The powers of perception Robbins, Judge, Adenoidal and Rood (2009) define perception as a process by which individuals organism and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. In other words, perception is the way we “see” the world not in terms of our visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting.
Covey (1989) demonstrates how perception affects the way we see things, the way we think and the way we act in an exercise he encountered many years ago at the Harvard Business School. The instructor divided students into two groups; the one group was given a picture of a young woman and the second group a picture of an old woman. After giving each group 10 seconds to study their picture carefully, he projected the combined picture onto a screen. Each group saw the respective image they were initially given.
This activity clearly and eloquently demonstrates how conditioning effects our receptions and frames of reference, that two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right.We are not born with a certain set of perceptions; these are created over time, based on certain life events and previous teachings received from parents, teachers and friends that are influential in our life. The brain acts as a recorder that captures all of our experiences and memories in our mind on a series of tapes – forming our perceptions.
All our observations, feelings and beliefs are stored here and will determine how we view the world, our behavior and how we communicate. Richard Ross in Sense et al (1994) however warns against incorrect assumptions about our recordings. He states that we live in a world of beliefs we self-generate based on conclusions made and inferred from what we observe, as well as our past experiences.
Our ability to achieve results is eroded by feelings that include: “Our beliefs are the truth. The truth is obvious. Our beliefs are based on true data. The data we select is the real data. The aforementioned is closely related is the ‘the ladder of inference” developed by Chris Arises (Sense, 1990) which will be discussed in more detail below.
The Ladder of Inference comes from Peter Gene’s book The Fifth Discipline Field Book and is based on the commitment we make to our beliefs once we hold them. The ladder of inference is a common mental pathway of increasing abstraction which often leads to misguided beliefs. For example: You are working on a project and need help and information from Karen. Unable to reach her, you send her an email.
When she does not respond, you leave her a vocalism or two, or three. You remember that the last time you worked together, Karen and you had some disagreements. So you conclude that she is avoiding your communications. As the days go by, you convince yourself that Karen is trying to sabotage you. In fact (you think to yourself), as you recall, she never liked you. You decide then and there that the next time she needs something from you for her projects you won’t give it to her. Soon you start looking for examples of how she is trying to get you and make you look bad.
You decide that you can’t stand her and might even bad-mouth her and try to sabotage her. The next time you see Karen, you give her a dirty look and soon other teammates notice the communication reawaken. You started with real observable data, the way a video recorder would record it. Email and vocalism were not returned. You added meanings and made assumptions based on the meaning added to that data / facts. You drew conclusions and made decisions based on your assumptions. Then you took action based on those conclusions and assumptions.
Each time you interact with Karen, you seek evidence to support your conclusions and assumptions, as you constantly leap up the ladder of inference. Each time you do that, the reflexive loop gets tighter and tighter as you convince ourselves that Karen is out to get you, when in fact you are creating the reality to support your decision. How perceptions affect our beliefs in everything that is said and done: 1. Data – What we actually see and hear.
Conclusions
What we believe based on how we think and feel. You can’t live your life without adding meaning or drawing conclusions. It would be an inefficient, tedious way to live. However, you can improve your communications through reflection and by using the ladder of inference in three says: Becoming more aware of your own thinking and reasoning (reflection);
Making your thinking and reasoning more visible to others (advocacy); and Inquiring into others’ thinking and reasoning (inquiry). Once the concepts behind the ladder of inference are understood, you have a safe way to stop a conversation in its tracks and ask several questions: What is the observable data behind that statement?
Does everyone agree on what the data is? Can you talk me through your reasoning? How did we get from that data to these abstract assumptions? When you said “[your inference],” did you mean “[my interpretation of it]”? You can ask for data in an open-ended way: “Karen, why haven’t you returned my calls or answered my emails? ” You can test your assumptions: “Karen, are you upset with me? ” Or you can simply test the observable data: “You haven’t returned my calls or emails, Karen. ” To which she might reply: “Yeah, I’ve been on vacation and I’m snowed under right now.
What do you need? ” Note that you don’t say, “Karen, I think you’ve moved way up the ladder of inference. Here’s what you need to do to get down. ” The point of this method is to make your thinking processes visible in order to e what the differences are in your perceptions and what you have in common.
Our beliefs have a powerful impact on the conclusions we draw and actions we take. Being conscious of the ladder of inference, may add different meanings and assumptions based on what you observe. Covey says “To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.
