I’m brilliant me (and so is my work)
By now, you’ve probably heard of the Dunning Kruger effect – the strange phenomenon by which those least good at a particular task evaluate themselves better than their better performing peers. I’ve spotted at least half a dozen mentions in the last few months in various places, on and offline.
I’ve used it to quickly sort out the competence levels of individuals in a team I’ve been parachuted into or am supporting or consulting to (sometimes by coming out and asking appropriate questions and sometimes just by listening really really carefully…).
Some people are dismayed that really competent people don’t rate themselves top notch, but maybe that’s because the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
Unfortunately, a similar phenomenon is found in how we value our own work (compared to that of others). It’s only natural – it seems – to overate the value of your own efforts and the possibility of your own success (unless that is you are clinically depressed, in which case you are likely to have a more realistic view of our work, its prospects and its historical impact).
Today I came across this marvellous example of how badly we are biased towards the efficacy of our own efforts. Galen, the 2nd century physician supreme of Imperial Rome wasn’t one to bother testing the efficacy of his own medical interventions – why bother when you just know you’re right? Looking back on his patients’ outcomes, he observes
“All who drink of this treatment recover in a short time, except those whose it does not help, who all die…it is obvious therefore, that it fails only in incurable cases” *
Ask yourself: are you a Galen, too? Are the decisions you and your colleagues make Galen-ish? Do you know what the results of your actions are? Or, do you just tell yourself that the successes are the result of what you do?
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