How, Not What, You Think

Have you ever walked around MoMA or the Louvre Museum gazing at the wonderful art? There are some paintings you adore, and you fully understand their worth. Then, there are some you examine and know are priceless, but you can’t really understand why. But if you have a tour guide who is sharing his/her knowledge, explaining “the why and how” of these paintings, then you can become more convinced. The explanation matters. But unless we hear how the person thinks, changing our minds can be just about impossible. 

NFL teams host a series of meetings each spring to align their draft boards in perfect order. Each wants to make it a work of art with priceless precision. They allow the evaluators to state their case and make arguments for or against a player's positioning. The room can become heated as everyone feels strongly about his/her opinions, believing they are correct. In those meetings, people attack the result. Interactions can move from professional to personal very quickly. Because there is no tour guide in NFL draft rooms or any organization when deciding on hiring talent, the “how” never gets explained — or even asked. 

What separates the NFL scout, the art fan and the HR person in organizations from the art historian? Simple, art historians can explain “how they think,” not just why.  You might not agree that a painting is beautiful or priceless, but you cannot argue with how the art historian reached his/her conclusion. Explaining the “how” moves us from giving an opinion to becoming an expert. 

It’s more important for us to understand how we think about a decision than what we think — the how explains the details, with facts. What we think is too narrow, too flimsy and not rooted in anything other than our personal judgment. 

Next time you’re in a meeting discussing a decision, let’s not ask what the person thinks; let’s ask them how they think. We’ll make better decisions and ultimately have fewer useless disagreements.