Optimism Sourced

One attractive element of Hegel is it reaches to describe that which is beyond or as yet unlanguaged or as yet unknown, un precisely described. It creates a headspace where these type of items or this way of thinking can be explored,  imagining various positions, outcomes or dynamics. There is a value in exploring and feeling those explorations, the emotions that come with those positions, outcomes, dynamics, etc. Decision making is improved when various emotions have already been explored. When they can be mined, as well, whether in oneself or in the situation. Advantageous opportunities more readily present themselves when one is prepared and can imagine a broad range of paths, actions.

APPLICATION

The practical implication of Hegel’s observation is actionable for decision making under uncertainty: emotional imagining. Before entering a high-stakes negotiation, a difficult conversation, or a consequential choice, deliberately inhabiting the emotional texture of multiple possible outcomes, including the ones you fear, prepares the prefrontal cortex to remain online when the pressure arrives. This is not positive thinking. It is pre-loading. By having already felt what it would be like to lose the deal, to be wrong, to face the unexpected outcome, those experiences lose their power to hijack the decision in the moment. The leader who has imagined broadly arrives at the decision point with a wider option set, lower cortisol, and greater capacity for adaptive response. Hegel’s unlanguaged possibility space is also the space where competitive advantage lives.