I was listening to National Public Radio yesterday and was fascinated by some of the comments made by Rachael Naomi Remen. Although many of her insights are worthy of reflection, I would like to focus on one in particular because it is so simple and so powerful.
Ms Remen made the statement that, “Objectivity is just another bias.” AND I immediately sat up and smiled. The value for objectivity is so subtly and pervasively inserted in virtually all professions and professional education and training that we forget to question its limitations. The value for objectivity becomes another one of those voices in our heads that limit our willingness to trust our hearts to guide our choices in conversations and decision-making.
Somehow, in seeing objectivity as a marker of good judgment and defensible decisions, we disconnect from the fact that humans are not capable of objectivity. Each of us perceives our world from our unique set of personal filters, heart sensitivities, and experiences. The irony is that, in trying to make decisions that serve the greatest good, we fail to recognize the limitations of the bias for objectivity and disconnect from the heart.
If we were to focus on perspective over objectivity, we might be more conscious of our own personal attachments and judgments in a way that allows us to make truer choices. The illusion that we are removing personal bias when we shift decisions from our hearts to our heads, to things that can be counted and verified, as if our own values and personal desires were somehow useless is harmful. We are creating workplaces filled with personal power games and politics, where individual insights and voices are trampled by those unconscious participants who believe themselves to be objective, or at least proclaim that they are.
What could happen if we consciously choose to let our hearts guide the ways we respond to others’ ideas and recommendations? What could we create together if our personal values and value for the success of all colored our choices AND we acknowledged the bias of those values?
Our conversations might become rich again with the texture of individual voices, less engaged in pretense, and more able to take a stand for personal biases. Perspective would come from recognizing where our own biases are driving choices that do not bring out the best in ourselves or others, and therefore in the work we do in the world. If we acknowledged that we have biases, we might be less threatened by them and more open to learning about how others have biases different from our own. AND we would shift the balance of value towards heart insights and perspective and away from (head) illusions of objectivity.
AND we would at least be telling ourselves the truth about what is possible!
