Behind every problem and opportunity lies a human one.

It’s so easy to get lost in the jargon, in the business speak, in the latest shiny technology.

Which makes it so easy to miss, the thing right in front, hidden in plain sight:

It’s people who start companies. It’s people who decide their fate. It’s to people we must always return.

Nothing really makes sense unless you embrace the messy, seemingly illogical, gloriously diverse thing it is to be a human. 

Unless you understand how we think, feel and behave, in isolation, but most importantly when we are together.

Nothing can ever really change.

So always start there, strip it back.

Ask: What’s really going on? What’s the real why? What’s the real story? 

Don’t just see the person, see the cognitive biases that shape them.

The consistency or belief bias that binds their thinking in a particular place, that makes it hard for them to see another way.

The overconfidence bias that makes them more likely to think they are right, even when they may not be.

Our inherent optimism bias, where we tend to overestimate our abilities and underestimate the challenges we actually face.

Don’t just see the collective, see the way they think.

The false consensus bias, that tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs or opinions, leading to assumptions about others' thoughts and feelings that may not be true.

The bias towards the status quo, our desire for things to remain the same, even when there is a better alternative.

The planning fallacy, where we consistently underestimate how long it will take to do something.

And lastly the hindsight bias, that tendency to look back on past events and think that we would have been able to predict them.

So we think we can predict the future much better than we can.

P.s. The picture includes two very important humans: Amelie, my wife and Maj my mother-in-law and a very important dog called Harry.