We have an innate negativity bias. Our ancestors survived, in part, because of their ability to spot inconsistencies. Our sense-making, automatic brain is excellent at spotting patterns, and inconsistencies in those patterns. This happens before our conscious brain is even made “aware”. This means that, most of the time, we can’t stop ourselves spotting mistakes. Therefore we have to look a little harder at our world to spot excellence. This bias may have helped our ancestors survive, but it is probably not helpful for our organisations. It takes a slight, but significant, change of mindset to start actively noticing excellence to the point where we can capture it.
So, I urge you to take the plunge and start looking intently for excellence. When you see it (and you will!), please take the time to inform the individual or team who performed it.
