Are you experiencing an intelligence trap?

​Leonardo Da Vinci “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

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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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