We believe this initial observation could help the user, when faced with a new problem, to leverage the confusion matrix and develop a relevant initiative strategy as it brings light to WHAT to focus on. This is the description of the skills at work.įinally, a low perceptual and low behavioral confusion would signify starting to find an early and initial best path for developing a question, a purpose or a practice this represents the first steps of the journey. This is the best description of your ambition.Ī high perceptual and low behavioral confusion would require the practice to be clarified with regards to execution of the situation and role. Similarly, low perceptual and high behavioral confusion would encourage considering the purpose and mission (reason for being) as well as vision (destination to reach) and all matters associated with governance and situation management. This is the “spot on” formulation of your big question. We concluded that high perceptual and high behavioral confusion could lead to clearly articulating and formulating the relevant question-the question that captures the essential issue at stake and its implications. We posited a matrix to help better understand the dimensions of confusion-that is, WHAT is at stake in different situations given differences in understanding (perceptual) and course of action (behavioral).

Clear reasoning to avoid fallacies when devising a solution.

… or ability to see ourselves clearly or see how others see us.

Self-management and ability to control one’s emotions to manage the issue ….

Skills, comfort, or know-how to address the issue.

Precision to identify or label the issue.

Awareness, knowledge, or exposure to understand the issue.

WHY do people become confused? Most of the reasons boil down to something being missing-a lack of: Most of us don’t think much about the concept of confusion, and the people we asked couldn't come up with any positive examples.įrank and Philip came up with a technical definition of “confusion”: a lack of understanding (perceptual) of the situation and/or of the course of action (behavioral) to act upon it.įollowing from that definition, my conversation with Frank and Philip proceeded, as conversations among academics (even converted ones like myself) often do, according to the classic questions: Why, What, Where, and How. An informal survey of our colleagues and clients revealed that we tend to think of confusion simply as a negative attribute, something that causes harm or discomfort.

Contending with confusion is a kind of intellectual weightlifting, which fosters learning and confidence.Īnd yet, few of us think about confusion in these positive or beneficial ways.

Wrestling with confusion can facilitate the improvement of our operational or management processes.

Getting more comfortable with confusion can reduce the “panic button” reflex.

Working to clarify confusion may help us to reduce our anxiety about the situation we find ourselves in.Confusion can force us to adapt or change our methods, ideas, or conceptions, which can lead to growth.This being the case, it can be seen as a criminal abridgement of a person's rights willfully to keep him in ignorance of any facts - no piece can be judged inadmissible, for the more stones, both bright and dark, that are added to the mosaic, the clearer is our picture of God.But confusion, if managed proactively, can also have benefits, such as:

This is why religion can only be advice and clarification, and cannot carry any spurs of enforcement - for only belief and behavior that is independently arrived at, and then chosen, can be praised or blamed. Faith, he tells us, is not an exotic bloom to be laboriously maintained by the exclusion of most aspects of the day to day world, nor a useful delusion to be supported by sophistries and half-truths like a child's belief in Father Christmas - not, in short, a prudently unregarded adherence to a constructed creed but rather must be, if anything, a clear-eyed recognition of the patterns and tendencies, to be found in every piece of the world's fabric, which are the lineaments of God. “Thus Milton refines the question down to a matter of faith,' said Coleridge, bringing the lecture to a close, 'and a kind of faith more independent, autonomous - more truly strong, as a matter of fact - than the Puritans really sought.

Just to clarify a confusion