We hope that people have a shared vision of how things are working and should work in our businesses, families and other organizations. People perceive the world through their five senses and interpret what they perceive based on their experiences and trained ways of thinking. Given this, it becomes obvious that everyone probably perceives the world differently. Therefore we have, in real world organizations, multiple people with multiple perspectives thinking about multiple things. Do we all agree what the company should do to be "successful" in the future? Does everyone in your family agree what is most important for "the family"?

Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline showed us how humans typically think about isolated events – in terms of "how did they react to what I did?" We think that their behavior can be explained solely as a response to what I said, and not by the hundred other influences on their mood, mentality, concern, education, etc. We tend to see situations is terms of linear cause-effect thinking. Presuming that what we can immediately see as the cause is truly the cause, not taking into account other factors or delays in the system.

Click here to see what we do at the Institute for Strategic Clarity to intervene in this same decision making process to strengthen the decision makers ability to understand and make decisions within complex environments.