Blink - The power of Thinking without Thinking

SUMMARY

Have you ever wondered how some of the quick decisions taken turn out to be the best? Blink provides an insight into understanding the conscious (slow) and unconscious (quick)components of our thinking. It also provides tools to harness the power of our unconscious (quick thinking) and help us take the best decisions in the least possible time.

Key Insights

Your thinking has an unconscious part that takes the quicker, instinctive decisions.

Our thinking has two parts. One is the conscious part that deliberates and takes decisions. The other is the unconscious part that takes hundreds of quick decisions daily. It is the unconscious part that helped our ancestors stay alive millions of years back by them taking an instinctive decision to run when faced with adversity. We are hence genetically wired to make quick decisions.

Some modern-day examples of unconscious thinking:

• Decided to go ahead with the assumption made by a senior sales leader, in a corporate planning meeting.
• Deciding on a candidate’s suitability for a role within the first 60 seconds of the interview.
• Deciding on what the right price should be when negotiating in a second-hand car sales showroom.

There are reasons behind the decisions taken by the unconscious part.

Expanding on the examples above:

• Deciding to go ahead with the assumption made by a senior sales leader, in a corporate planning meeting: What if there was no debate because it was assumed that a senior leader would always make the right assumption?
• Deciding on a candidate’s suitability for the role within the first 60 seconds of the interview: What if the best candidates display a common set of traits in the first 60 seconds of an interview and hence get hired?
• Deciding on what the right price should be when negotiating in a second-hand car sales showroom. What if we overpaid for a car because we had a tall, articulate salesman in the car?

With an understanding of the reasons we can take better decisions by replacing our unconscious thinking with conscious thinking or teaching our unconscious part to “thin slice”.

Conscious thinking deliberates and weighs pros and cons prior to making a decision. “Thin slicing” is the ability to make quick decisions with minimal amounts of real-time information. In the above examples:

• Business meetings: “thin slice” by coming prepared to the meeting with an understanding of the past track record of the accuracy of a leader’s assumptions. You can hence take a quick decision on agreeing/disagreeing with the assumption made by the leader in the meeting.
• Interviewing candidates:

1.     Replace unconscious thinking with conscious thinking by giving adequate weightage to a candidate’s prior track record and not relying fully on his/her performance in the interview.

2.    “Thin slice” by developing a checklist of what counts for a good first impression in a candidate (punctuality, a firm handshake, confidence, etc.)

•  Purchasing a second-hand car: Replace unconscious thinking with conscious thinking by ensuring that you ignore the initial price quoted especially if the salesman is tall and articulate.

Conclusion: Reading this book will boost self-awareness and help find the right balance between analytical and instinctive decision-making.