The Language of “Blink:” A Hot New Diversity Tool

By Judith Aftergut, Executive Director, the Honoring Institute, Portland, Oregon

One of the hot new topics in the organizational and corporate world on both sides of the Atlantic these days is the “art” of making snap judgments. It is the focus of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. I also heard it discussed recently at a conference in Europe.

Malcolm Gladwell writes for the New Yorker and is the author of the bestseller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. He writes in Blink that the capacity to make snap judgments is a basic, essential element of how our human brains work. Gladwell is now a featured speaker for corporations and organizations, according to a recent article in Fast Company Magazine called “The Accidental Guru.”

For diversity professionals, the world of snap judgments is usual and familiar territory. The downside is obvious: snap judgments can lead to prejudice, to closed minds, and to judging people as wrong or bad when they are simply different, as Gladwell points out. In Blink, he lists step by step a series of snap misjudgments by police that led to the death of Amadou Diallo in the South Bronx in February 1999. He looks into the mechanisms by which women were hired to play the trombone and other instruments in symphony orchestras once auditions were held behind screens. He tells the story that inspired him to write this book: police stopped Gladwell more frequently when he wore his hair in an Afro than when his hair was cut short.

On the upside of the “snap judgment” discussion, Gladwell points out in Blink that people who react quickly and appropriately in situations of danger (for example, in war) have a remarkably valuable skill. The alternative to snap judgment mistakes, Gladwell asserts, is not more planning and deliberation. On a battlefield, stopping to process more information than you need can get you killed. Closer to home, he offers the example of a professor in Seattle who can tell with a high level of accuracy within 10-15 seconds whether a couple is likely to divorce in the next 15 years.

Gladwell calls the positive aspects of making quick decisions “thin slicing,” the art of making decisions through “filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables” (I’ve quoted this from the inside back cover of the book jacket of Blink.) The solution to mistakes through making snap judgments is not to become more plodding and mechanical in one’s thinking, but rather to improve one’s capacity to thin slice—to make snap judgments that work for the situation one is in. I call that “honoring” the situation: responding with the highest and best action to take. I would also call it “appropriate action based upon intuition.”

Intuition was also a theme at both the 4-day Winter Camp—a gathering of change agents that I attended recently in Estonia, sponsored by the European Organization for Quality and at a conference sponsored by the Estonian Association for Quality. The winter camp was organized for change agents from all over Europe (including Ireland, Belgium, Latvia and Estonia, Ukraine, Croatia, Germany, plus a number of Americans and two participants from South Korea.) Its theme was “Daring to Dream: Honoring the World.” The theme of the 13th International Quality Conference was: “Diversity—Source of Sustainability and Creativity.”

In the quality movement in Europe, they are framing the discussions about diversity and intuition in several ways:

• The leaders of organizations linked with the quality movement in Europe see diversity as one of Europe’s competitive strengths in a global marketplace.
• They see a need to move beyond the old theories and practices of quality and learn ways to create breakthrough performance in organizations and corporations, because the world is changing so rapidly.
• They are focusing upon the value of intuition as a crucial leadership skill.

Both Gladwell, in his book Blink, and leaders of the organizations for quality in Europe, are focusing on how people and organizations can make the best and most effective choices, given the degree of change we are dealing with in life these days on an ongoing basis. In the world of global communications and a global economy, it is not surprising that thought leaders worldwide would focus on related themes. (On a personal note, I wish to thank Malcolm Gladwell and the people I met in Europe for their brilliant focus on the gifts and the skills of intuition. I came home from Europe feeling that an old battle between my parents—about logic versus intuition—is finally over.)

Whatever the terminology, “thin slicing” or intuition, Gladwell and the leaders of organizations for quality in Europe would agree that people develop these skills. Like any skill, some people are innately better at them than are others. These are skills worth learning.

It seems timely for diversity professionals, especially those who consider themselves change agents, to be up to speed on this current discussion, and to explore, learn and teach the skills of “thin slicing” and intuition. In this way we can minimize the dangers and maximize their enormous benefits. We can support people to avoid prejudice, build creativity, and use our human capacity to make snap judgments in the most positive way. This is a great time to focus on a topic relevant to our work that people are passionately discussing in the organizational and business world. The same capacity that leads us as human beings to quick judgments and prejudices can also, when used well and responsibly, be an essential element of our creativity.