If your manager cancels a one-on-one, does your thought process go straight to their lack of support and interest in your development? If your co-worker asks you to participate in a project; do you assume they are trying to get out of doing the work themselves? If you have answered yes; you are certanly not alone.
When things don’t turn out as we hoped, there is a natural tendency to assume the worst and interpret a situation to confirm our beliefs.
Despite our natural state of ‘thinking the worst’, the conclusions that we jump to when things go wrong are usually not true. The boss was no doubt called to an urgent business matter and your co-worker probably invited you to the project because they valued your experience and ability to think outside of the box.
Our minds tend to assume the worst in scenarios, and this confirms our belief structure and forms patterns in events that do not exist. It is important to look beyond our personal narrative and consider the communication from the other person’s perspective. Assuming a ‘neutral state’ and adopting a mental model such as Hanlon’s razor can be effective in building more harmony in the workplace.
Robert J Hanlon devised a theory that you should “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence or stupidity”. Hanlon believes that not all bad things happen because people have bad intentions, but because they didn’t think through the intent and effect.
Hanlon’s razor states that if someone acts in a way that affects you negatively, it’s not necessarily because they have bad intentions towards you, or mean you harm, more likely (depending on the person and the situation) they’re simply:
For example:
If a peer is constantly interrupting you when you are trying to meet an urgent deadline, it’s unlikely that they’re trying to sabotage your efforts and want to see you fail, they probably just lack the self-awareness to know how annoying and distracting they’re being.
In philosophy, a razor is a principle or a rule of thumb, that allows for the elimination (the 'shaving off') of unlikely explanations for a phenomenon.
A philosophical razor is not an unbreakable law or rule, it is not always right 100% of the time, but it is right more often than not, and is therefore a useful mental shortcut that allows you to make decisions and solve problems quicker and easier.
When we apply Hanlon’s razor and combine it with other mental models, it can be effective in combating the cognitive bias at play every day. Hanlon wants us to approach scenarios with curiosity and explore causes other than malice.
Cognitive bias is within all of us and it works to influence how we see the world, what decisions we make, and what judgements we apply. Cognitive bias may be common, but it is detrimental to productive and healthy relationships. When we are only able to see things from our own perspective, the risk for illogical actions and decisions is high.
The following are three common types of cognitive bias:
Confirmation bias is the natural tendency to seek information that confirms a pre-existing belief, where the desire to be right overcomes the intent to find the truth. In this scenario, when information presents itself that contradicts our belief we reject it and instead seek information that supports our view. For example, if you believe your boss cancels one-on-ones because they don’t value you, there will be a tendency to look for evidence that this is correct. Adopting Hanlon’s razor mindset works to combat this bias and actively look for other possibilities.
Recency bias is where we apply mental shortcuts to past experiences based on what is easy to recall. This saves us forming new opinions on every scenario; however it means that there is a natural bias toward recent events. For example, a manager may use this bias when applying a performance rating by recalling recent information rather than the whole performance picture. This bias can lead to poor performance reviews based on not meeting last month’s sales targets as opposed to reviewing the full performance period. Hanlon’s razor assists in challenging the negative mindset and looking at performance history objectively and with curiosity.
The Halo/Horn bias occurs when we like or dislike someone – we seek information in every interaction to confirm our beliefs about them. For instance, when someone that we like is late to a meeting, we assume there is a reasonable explanation, but when someone we dislike does the same, we are more likely to conclude that they are lazy or incompetent. The Hanlon’s razor mindset encourages us to assume that there is a logical explanation – before we make assumptions.
At work, the application of mental models such as Hanlon’s razor provide us with the tools to challenge our own thinking and reduce the scenarios that provide frustration and angst in the workplace. Hanlon’s razor encourages us to take a breath and assume miscommunication over malice.
Next time you find yourself frustrated at a co-worker, take a moment to reflect before responding. Ask yourself:
Adopting Hanlon’s razor as part of your mental model toolkit can be very effective, however it is always important to put a co-worker’s behaviour into context which considers evidence, past behaviour and intent. Next time a team member misses a deadline; before defaulting to assuming malice, challenge yourself to approach the situation with curiosity and an intent to focus on the solution as opposed to the problem.
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Georgina is Senior HR Content Editor – Publications at Ai Group. She is an accomplished Human Resource professional with over 25 years of generalist and leadership experience in a broad range of industries including financial services, tourism, travel, government and agriculture. She has successfully advised and partnered with senior leaders to implement people and performance initiatives that align to business strategy. Georgina is committed to utilising her experience to create resources that educate and engage and is passionate about supporting members to optimise an inclusive workforce culture that drives performance.
