Bonded Awareness Analysis

In chapter 4, the topic of discussion centered around a concept called bonded awareness. The main theme in the chapter was that we choose to ignore certain things, or become complacent and ignore those things just as much. We tend to ignore the obvious, and think what we want to think about a certain situation. We must examine all the details of a problem or situation, and come to a conclusion that meets our requirements. Bounded awareness takes on many forms, and will affect our judgment or decisions about important items.
A few of the forms are Intentional blindness, Change blindness, and focalism and the focusing illusion. Intentional blindness is our inability to notice certain obvious things about a situation. When we are told to

look for certain items in a video, and there are several other items that would be obvious that are missed, that is intentional blindness. It is the feeling that we should ignore things that are irrelevant to the situation, because we are told to look for certain items. I find that interesting that people fall for this, we should always be aware of what is around us, but it is easy to ignore things that are deemed less important.
Change blindness is when we miss an obvious event because we are so focused on the task at hand that we cannot see other events happening around us. The example of the basketball being taken from the person is such a great experiment. Often times, we are so hyper focused on what we are doing that we cannot direct our attention elsewhere. A good example would be using a GPS in a car. We are so focused on it telling us where to go that we fail to realize we are actually driving a car and we need to pay attention. Again, we need to be aware of our surroundings at all times.
The third area is focalism and the focusing illusion. A great example was that we overestimate the wins and losses of a sports team that we follow closely. It is our tendency to think we know the outcome before it actually happens. It is when we make a judgement on a particular item, but limit the amount of information we use to make that judgment. I think this could be the most common form of bounded awareness. We often hear, and see what we want to, and will make quick decisions based on a limited set of facts. I think of this as thinking what we want to think over what the facts actually say.
Bounded awareness in groups is interesting as well. This is where we make decisions based on more than one idea. Often times the group has more exposure to information that leads them down a path to a better solution. I think of this as a manager relying on his or her team to get a job done, and enabling them to do it by utilizing everyone’s thoughts.
Overall, this chapter provided some good insight into how we see what we want to, and base decisions on what we think is all the relevant information. The flaw in that thinking is that we are predisposed to ignoring information, and more so when we become distracted. We need to focus on the facts, utilize groups if needed, focus on the outcome the facts dictate, and be aware of our surroundings. I find it difficult to take all this information in, and have fallen victim to this type of thinking. Judgement calls will be made in management, but we must base our decisions on knowledge of specific events, and contexts. This will help us avoid the problems that can come from this lack of awareness. Perhaps the Madoff scandal would have never happened if people based the decisions on factual information over what someone was telling them is right.