Seeing is NOT Always Believing

The recent sighting of a suspected missile launched off southern California created a brief news sensation and brings up an interesting crisis management point to examine—seeing is not always believing.  On November 8, 2010 a Los Angeles based airborne helicopter news crew videotaped what appeared to be and was described as a missile plume and be object climbing in the late afternoon western sky.

Here's my initial reaction to it:  http://video.foxnews.com/v/4411459/

But was it really a missile? This unusual visual imagery captured by this excited crew caused many to believe a large missile was being fired up into the sky. When organizations, particularly US government agencies, began to deny any responsibility, awareness or confirmation of the event as a missile the news media and some of the public were more than doubtful. Conspiracy theories began to build because “seeing is believing”—a natural human condition.

But as facts became known it was finally described as an optical illusion created by the atmospherics that day of a high flying aircraft though not specifically confirmed due to inability by anyone to exactly pinpoint the time and location to correlate it to known flights. But by process of elimination it could not have been anything else.

How does this happen? The human body has a set of senses critical to its central nervous system. This sensory system is normally made up of vision, hearing, taste, smell, feel [touch], balance & acceleration, temperature, pain, direction, kinesthetic sense, and other inner senses. For most of us, sight is often the strongest of these senses in sending messages to our brains that make us believe what we see. We know we can be tricked in other ways so we sometimes hold a healthy skeptical view of what we hear or even read but seeing real life events happen before our eyes – even on video – almost always gives us an overpowering sense of believing it must be real. But optical illusions can and do happen in everything.

As a pilot, I was taught to trust my instruments when flying jet aircraft because the sensations in my inner ear can convince my brain of something untrue as well as visual references that make me think I know which way up is or where the horizon is when they are visual illusions. When there is no horizon for a pilot, as when it’s pitch black or inside clouds, we’re taught to focus on with a practiced “scan” and accept the readings of our instruments as fact—a sophisticated form of fact checking by believing your instruments instead of what your eyes and other senses might have your brain believe.  Sometimes it is a tough thing to do.

But this skill kept me alive many times over my years as an aviator. It also became evident to me that the same held true in much of life—you can’t always believe what you see. I now know this applies in business as well. Recognition of this phenomenon in business is equally important as situations develop rapidly and demand quick reactions. But it is imperative not to make snap judgments unless you believe in the “strategies of hope."

The object lesson is to realize, especially in stressful situations that arise in crises, one has to have a minimum of facts to verify what is seen to go beyond the ‘belief’ into the ‘actual.’ One has to take the time to get it right even if it means disregarding your strongest sense, sight. One of the things I learned many times as a senior military leader is the first report is invariably wrong—certainly not fully informed. Taking the time to verify even a few facts is critical to override the senses that tell the brain to believe what you see. Having enough data to base a decision is always important but one must be cognizant to demand facts before jumping to belief based only on sight.

Here are some tips that can help the manager faced with a case of “seeing is believing:”

1.    Intentionally under-react to a stressful situation – recognize the adrenaline rush under stress can cause snap judgment, e.g. “I saw it so it must be true.”

2.    Tell yourself that what you saw is just like the first report delivered from a subordinate – there must be more to the story than what met the eye.

3.    Ask good questions – even if you were the only one to have seen it [the event], somebody else knows something about it.

4.    Resist the natural temptation to jump on the conclusion your eyes [may have] tricked your brain into believing as fact.

Certainly initial impressions are important for an eye witness and should guide a line of questioning.  One cannot dismiss the apparent obvious but it must be verified with enough data to ensure your senses do not lead you to a wrong conclusion, decision, or belief.  Doing this will reduce the number of later regrets and make you a better manager, a better leader and a more successful executive.