How Common is Common Sense, Really

Photo by James Lee (on Unsplash)

“It’s common sense.”

If this is so, I have a question: If something is declared common sense, why doesn’t everyone see the inferred obvious and make the best decisions?

Something the other day triggered a thought from years ago where someone responded with disinterest and disdain to a proposal of mine that could inform, educate and help people personally develop to a higher level. The communication was “It’s top of mind" and therefore, something people already knew. Now, this person may not have intended to be overconfident and arrogant yet that’s what the communication conveyed.

That assumption of theirs was inaccurate yet they were the ultimate decision maker so they had the authority and autonomy to make that call. Fair enough. Sometimes as people and especially leaders, we fall into this specific trap of false conclusion where we are overconfident that we see everything, know everything and can proceed without giving something of importance a deeper and more logical and reasoned look.

“Common sense is not so common.”

Voltaire

How many stories have we heard, seen or read that show intelligent, successful people regularly commit errors that ignored so-called “top of mind common sense,” leading to highly-problematic or disastrous outcomes, for others and then, in a reputation manner, the people who made the egregious decision errors?

We assume and maybe want to believe that something is “top of mind” and obvious yet this is just not absolutely true. What we know is not necessarily what other people know and respectfully stated, what we are confident we know isn’t always accurate and how we end up making decisions and acting.

Slighting diverging from what I’ve communicated above, I think back to a second situation where a detailed proposal for a new asset with an attractive financial return was met with this reaction from a successful leader: I’m serious, “its too nerdy.” That’s what this leader’s common sense conclusion.

That idea, obviously, was rejected. Today it is a consistent money-maker for different companies, just as it was outlined years ago. This conversation on so-called common sense and top-of-mind thinking, of course, doesn’t just go for business proposals. It can apply to governance and compliance, coaching organizational members, the law and citizens, science and any field and any person.

First impressions and gut instincts are often lauded in society and at times, they certainly can prove accurate, yet at other times, first impressions, emotions, overconfidence and confirmation bias prove to be shortsighted, limited and dangerous thinking traps when it comes to decision analysis and what we will do next.