The saying goes that first impressions are always right. I am not so sure. Making snap and particularly critical judgements of people and situations in professional or social life can be misleading or unjustified, is sometimes poor manners and can often be a waste of energy. As the old English saying goes“Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”
Take an example from leisure activities. I do quite a lot of sailing. The most dangerous times on a yacht are in reality when you are out at sea and something goes wrong, an unexpected storm, the boat starts leaking (that has happened to me) a fire or somebody is taken ill. Yet the most embarrassing times are when you mess up mooring once you have safely reached a harbour. Sailing boats have one propeller, don’t like going backwards and have a tendency to “prop walk” – that is pull the stern to one side depending on which way the propeller turns. In general, they have a propensity to be a right pain when trying to reverse into a tight mooring in a marina or picking up a buoy in an anchorage.
Yet once you are safely and securely moored and heave a sigh of relief I have seen people on another yacht actually stay on their boat and spend the next hour or so watching newcomers arrive and criticising their technique or even laughing at them when they make mistakes and miss the buoy or drop a line – making a snap judgement about their competence and readily forgetting that it’s not easy and that “There but for the grace of God go I”.
Apart from anything else this sort of behaviour is a waste of time, when you might be getting away from your boat on the nearest beach or enjoying a beer or a gin and tonic assure in the nearest bar.
Similarly, if you walk into a negotiation and get an impression the other side is either a push over or impossible to deal with, that could be wrong and may prejudice your ability to obtain the best deal. This article from Harvard Business Schoolentitled How Snap Judgments Can Lead Bargainers Astray In Negotiations says that New research shows that our stereotypes about other people’s warmth and competence often mar our decisions and behavior in negotiations and discusses the dangers of “Putting people in boxes.”
Apart from anything else as a professional person making snap decision about a client or patient based first impressions can be utterly wrong. I now deliberately try to avoid arriving at a definitive legal decision too quickly by, for example, waiting for a day before providing advice, assuming this is possible in the context of the transaction.
Winston Churchill commented that Hasty work and premature decisions may lead to penalties out of all proportion to the issues involved.
So as Sophocles said quick decisions are unsafe decisions. So as the American author David J. Lieberman suggests The next time you make a snap judgment about a situation, take a few moments to understand an opposing viewpoint.
Take an example from leisure activities. I do quite a lot of sailing. The most dangerous times on a yacht are in reality when you are out at sea and something goes wrong, an unexpected storm, the boat starts leaking (that has happened to me) a fire or somebody is taken ill. Yet the most embarrassing times are when you mess up mooring once you have safely reached a harbour. Sailing boats have one propeller, don’t like going backwards and have a tendency to “prop walk” – that is pull the stern to one side depending on which way the propeller turns. In general, they have a propensity to be a right pain when trying to reverse into a tight mooring in a marina or picking up a buoy in an anchorage.
Yet once you are safely and securely moored and heave a sigh of relief I have seen people on another yacht actually stay on their boat and spend the next hour or so watching newcomers arrive and criticising their technique or even laughing at them when they make mistakes and miss the buoy or drop a line – making a snap judgement about their competence and readily forgetting that it’s not easy and that “There but for the grace of God go I”.
Apart from anything else this sort of behaviour is a waste of time, when you might be getting away from your boat on the nearest beach or enjoying a beer or a gin and tonic assure in the nearest bar.
Similarly, if you walk into a negotiation and get an impression the other side is either a push over or impossible to deal with, that could be wrong and may prejudice your ability to obtain the best deal. This article from Harvard Business Schoolentitled How Snap Judgments Can Lead Bargainers Astray In Negotiations says that New research shows that our stereotypes about other people’s warmth and competence often mar our decisions and behavior in negotiations and discusses the dangers of “Putting people in boxes.”
Apart from anything else as a professional person making snap decision about a client or patient based first impressions can be utterly wrong. I now deliberately try to avoid arriving at a definitive legal decision too quickly by, for example, waiting for a day before providing advice, assuming this is possible in the context of the transaction.
Winston Churchill commented that Hasty work and premature decisions may lead to penalties out of all proportion to the issues involved.
So as Sophocles said quick decisions are unsafe decisions. So as the American author David J. Lieberman suggests The next time you make a snap judgment about a situation, take a few moments to understand an opposing viewpoint.
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