Two Speeds of Minds!
Two Speeds of Minds!
I have been in the entrepreneurial world for many years. I have been in the faith-based non-profit world for four decades and, more recently, the marketplace global tech world. It’s been an absolute rush at times, yet I’ve also experienced the world of bureaucracy, which kept my aspirational hopes and dreams at bay for far too long. Thinking Fast and Slow gives me the premise of the importance of understanding the human decision-making process and how understanding cognitive biases is relevant and important to our day-to-day decision-making. This book pushed me to greater depths as it was difficult to focus and understand, as Thinking Fast and Slow was written by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman.
“I’ll pay for that; I’ll give you fifty to one hundred thousand dollars for that project today; I want to see that site launched!” Here I am in one of the world’s largest cities, Toronto, Canada, a city with many hot spots of great need. The project was called “The Jane-Finch Project.” Most recently, there was a drive-by shooting, and it killed innocent young people at a school, just enjoying each other’s company like young people should. The drive-by shooting also affected families in their homes. Home after a long day just sitting in their living rooms. It was devastating, to say the least. We knew some of these families well as we spent much time over the years creating sustainable, thoughtful initiatives to resource and mobilize their people to create change in their communities. However, these initiatives were just initiatives; they were not ongoing, sustainable programs, just a Band-Aid. That one hundred thousand dollars was gold, it was tempting to just say yes. That financial stakeholder was the answer to my prayers, but was it really?
Kahneman gives us clarity that our minds are divided into two systems:
System 1: FAST THINKING!! I just love fast, and it’s a rush. I love thinking fast, especially with a collective cohort, when solving problems in crisis! It’s intuitive thinking. It’s quick, it’s reactionary, a nuanced thinking that does not give it much conscious thought.
System 2: SLOW THINKING. I have a love-and-hate relationship with slow thinking. Let me tell you why. I have this fear of bureaucracy, the lagging behind in making decisions that are needed NOW, not later, as in the case of “The Jane-Finch Project.” Slow thinking is deliberate, it’s logical, and it requires collaborative input and more time and attention.
I knew the people in Jane-Finch. I saw how, each day, the thousands of people in that community struggled in their concrete world. Mothers who wept for their children who were either paralyzed or killed due to thoughtless drive-bys had to live with the grief for the rest of their lives and continue to exist for their other children who needed them. I wanted to make a quick decision at that board room table. I had accountants, lawyers, and top percentile minds at the table wondering why I did not emphatically say “YES! LET’S DO THIS!” and accept the money right there.
I was struggling with saying yes. I needed to check myself; I didn’t want to be too overconfident that money was going to solve this ongoing problem of gun violence and grief. Was I making an emotional decision because of the years of suffering I’ve seen and I, myself experienced a different trauma that affected my family. Have I looked at both ways of thinking to make an undeniably ‘BEST DECISION’ for my people for “The Jane-Finch Project.” I wanted ongoing, sustainable, resourced and long-term change. That’s what I really wanted. From reading this book, I have the language to my process of decision-making that I’m grateful for: Cognitive biases, Overconfidence, looking at the Pros and Cons of each system, and lastly, the role of Heuristics in decision-making (how mental shortcuts do help us, but it can lead to errors).
I sat in front of my Board of Directors, feeling excited, incapable, and not as confident as I wanted to be because it was my time. It was my time to stick my neck out to challenge this team to think along the lines of long-term, sustainable change. It was not just about the project. It was about changing people’s lives one person at a time from the Jane-Finch Projects. Who would ever care for these people enough to stay there, walk with them through the challenges and the wins not only through short-term initiatives but through long-term initiatives that considered and worked through true change that provided resources, processes for change management of not only this community but also for our Non-Profit? I wanted them to see throwing money in response to a heinous act of violence was not going to be a solution.
A key takeaway was how we lean into a refined decision-making process. How do we lean into the urgent, and how do we make healthy, sustainable, meaningful, impactful decisions.
