Certainty is irrational

In his book On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, author Robert A. Burton made the point that:

Certainty is neither a conscious choice nor even a thought process. That unmistakable sense of certainty arises out of involuntary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently of reason.

This is something for business leaders to be mindful of. To embrace the fact that many of the decisions they make, and those made by their people, suppliers and customers, are not rooted in pure logic and reason.

Often, logic and reason are employed retrospectively to justify or counter a decision that was made irrationally.

This is part of how businesses can wake up to their humanity and become more real. There’s already a lot of talk about the concept of love in marketing, branding and workplace culture. There’s also increasingly more talk about about negative emotions and personality defects in the workplace - such as bullying and socio/psychopathic behaviour.

Burton goes on to conclude:

We can’t afford to continue with the outdated claims of a perfectly rational unconscious or knowing when we can trust gut feelings.

Perhaps at the end of the day, we need to embrace who we are, do the best we can with what we have, and keep moving forward.

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