Developmental Strategy: Disconfirming Curiosity

During my morning reading, I came across a section of a book that was making a point about how even though we might be misled by some things, other things are flat out true. The author went ahead and listed some examples, firstly that “water boils at 100 degrees celsius.”

This piqued my interest because I specifically know it’s not completely true. I should be more clear. While the statement that water boils at a 100 degrees celsius is often true, it’s not always true. It’s definitely not true in the spirit of why the author chose it as an example. The boiling point of water changes based on certain factors like altitude and sodium content.

The reason I even know this is because much of the work we do in the Hold the Standard Summit is a deep dive into changing behavior and how we can evolve ourselves and our teams. Spoiler Alert: much of the “answer” to this problem is exposure to disconfirming information. Individuals and teams that excel in developmental ways, then, take on a perspective that surely has beliefs, but is interested in finding the edges and holes in those beliefs as much as they are in believing in them.

In fact, the reason I know the oddities of when water boils is because we do a simple exercise in the Summit handbook that forces the participant to list something he/she believes to be true and subsequently ask, “How might I be wrong about this?” (I, too, once thought the boiling point of water was one of those exceptional truths. Wrong..)

A strong scientific mindset understands that we can only firmly disprove things.

Strongly held beliefs should come with a warning sticker that they are likely faulty, even when you can’t see it that way. It takes courage to look and question your perspective, but, ironically, that’s just about the only way we get better (interpersonally, politically, intellectually, spiritually, etc).