![](\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/jTwbjfAziPH2WwwfGI\/giphy.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Perception is reality.\u00a0 Well at least that was the worldview of the leadership of a church I served in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 It was perception that partially led to my firing.\u00a0 I do not like this idea that reality is grounded on perception.\u00a0 Reading Hans Rosling\u2019s Factfulness: Ten Reasons We\u2019re Wrong About the World \u2013 and Why Things Are Better Than You Think <\/em>has offered me \u201cfacts\u201d as to why I have rebelled against \u201cperceptions\u201d.<\/p>\n Rosling was a physician by way of formal education, but his worldview was shaped by his fascination for circus performers, especially the Sword Swallowers. He spent many a year attempting to accomplish this feat.\u00a0 It was not until he came across an actual sword swallower as a patient that he learned the secret to the art; \u201cDon\u2019t you know the throat is flat? You can only slide flat things down there.\u00a0 That is why you use a sword.\u201d[1]<\/a> Rosling\u2019s beguilement with this circus act was the heart and soul of his pursuit to help people enlarge their worldview. He saw how often humans get tripped up by ignorance, laziness, and lack of imagination. \u201cSword swallowing has always shown that the seemingly impossible can be possible, and inspired humans to think beyond the obvious.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Rosling, along with his son and daughter-in-law, make a case in Factfulness <\/em>for humans ability to understand the world completely wrong through our proclivity to perceive it by way of our instincts. Instead of engaging, what Kahenman calls our System 2 part of the brain, or take the effort to think through facts\/information (or like Chivers and Chivers offer in How to Read Numbers<\/em>) humans impulsively react to issues out of one or more of the 10 instincts they present in Factfulness.<\/em> Reminicent of Sway<\/em>, Molecule of More<\/em>, and Thinking Fast and Slow<\/em>, Rosling\u2019s goal was to offer a road map of how and why humans dramatic instincts create overdramatic worldviews.[3]<\/a> Rosling offers skills at the end of each instinct chapter for those \u201cwilling to change your worldview; if you are ready for critical thinking to replace instinctive reaction\u201d[4]<\/a> to help course correct one\u2019s perception.<\/p>\n Factfulness<\/em> has been a helpful capstone to this year of reading.\u00a0 The essence of this book has tied together the meaning making elements of leadership identity.\u00a0 The chapter that challenged me the most was the 5, The Size Instinct.\u00a0\u00a0 Rosling tells the story of serving in Nacala as the sole doctor.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 He shares the struggle of the choices he had to make when caring for the young children that arrived in the hospital.\u00a0 He spent each counting the deaths of children. When a friend of his arrives for a visit, an argument erupts between them concerning the care Rosling provided for the child right in front of him.\u00a0 Rosling\u2019s friend believed it was more important to expend all energy and resources to care for the child that is in front of him. Rosling\u2019s argument was that would be a waste of resources, instead it is more ethical to use resources on preventative care; to attend to the children and families before deadly illness occurs. Rosling\u2019s point, \u201cPaying too much attention to the individual visible victim rather than to the numbers can lead us to spend all our resources on a fraction of the problem, and therefore save many fewer lives.\u00a0 This principle applies anywhere we are prioritizing scarce resources.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n I begin my new call on Sunday.\u00a0 One issue I know I will be working on is the conflict over their endowment fund.\u00a0 I imagine one aspect of this conflict centers on fear of scarcity and the protection of the size of the fund. As I begin to plan my leadership around this issue I am realizing that Rosling is Friedman\u2019s wingman.\u00a0 While I work to remain a self-differentiated leader in the midst of an anxious system stuck in at least one of Rolings\u2019s instincts, these two authors offer me a more full, and hopefully factful worldview as I help the congregation navigate their anxiety and becoming more educated and self-aware to make sound financial decisions.<\/p>\n Perception is not really reality, looks can be deceiving, and a fund can actually look more secure than one thinks. The authors this year have provided me with a more detailed map of meaning making than I perceived could be possible.\u00a0 I am more prepared and empowered to lead\u2026hopefully that is not just looks.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Rosling, Hans, Anna Rosling R\u00f6nnlund, and Ola Rosling. 2020. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We\u2019re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think<\/em>. Reprint edition. Flatiron Books. Page 2.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid, Page 13.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid, Page 14.<\/p>\n