A recurrent theme I’m seeing in my work is how quickly judgments transform conclusions.

Once physiological needs are met, the most basic human needs are linked to a sense of security and safety.

With growing complexity in our surroundings and with information coming from everywhere, it becomes more and more difficult to feel safe. Things may seem to have become unpredictable.

Having become more and more knowledgeable over the centuries, having attained so much scientific excellence, seeing humans achieve things previously assumed to be impossible, it becomes difficult to accept that we don’t know.

The dilemma of the growing complexity is the resulting belief that we should be able to process it. It is as if believing that nowadays everything should be understandable.

The way people are trying to solve this is by seeking certainty.

That is what the stories people tell themselves are for. They build on a narrative they experienced and noticed often enough to then seek to confirm it. It builds a sense of certainty and thus security. However, the more experience people gain, the less they verify the conditions allowing them to confirm previous experiences in a new situation.

What happens then, is what I’m seeing. It is team members seeing others as not cooperative and concluding that they don’t want to be cooperative. It is employees seeing other colleagues in regular exchange with their boss and thus assuming that he only likes the others. It is people experiencing problems in their teams and concluding that they don’t have a team.

In essence, it is hoping for something and when it doesn’t happen, assuming that it is not accessible for oneself.

With the story they tell themselves, people transform “wanting to help” into “not being allowed to help”. They do so even in situations where no help is needed or when people wanted to find their own solution.

It is becoming blind to the current situation.