[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_post_title date_format=”j M Y” categories=”off” featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”3.12″ title_font=”|700||on|||||” title_font_size=”20px” title_font_size_last_edited=”off|”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_post_title][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/radicalteacher.com\/playbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/andrej-lisakov-360099-unsplash.jpg” show_bottom_space=”off” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.12″]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_testimonial author=”Firesign Theatre” _builder_version=”3.12″]<\/p>\n
Everything you know is wrong<\/i>.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_divider divider_weight=”5″ height=”5px” _builder_version=”3.12″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”0|0px|42.5833px|0px|false|false” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.12.2″]<\/p>\n First<\/strong>, please read the brief article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have you ever gone into a quiz or exam or class discussion where you knew you would be called upon, without preparing for it?\u00a0 Where you don\u2019t know the material?\u00a0 How did you feel?<\/p>\n You are, as we all were in school, addicted to being right, knowing right answers.\u00a0 This is what education has done to you.\u00a0 Always knowing the right answers in a class is far more important than learning.<\/p>\n Beyond a classroom, what are the right answers?<\/p>\n Well, as in education, that depends in large part on the people upon whom you depend.\u00a0 If your supervisor at work believes there is a right way to do things, those become your right answers.\u00a0 In this case, as in schooling, there is a person who controls the things you want from your work.\u00a0 A grade.\u00a0 A salary.\u00a0 Promotion.\u00a0 Responsibility.\u00a0 Power.\u00a0 To attain those things, their right answers become your own.<\/p>\n Many would suggest that a worst case is where a friend, even life partner, strongly believes there is a right way to do things.\u00a0 A right way for everyone, for you, to do things.\u00a0 And therein lies the problem with right answers:\u00a0 they do not allow for much flexibility, negotiation, and playful experimentation.\u00a0 In essence, they rule out new possibilities for learning.<\/p>\n As the Quinn article suggests, there really aren\u2019t any right answers outside of one\u2019s own experiences, values, and beliefs.\u00a0 Others who share our beliefs are usually seen as being right.\u00a0 Those who don\u2019t, must be wrong.\u00a0 The closer we look, the more we realize what a shaky foundation that is.<\/p>\n Think of all the things that you once believed were right, and then they turned out to be wrong.\u00a0 Our parents told us many things that simply were not true.\u00a0 Most of the time, those omissions or outright falsehoods were meant to protect us from what parents perceive as a tough world.\u00a0 Ever trust a person who then, through betrayal, proved to be unworthy of your trust?\u00a0 Have you ever believed strongly in something and then, as you learned more about it – even came in direct contact with it – you changed your mind about it completely?\u00a0 Ever developed a crush on someone, later to find out this was not someone you\u2019d ever want to be with?<\/p>\n Think of all of those out there who have a stake in what we consider to be right or wrong.\u00a0 Any person or company selling products or services, any politician, any person with whom we work or come in contact with, who wants to hold on to what they have, has a stake in how you<\/strong><\/em> see things.\u00a0 It is highly likely that once you get a full-time job, you will become one of those people.\u00a0 The one with answers you need everyone to believe are right because your job depends on it.<\/p>\n We come to accept that right answers are what we need to solve problems.\u00a0 We rarely see how often knowing and seeking right answers is a huge problem by itself.\u00a0 And this problem runs so deep, we aren\u2019t aware of the massive role it plays in our lives.<\/p>\n You are driving and come to two roads that intersect.\u00a0 What is the safest method for controlling traffic at that intersection?\u00a0 Four-way stop signs, yes?\u00a0 Actually, no.\u00a0 It\u2019s the roundabout \/ rotary.<\/a>\u00a0 The traffic pattern that most drivers hate because it creates too much anxiety.\u00a0 And that is exactly why they are safer.\u00a0 Intersections with stop signs or traffic lights provide right answers.\u00a0 Every driver knows what to do and, more important, what others will do (although sometimes they don\u2019t follow those rules, usually because of the mindlessness routine procedures create).\u00a0 With roundabouts, no one knows for sure what the other drivers will do.<\/p>\n Anything that causes drivers to lapse into routine threatens safety.\u00a0 Conversely, drivers are at their best when they are at high alert, full attention.\u00a0 There are certainly guidelines for a roundabout, but the guidelines are always dependent on what the other drivers – those in the circle as well as those approaching it – are doing.\u00a0 So we simply must pay attention.\u00a0 Which makes roundabouts much<\/em> safer.<\/p>\n We might say then that, when there are no right answers we must give more attention, more care, more thought to those situations.\u00a0 Aha!\u00a0 That leads to the first general principle for our playbook<\/strong>:\u00a0 Get rid of your right answers<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Wait, whaaaaaaaat?<\/p>\n i don\u2019t mean get rid of them, you can\u2019t just easily throw them out, and you shouldn’t.\u00a0 i mean suspend them.<\/p>\n A huge problem with our right answers is that, once we have them about an issue, there is no longer any reason to study that particular issue.\u00a0 The issue arises, we know the answer, we state our answer and, if someone else has a different one, we\u2019re likely to start arguing for our case.\u00a0 While simultaneously ignoring the other\u2019s argument.\u00a0 If we do return to study the issue, psychologists tell us we most likely will engage in confirmation bias<\/a>.\u00a0 In other words, our right answers act as reality filters: it is as if we don\u2019t even see things that are inconsistent with them.<\/p>\n If your job ever expects you to go out and find answers to a specific problem, you want to ensure that the answers you find are ones that solve the problem.\u00a0 That requires you to step outside of your right answers.\u00a0 That is what i mean by suspending them.\u00a0 The idea of suspending our right answers is quite simple.\u00a0 We adopt the view of Quinn\u2019s “Martian anthropologist.<\/em>”\u00a0 We assume we do not know the answer, which means we have to engage in a very different strategy than automatic confirmation bias.\u00a0 We need one that seeks the strongest arguments for all sides of the issue.\u00a0 We need questions instead of answers.\u00a0 In other words, we play; the kind of play we always do when we explore, when we seek new possibilities.<\/p>\n In essence, this is the process creative people use for discovering new opportunities as well as better ways of solving problems.\u00a0 Suspending assumptions is part of a process called reframing<\/a>.\u00a0 We\u2019ll discuss reframing further in class as it relates to mindset and, of course, we will practice reframing continuously throughout the semester.<\/p>\n