Parallax perspective: assume there is always more.
technique — attributed to Dr. Wayne Pernell
Pernell's countermeasure to perceptual bias is what he calls parallax perspective. Deliberately state to yourself: I do not have the entire picture. I know what I know, but I assume there is more. Pernell is typically anti-assumption, and this is his one deviation from that rule. Assume there is more; there is always more. The discipline is operational. The decision-maker who internalizes this stays open to information that would otherwise be filtered out. The decision-maker who does not closes off the inputs that could improve the decision. The shift is small in form (one mental statement before the decision) and consequential in effect (the door stays open to new information).
For leaders, decision-makers, and coaches helping clients address their own biases. The technique is most useful as a pre-decision practice when the decision has high stakes and limited reversibility.
parallax-perspective, assumption, more, deliberate-shift