Blind Acceptance

I have become increasingly aware of a number of circumstances in which we blindly accept what we have learned or been told as the truth. And it is only when someone asks a question or makes a statement of principle that we maybe stop and begin to think that maybe it wasn’t true.

I have two recent examples to share with you to help illustrate this point.

The first is about my own experience realizing organizations need to care for all of their employees, and not just the “top 20%”. This realization was made clear in moving from a unit in which everyone was cared for to a unit in which only some were cared for -- and the detrimental impact was clear.

Recently, LinkedIn recommended I should have my company respond to a post that included 10 Management Tips for Great Leaders. I remember having an adverse reaction to some of these tips, and one in particular: Focus on the 20% of your employees that drive 80% of the revenue.

In discussing my reaction with others, I was reminded of the well established and well accepted Pareto Principle.

One of my connections reflected it was interesting that I had reacted that way and how they had just accepted this principle as the truth.

The second interesting example was reading about AbCellera in the Globe and Mail:

“After Carl Hansen co-founded AbCellera Biologics Ltd. in 2012, people constantly told him he was building a biotechnology company the wrong way. “The whole sector for years has been focused on this idea that if you wanted to build a valuable company, you have to make your own drugs,” Dr. Hansen told the Globe and Mail Thursday. “It was very hard in the early days for people to understand that wasn’t the only way to do things.””

When I stop and think about it, it’s not just business leaders who need to stop and question when they say this is how things have always been done or this is our tradition. It might be things our parents, religious leaders or government leaders told us was the truth.

I just can’t blindly accept everything I have been told anymore. My level of awareness is making that impossible.

I need to stay curious and be thoughtful about what I think is true and why.

Photo by Tammy Brimner/TLBVelo Photography