Your Memory is Lossy, Avoid Getting Anchored by the Past

I have seen too many people making the wrong decision making because their decision making is anchored by their memories of past experiences. What most people don’t realize is that everyone’s memory is lossy, it’s not the reality and it will never be since it’s in the past. This is not saying that we should just discard everything that we learned, rather understand this concept so that we can make a better and informed decision making.

Firstly, let me explain this lossy memory concept. Have you ever go to a car show or walk on the street and look at a really cool car? Let’s just say that it’s a Lamborghini Aventador, you look at it for 5 minutes and you think that it’s a really cool car. Then you walk away and look at something else. If I ask you to describe the car, did you remember every single detail? Sure you remember the feeling impressed by the car and thinking that it’s a really fast car. However, did you really remember what’s the ground clearance, seating position, steering wheel position and so on? I don’t think many people can remember that much. This is because our memory is lossy.

Since I have a technical background, I think of our memory as jpeg compression. Every time you recall a memory, you lose some details and overwrite the original. There is so much noise. Another example is that if I recall what my late grandfather looks like, I can remember the general features and I can remember the feeling of being with him in the past. However, there is no way I can recall every single detail of him. In fact, I believe some of the details that I remembered now might have been recreated by my brain from pictures of him that I have looked at.

What’s this to do with leadership?

Too many times I have seen people made a leadership decision based on their past experiences. As an example: just because a leader has had a dysfunctional team in his/her previous workplace, doesn’t mean that the new team that they are handling should be treated the same way. In fact, this new team might be much more advanced and by handling them like amateurs, this leader is making things go down the wrong way.

Let’s avoid saying “in my previous place… we did… therefore let’s do the same…”

No, take what you learned with a grain of salt and evolve. Your memory is lossy, be selective and use the good information to create a great experience for your team. With every step you take forward, your former is superseded so don’t let the past anchor you and your team.