The morning I left on my trip to Africa, I was in a state of near panic. I had an hour and half from my drop off at the airport curbside until I needed to get to the gate where my plane would be waiting to take me to Newark, New Jersey.\u00a0 I did not think that the airport would be busy on a Sunday morning, but I was wrong.\u00a0 After I checked in my bag and I was looking for the correct security line, airport attendants saw the swelling crowds and took a group of twenty, running, to a special security line.\u00a0 I joined this group, moving as quickly as I could with a carry on. In this process I was able to get ahead of a family of three. Arriving at the security gate line is when panic thoughts went to a new level. The family of three was directly behind me with the father notably agitated, the young adult son breathing hard, and the mother using loud foul language. The father was silent when the mother screamed, \u201cCan\u2019t you do something? Why can\u2019t we let people know that we have a son who is autistic?\u201d\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but think, \u201cKristy, you are the therapist, you help people like this, and it is your job to stay calm.\u201d\u00a0 The mother continued to talk about the departure time of their flight, and this was after I was due to be on my plane.\u00a0 They were more freaked out then me and I had less time than them. Push came to shove, and I bee lined past fifty people to get to the front of the security line and the family ended up trailing behind me.\u00a0 I took this bold move, but it did not come before a war ensued in my mind.<\/p>\n
Daniel Kahneman introduces many concepts about how people think in his book Thinking Fast and Slow<\/em>.\u00a0 His position is widely accepted that brains operate with two systems in motion: The first system is fast thinking where ideas are quickly assimilated without much effort and the second system is slower in processing and is more deliberate in making judgements. [1] Marcus Warner, in RARE Leadership<\/em>, explains fast and slow thinking and describes how fast thinking takes place in the prefrontal cortex (PFC).\u00a0 Warner provides a list (not exhaustive) of the many functions of the PFC. To describe my experience at the SFO the morning I left for Africa, I will use this list as a guide. [2] \u00a0\u00a0I will include many of the thought processes that I had personally, with observations of those around me. I hope to illustrate how my fast thinking was predominately in effect.<\/p>\n I was traveling alone and had no one else to look to for decision making assistance.\u00a0 From getting into line until I boarded the plane, decision making was completely up to me.<\/p>\n It is my preference to make decisions quickly, I often take pride and security in this.\u00a0 It was taking everything in me to be patient in line and to wait for a \u201cboiling point\u201d in making the decision to cut in line.<\/p>\n Cutting in line was a risk because I ran the chance of making 50 people very angry. Condemnation and ridicule were my fear.\u00a0 I had to tell myself that I would never see these people again in my life.<\/p>\n The time crunch narrowed my options and needing to get through the security line meant I had another distance in reaching my gate. I didn\u2019t know how long this would take me.<\/p>\n Standing in line with others who were panicking while having a later departure time was unnerving, but I was attempting to keep my cool.\u00a0 I knew I needed to stay calm even if others around me were not.<\/p>\n I figured I would hold up my ticket and let people know my departure time as an excuse for my rude behavior, cutting in line.\u00a0 I hoped this would promote a forgiving position towards me.<\/p>\n A negative outcome was incredibly motivating to me as I did not want to miss my connecting flight to Cape Town in Newark.\u00a0 My husband had worked hard to secure my travel plans and I did not want this to come to a negative end.<\/p>\n The mother of the family who had been behind me thanked me while putting her belt and shoes on after getting through security. She said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what we would have done if you didn\u2019t start cutting in line.\u201d\u00a0 I did not have time to talk with her, but I gave her a reassuring look.<\/p>\n Assessing this fast paced, nerve tingling morning, I wonder how my brain was able to operate in fast and slow thinking.\u00a0 Much of my fast thinking was operating but I am grateful for the slow thinking that kept me in check and helped me problem solve. In Robert Cialdini\u2019s book Influence the Psychology of Persuasion<\/em>, he explains a lever of influence.\u00a0 \u201cA well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor, we will be more successful if we provide a reason.\u201d [3] Unknowingly, I used this lever while I was cutting through a line of fifty people by letting those around me become aware of my flight time.\u00a0 I was grateful to have my wits about me enough to not embarrass myself, impact others positively despite my selfish motives and influence others with a bit of reason.\u00a0 I made it to the gate for my flight to Newark and to my final destination: Cape Town Africa, phew!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1] Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, 2011, p.20-21<\/p>\n [2] Rare Leadership, Marcus Warner, and Jim Wilder, 2016, p.37<\/p>\n [3] Influence the Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, 2021 p.4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The morning I left on my trip to Africa, I was in a state of near panic. I had an hour and half from my drop off at the airport curbside until I needed to get to the gate where my plane would be waiting to take me to Newark, New Jersey.\u00a0 I did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2309],"tags":[2417,2053],"class_list":["post-29266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership","tag-rare-leadership","tag-thinking-fast-and-slow"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29267,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29266\/revisions\/29267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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