Managers and the evaluation process: better to suspend or review judgement?

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been devoted to the need to increase one's degree of awareness and self-awareness of the implicit mechanisms involved in everyday life so as not to fall victim to biases or prejudices in work contexts, which risk making our decisions the result of opinions and not just rational reasoning.

There has been a growing interest in nurturing, enhancing and consolidating the ability of managers to evaluate without being influenced by their own reading patterns, their own personal and subjective point of view, their own opinions. In practice, by what we can call subjective judgement.

For a long time, many disciplines have been trying to tackle the issue of judgement, trying to construct theories and strategies to escape from the tight meshes in which first impressions harness our ability to read reality.

They all have one thing in common, a clear and definite stance that leaves no room for misunderstanding: judgement must be suspended.

This statement might seem axiomatic: if I want to establish or maintain healthy, respectful and authentic relationships with the people around me and in my working environment, curbing the tendency to judge is precisely the key ingredient to be able to avoid hasty opinions and instinctive evaluations.

But is it really possible to put this principle into practice?

During the selection of a candidate we meet for the first time, when faced with an unexpected comment made by a co-worker, when faced with a colleague who reacts in an unexpected way... are we really capable of not formulating an opinion right away?

The answer is no. Judging quickly and on the basis of first impressions is inevitable.

We are biologically and constantly conditioned by mental mechanisms and neural pathways of which we are not fully aware and which are beyond our control: they are fast, uncontrollable and we often only realise they are there long after we have formulated them.

But they are not to be avoided or demonised: rather, they are to be regarded as the shortcuts that have always accompanied us and helped us to navigate the complexity of the world.

Eliminating them altogether also means losing the ability to quickly recognise intricate situations, make quick decisions and react accordingly.

Judgement is a natural reflex intertwined with the functioning of human nature that is unavoidable. When we say "I suspend judgement..." it is actually because we have already made a judgement.

Why not try then to be accompanied by a different skill: knowing how to change perspective.

The value lies not in merely suspending judgement, but in going beyond and training oneself to review and modify it, bearing in mind that one's opinion is nothing more than a partial snapshot taken in a given context and moment.

Having cognitive flexibility, open-mindedness and a willingness to be convinced in new ways are the key elements to be able to juggle in a changing world and among people who do the same.

What to do then?

It becomes crucial for a manager to enhance this capacity by learning to:

- Knowing how to go back on one's evaluations

- Realising that one can enrich already formulated hypotheses with new elements

- Making room for novelty and listening

How to do it?

Use some useful questions to trigger them to revise their opinions and remove pre-assigned labels.

- On what elements did I base my first impression?

- What might I have missed or underestimated?

- How would my assessment change if I looked at the situation from a different point of view?

- Am I willing to change my opinion in the light of new data?

Subjective judgement and opinions are natural elements, not to be feared but to be used without being trapped by them.

The ability to change one's mind and to be able to adapt one's beliefs to the changing context is not a sign of weakness, but of intelligence. Instead of aspiring to suspend judgement, we learn to review our judgements, again and again, from new and different perspectives.

*Bbsette Consultant - Consulting, Training and Professional Games.