#012 Order is Easier to Create Than Keep — The Perception Deception

Another reason leaders have more trouble sustaining success after the creation phase is rooted in the way the human mind functions. Because the brain needs a lot of energy (20% of our body’s total consumption), it is designed to conserve energy. Dr Gregory Berns, in his book Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently, performs experiments that show that the brain processes information differently based on how many other people agree with it.

For example, if you are in a room with 10 people and 9 other people interpret facts a certain way, you brain gives weight to the group consensus on the result and reduces normal processing to save time.

When the Asch experiment which was originally performed in the 60’s, it concluded that people that falsely agreed with the group were doing it out of peer pressure. Berns recently repeated the experiment using MRI imaging and was able to determine that in most cases it was not peer pressure that affected the result.

Instead, it was that the brain actually stopped image processing early and simply reported it was the same actual result as the others reported assuming the other brains had already figured this out.

Principle:

This provides important insight on decision making. First, group think can absolutely lead to bad decisions and second, when people are overworked and trying to move fast and conserve time and energy, people are much more susceptible to errors in thinking. Once businesses are up and running, the faster they grow the more likely decision errors will creep in making it more difficult to sustain their success.