To survive the pandemic, companies were forced to adapt very quickly to radically new circumstances. Even large organizations - where it’s typically difficult to shift directions quickly - managed to accomplish it. Leaders discovered that, when required, their organization could act much more quickly and nimbly than they normally do.

So the obvious questions become:

1) What was different? and;

2) How can we “hardwire” this flexibility into the organization so we continue to be stronger in the future?

What was different?

To understand what was different, we first have to dip our toe into neuroscience. All humans have a set of cognitive biases, which are mental shortcuts that we use for problem solving and decision making.

To be clear, cognitive biases are NOT individual or personal biases. They are a neuroscience phenomenon that all humans share. Meaning, it’s not that I have one and you have another; we all have all of them. It’s also important to understand that they operate subconsciously; we’re not aware when we’re relying on them. So they affect our thinking in ways that we don’t realize.

Cognitive biases grow out of the way our brain functions. We have two different thinking systems, commonly known as System 1 and System 2, sometimes referred to as thinking fast (1) and thinking slow (2).

System 1 is the “intuitive”, quick, and easy thinking that we do most of the time. In fact, it accounts for about 98% of our thinking. It doesn’t require a lot of mental effort; we do it easily, quickly, and without having to think about that fact that we’re thinking.

System 2 thinking is deeper thinking; the kind that’s required for complex problem solving and decision making. This deeper thinking requires more effort and energy; it literally uses more calories. Since it’s less energy efficient, our brain automatically and subconsciously defaults to the easier System 1 thinking whenever it can, to save effort.

Cognitive biases result when our brain tries to stay in System 1 thinking, when perhaps it should be in System 2. The outcome is often poor decision making or sub-optimal solutions. But we don’t realize that we have sub-optimized because all of this has happened subconsciously.

Under normal circumstances, there are a variety of cognitive biases that typically cause us to change slowly, cautiously, and incrementally. Here, we’ll discuss 3 of them.

The Negativity Bias

Negativity Bias is the phenomenon that negative experiences have a greater impact on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors rather than positive experiences. So we are much more highly motivated to avoid negative than we are to seek out positive. The way this manifests in our daily work is that we are much more prone to reject new ideas than to accept them, because rejecting ideas feels like we’re avoiding potential negative. The most common response to any new idea is “yes, but….”, with all the potential problems following the “but”. Our brains are laser focused and lightning fast at identifying potential problems.

The Status Quo Bias

The Status Quo bias is a subconscious preference for the current state of affairs. We use “current” as a mental reference point, and any change from that is perceived as a loss. As a result, we frequently overestimate the risk of a change, and dramatically underestimate the risk of “business as usual.” History is littered with examples of companies that have gone out of business by failing to recognize that change is needed until it was too late.

The Curse of Knowledge

In any subject where we have some expertise, we also have many subconscious assumptions about that subject. Under normal circumstance, this Curse of Knowledge (these latent assumptions) limits our thinking and suppresses our ability to come up with radically new ideas.

The Intersection

In typical circumstances, these three cognitive biases (and likely others) conspire to make us perceive that continuing as we are - with only slower, incremental changes - seems like the best decision. It feels familiar, it feels lower risk, in sum – it feels smarter. Choosing to do nothing different is – very often – simply the default. It often doesn’t even feel like we made a decision; it feels instead like we were really smart for NOT making a potentially risky decision.

But during the pandemic, changing nothing was simply not an option. This particular situation was so unique that our brains didn’t have the choice to stay in short-cut System 1 thinking. System 2 thinking was required. Since our brains were literally working harder -in System 2 - all the cognitive biases weren’t a factor. We couldn’t reject new ideas. We couldn’t maintain the status quo. We had no Curse of Knowledge to limit our thinking.

How to Continue to be More Nimble in the Future

The key to maintaining flexible thinking and nimble behavior is to not allow our brains to fall into the trap of cognitive biases. Obviously, since these are intuitive and subconscious responses, this is not easy task. But there are proven ways that we can better manage our brains. Here are a few ways to start.

1. Short circuit the Negativity Bias. Respond to “yes but…” with “what if…?” This requires a dedicated and conscious mental effort, by everyone on the team, to monitor their own and the team’s response to new ideas. Every time “yes, but…” is uttered, the response needs to be “What if we could solve for that?” This reframing of the problem into a question will trigger our brains to look for solutions, instead of instantly rejecting the idea.

2. Mitigate the Status Quo Bias. When weighing a choice of possible actions, be sure to overtly list “do nothing” as one of the choices, so you are forced to acknowledge it is a choice. Also include “risk” as one of the evaluation criteria and force the team to list all the possible risks. Then comes the difficult part - remind them that their subconscious brain is making them perceive the risks of doing nothing to be lower than the reality, so they should multiply the possibility of each of those risks.

3. Curtail the Curse of Knowledge. Rely on advisors who don’t have the same Curse of Knowledge. In other words, seek out advice from people outside of your industry. When evaluating ideas or actions, these outsiders won’t have the same blinders that you have, so they will likely have a more clear-eyed view of the benefits and risks.

The bad news is that cognitive biases are always going to be a factor in our problem-solving and decision making; they’re hard-wired into us. The good news is that, with some dedicated and continuous mental effort, we can mitigate them and become more nimble in the face of change.

How to Sustain Flexible Thinking and Nimble Action that Emerged from the Pandemic