It turns out that facing the hard facts is something that human beings are remarkably bad at doing. We “shoot the messengers” who bring us bad news; we seek, remember, and act on bad evidence that supports our dearly held beliefs; we avoid, forget, and fail to act on evidence that clashes with our ingrained if flawed ideologies.
The best leaders and companies have “the attitude of wisdom”: They have the courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change their actions when they encounter new evidence. They also know how to argue as if they are right, and listen as if they are wrong — so they can develop and think about their ideas without becoming narrow-minded slaves to bad or incomplete ideas.
As former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, put it, “I think it is very important for you to do two things: act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly.”
Excerpted from ChangeThis manifesto: Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap? by Bob Sutton.
“act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly.”
With all due respect to Andy, I disagree.
Its not always as easy and inexpensive (money, resource, time-wise) to correct course quickly without consequence.
Moreover, doing this more than a few times wouldn’t really curry conviction with regards to smart leadership capabilities.
Come to think of it, any conviction is a real conviction until you get a new conviction. So in essence everything is temporary. I think Andy did not mean to “try things out without thinking much”, but more to “don’t get stuck in thinking that there is no action”.