You’re all wondering what I chose to do with the one hundred thousand dollars offer, right? I asked for more! Yes, I did. I sat there and said, “I will not launch this site because the money this year is not a gift that can keep that site running. If you are all serious about changing the world for these people we love so much, I need at least a 5-year commitment to this project. Are you all willing to provide what’s necessary financially for our people in Jane and Finch? They emphatically said YES!
End of Story.
Thank you, Daniel Kahneman, for giving me the language for my decision-making process.
About the Author
Judith McCartney
8 responses to “Two Speeds of Minds!”
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Judith, what a great example of Kahneman’s system paradigms. How do you plan to continue challenging your stakeholders toward longer-term sustainable thinking that is harder than initial System 1 thinking?
How? To slow down and understand the impact of our decision-making process. Sometimes, we take a look at the conventional route of problem-solving, yet that doesn’t seem to be enough for Kahneman. Those nuances of an emotional decision or a quick decision can lead to error. I’m a bleeding heart and can say yes to many good things that need to be solved, so even I need to lean into this type of growth mindset and pivot. Thank you Robert.
Judith,
Thank you for sharing this story. I can’t imagine the heartache that the acts of violence caused the community.
I, too, enjoy thinking fast and sometimes find it challenging to switch between Systems 1 and 2 (but oddly not from 2 to 1). I was struck by the situation you described with your Board of Directors and the process that was happening in your own mind. As you were talking with them, did you see their minds switch from 1 to 2 and contemplate the bigger picture?
I was hopeful that Kahneman would have offered a few more practical leadership thoughts on how to lead others between the two systems.
Yes I sure did see their minds taking a huge pivot. Primarily because they had to slow down and count the cost of that stakeholder donation. It was a huge donation yet it wasn’t huge. It needed a long term sustainable investment alongside the 100K donation. The team of board members soon figured out that collectively we had to commit to that number for 5 years.. they had to have skin in the game now. Thank you so much Darren for your engagement with my post!
Judith, what an excellent post! It’s unfortunate what happened to the community in Jane-Finch. Hearing stories like this is truly heartbreaking. No one should have to endure such circumstances. Overall, great post! How do you personally balance fast and slow thinking in your decision-making process?
Thank you Ivan. Not that I do this all the time but I intentionally do a check-in that I’ve made my decisions collaboratively. I run my biggest and most important decisions through a gauntlet of people: my family members and my spiritual mentors, I go to my scriptures, I have my sacred time of listening to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, and I try to problem solve the big decision through deduction. When I do not go through this process, my decision-making is usually quick, I lean on my years of experience, and as the book says, there are times my decision-making has a great error. Im pretty sure there will always be a tension trying to do this right but after reading this book, I have to say I have greater awareness. Thanks Ivan.
Hi Judith,
I can appreciate your comments on the value of heuristics and also your own personal wirings. I love to play football (soccer). Most people’s System One response to a ball being kicked very hard and fast at them is avoidance. Goalkeepers need to respond with fight rather than flight – it’s a different wiring.
As a self-professed woman who is wired to want to take action, what do you practically do to slow down your own thinking when you want to do so?
Judith, you motivated me to look at several websites related to both the Jane-Finch need and the availability of grants.
Your approach to requesting more is a good illustration of several DLGP concepts. One is Friedman’s characterization of a society looking for the quick fix.[1] I applaud you for resisting the temptation to characterize a one year project as transformational simply to secure financing. The second was Kahneman’s description of a planning fallacy, using an inside view to project unrealistic time and cost expectations.[2]
According to our expert authors, you got this one right. How did you avoid the temptation to take the first year funding with a mindset that next year will take care of itself?
[1] Edwin Friedman. ‘A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix’, ed. Margaret M. Treadwell and Edward W. Beal, rev. ed. (New York: Church Publishing, 2017)
[2] Kahneman, 247-49.