How we get merit and common sense wrong.

Getting Merit Wrong

I remember around 15 years ago when Gen X and Millennials began advocating for a change to “the system”, typically in workplaces, that pushed the concept of a merit-based workforce. The idea is that the best person for the job would be selected, rather than the common practice at the time of those in power selecting someone based not only on their skills and knowledge but on their traits and proximity to power.

Ironically, one of the outcomes of that movement was the adoption of DEI practices.

Because humans are tribal, our natural posture is to favor those whom we know, those who are like us, and those whom we can judge based on our experiences. When we encounter people who aren’t like us, our default is to distrust them because we don’t have adequate experience to calm that innate fear.

We tell ourselves:

• my only experience with black people is seeing them on the news committing crimes – so I can’t trust them.
• my only experience with Hispanic people is seeing them on the news moving drugs and assaulting white women – so I can’t trust them.
• my only experience with Muslim people is seeing them on the news bombing buildings – so I can’t trust them.
• my only experience with trans people is seeing them on the news not being the gender I want them to be – so I can’t trust them.

The problem here, as you can tell, is less about the people you’re seeing on the news, and more about the people you’ve not bothered to meet in real life.

DEI came as a response to those human impulses. to ensure that highly qualified individuals in marginalized communities were considered alongside others – fairly. Because the norm, our norm as fallen humans, has and will forever be not to trust people who aren’t like us.

DEI measures led to more diverse workplaces. More diverse leadership teams. More diverse boards. And, as it turns out, diversity outperforms monoculture every time it’s measured.

The problem with DEI is that it takes time. It takes thought. It has rules and slows the gears of what had been done more quickly and easily, in favor of ensuring that equity.

Because even though all are created equal, humans have a hard time living that truth. Our default is to not. So those with power must force themselves to recognize that about themselves, rather than maintaining the more simple status quo. And that’s because…

Getting Common Sense Wrong

We’ve always taken our natural tendencies to be what constitutes common sense. Unfortunately, common sense doesn’t exist. What we think of as common sense comes from a combination of our experiences and knowledge, when we wonder what an outcome will be to a particular event or decision.

If I put my finger in the fire it will burn.

If I sit on the floor to wrap Christmas presents, my back will hurt.

We know these things because we’ve lived them and seen the outcomes enough times to hold them true. But few things in our lives are that simple especially when we include culture, economics, government, science, history, religion, or anything else.

Because when we do, common sense fails us. Constantly. And it does so even more in modern times. The world is more complicated than any of us can truly understand. Common sense merely becomes the set of actions we take that lead to the least unpleasant outcome for ourselves. That’s not a good thing in a culture that continues to grow more selfish. – we are nearing peak “me” culture.

Since things are complicated, laziness makes common sense sound necessary. We think we can uncomplicate the mess and “just use common sense”. And that makes us feel better like we’re in control of the situation, but it doesn’t work. Common sense is like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Super Bowl Champion Cleveland Browns… all figments of your imagination.

Common sense didn’t get us to the moon. Physics, astronomy, engineering, and repeated scientific testing did.

Common sense doesn’t win Olympic medals. Strategy, training, grit, and a little bit of luck do.

Common sense says talent and hard work determine success. But there are more talented people who gave everything they have to sports, art, or their jobs and didn’t rise to the top than there are those who did.

There are layers upon layers of research, knowledge, and culture that exist in and around what we regard as common sense. And those are the things that dictate whether our common sense decisions will work out or not. Common-sense changes are based upon the success of common-sense decisions.

Common sense decisions are rarely the ones that do the most good for the most people. The best common sense we can adopt would be to challenge the dogma of common sense and refute it when used as a universal truth to shoehorn power to those who have enough of it already.

For more:

Meritocracy Hurts Everyone – Even the Winners

Why The Debate Between Merit And Diversity Is Counterproductive