 
We know that humans choose certain candidates, often for seemingly arbitrary reasons. We opt for candidates who are taller, we can pick out pictures of CEOs by the shape of their jawline, and men are more likely to gravitate towards leadership roles, even when pitted against women who are better qualified. Some of this may be explained by our evolutionary history and our subconscious expectations of what a leader looks, but it is not necessarily that simple.
 
In modern hunter-gatherer societies, and we assume much of our evolutionary history, humans lived in small bands of around 50-150 related individuals, with a mostly egalitarian outlook and leaders who were chosen by the masses, not the elite. Some companies have been trialling these systems with success. At Gore-Tex, the CEO is chosen by the entire working body, not senior management, and has seen extremely high rates of worker retention. Toyota and Virgin have deliberately restructured their businesses into smaller groups of 50-150 employees, with managers given far more decision-making capacity for their individual units. As employees tend to be happier in smaller businesses, this can surely only increase employee satisfaction.
 
With surveys showing that the corporate failure rate of senior managers in the US is as high as 50 percent, and 60-70 per cent of employees say the most stressful part of their job is dealing with their immediate line manager, it is clear that leadership could be due an overhaul.
 
So, what if you think you have what it takes to be a leader? There are many ways you can signal your potential. Aside from wearing heels or sculpting your jawline, studies have shown we are more likely to follow individuals who:

• Use active gestures such as using your hands and positive body language (facing a group, no yawning or staring blankly)
• Talk lots at the beginning of a discussion and make sure to focus on solutions instead of problems.

 
Now you’ve signalled your leadership potential, and know how to keep your employees happy, what could you achieve with your newly exalted position?
 
Link to further reading:
 
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2155366-want-to-be-the-boss-how-to-signal-your-leadership-potential/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727761-400-the-natural-selection-of-leaders/
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https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826601-900-follow-me-the-origins-of-leadership/