This piece might seem like a leap, but there's a lot of value in conceptual and thematic learning across all kinds of experiences so, bear with me as I bring it home.   



I met some family for brunch last weekend and we usually have dim sum or Taiwanese breakfast (this is a good visual, if you’re curious).  

So, I was very confused when they told me we were meeting at a German restaurant.  Granted, it’s a spot they like, but still out of left field.

The reason being, some of my family wanted to stay away from Chinatown and Chinese restaurants because of Coronavirus Disease, despite there being no correlation between getting sick and a Chinese restaurant.

They just called it coronavirus so, I shared what I learned just a few weeks ago that coronaviruses are a family of viruses (e.g. the common cold, SARS, MERS, etc.).  The one we’re now worried about is COVID-19, aka Coronavirus Disease, aka novel coronavirus outbreak, which is just very confusing branding.  This was all news to my family.

When I dug into why they were fine going to other public spaces, but not one with more Chinese people, they were quick to defend that they weren’t discriminating.  Though they couldn’t articulate their reasoning beyond being safe and the outbreak originating from China.  

But what about the Level 3 alert in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan as well as community transmission becoming a bigger issue?  Would they avoid all those restaurants and going outside altogether?

There’s no clear right or wrong, but with the reports of Chinatowns and East Asian businesses all over the globe suffering huge economic losses and the spread of xenophobia, if Chinese people are nervous about going to Chinatown, what chance do these businesses have of surviving this downturn?

Not to mention the ripple effects are vast… lost wages and jobs for employees, families who’ll struggle to pay rent, suppliers who are hit by the decreased demand, etc.

As the outbreak spreads, caution is certainly necessary and the economic impact will grow, but if the connection drawn is that the disease started in China and thus we’re going to avoid large groups of Chinese people (but still go to other public places), that negatively impacts the common good of our society as well as the individual interest of protecting our health.  

Fear on all levels can fuel a variety of responses.  Our concerns may not be irrational, as in the case of a serious health crisis.  But our instinctual yet unevaluated fight-flight-freeze responses to our concerns sometimes can be.

This applies whether we’re talking about global health concerns, government elections, racial biases, or our everyday lives.

I imagine most of us would say we’re critical thinkers and have a level of discernment in processing information and experiences.  But the issue isn’t with our abilities.  It’s with our deployment of that ability on a consistent basis to clearly evaluate the inputs that come at us.

It’s so easy to receive misinformation and misunderstand these days.  Especially when it spreads so effectively, when we have more access to more info than we know what to do with, when we’re feeling crunched for time from all angles, and when our to do lists never stop growing.

The amount of time we give to distinguishing facts from fiction and seeing the forest for the trees is quickly sacrificed… often subconsciously… in service of speed and efficiency.

Plus, the info we need to discern doesn’t only come from external inputs.  Our thoughts, feelings, fears, wants, frustrations, etc. all contribute to our decision making.  Making sense of this stimuli takes time and energy, which are limited resources.  It becomes overwhelming very quickly.

So, we look for shortcuts.  Like cutting out Chinese restaurants and Chinatown visits.  Like voting along party lines or with popular opinion.  Like being wary of certain ethnic groups.  Like “following our gut.”

But if we don’t do the due diligence before making our decisions, the quality of that decision is inherently impacted.

I read something recently that resonated... we can come to a good decision in a bad way.  Because decisions in a vacuum are not clearly good or bad.  The good or bad can only be measured in the context of what we were trying to achieve, which is directly correlated to how well we understand the problem.

With Coronavirus Disease, the side effects are far more visible because people are sick or dying and economies are suffering.  The due diligence is more straightforward as we can educate ourselves from trusted sources and identify clear actions to take. 

We could avoid handshakes and hugs.  We could ask each business if anyone on their staff has traveled abroad recently, especially China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and Japan.  We could also ask that of each person we meet.  Or we could stay at home.

But with our lives, the effects are often more subtle and harder to measure.  And the due diligence we have to do is with ourselves. 

Thinking we want A to solve B without fully understanding B, determining why we want A, researching A, and pressure testing A, we may not actually solve B at all.

E.g. Are we leaving our company because we didn’t get the promotion and want a job at the next level?  Or is it also because we didn’t feel appreciated, our skills weren’t being leveraged in a meaningful way, we didn’t have opportunities to showcase growth, our manager didn’t have our back, we know we could make more elsewhere, and so we need to find a place that will give us all those qualities?

In doing our due diligence, it doesn’t mean that everything will work out as hoped, or that we can prevent certain outcomes.  But it does mean that we’ll have a clearer understanding of the problem we’re dealing with as well as the key factors affecting that problem, and thus be equipped to come up with a more effective solution.

The key to making a good decision is not in the choice itself, but rather the work we put in to get there.  The decision is usually quite obvious and even easy if we’ve invested in the upfront due diligence.

The next time we’re trying to make a big decision and find ourselves jumping to a seemingly clear conclusion, consider…

1. What’s the core pain point or problem I’m dealing with?

2. What are the factors affecting it?

3. Does my conclusion solve my core problem?

(Hint: Dig at least 3-5 levels beyond the surface, depending on the complexity of the problem.  Our first reaction likely isn’t the core problem so, asking "why" a few times over helps to clarify.  If this doesn’t make sense, email me and I’d be happy to walk you through it.)

🙏,

Pam