How To Read The Room, See What Others Miss, and Be Right More Often | Kirstin Ferguson

Hearing a voice can change everything. So AT and T wants everyone to gift their voice to loved ones this holiday season because that conversation is a chance to say something they'll hear forever. AT and T, connecting changes everything. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello, my fellow suffering beings. How we doing? Today, we're gonna talk about how to make fewer dumb decisions. The truth is we live in a world of constant flux. We may not like that, but it's the truth. Everything's changing all the time. So, the question then becomes, how do you want to engage with this unpredictable, often chaotic world? Do you wanna be brittle and breakable or subtle and sophisticated? If like me, you would rather choose the latter, one of the key moves is to confront and work around your blind spots, your biases. The stories you tell yourself often subconsciously about the world, about yourself, about other people. These stories can really limit your growth and block your happiness and your success. The Buddha himself talked a lot about the importance of not being attached to your views and opinions. He talked about the value of being an analyst, not a dogmatist. In fact, one of my favorite Buddha quotes goes something like this. I might be mangling it, but it's something like this. Those who cling to views and opinions wander the world annoying people. I love that. I've been that guy. So I really love it. All of this brings me to my guest today, Doctor. Kirsten Ferguson. She's a leadership expert and author. She was introduced to me by our mutual friend, Adam Grant, who's been on this show many times. Kirsten's got a new book. It's called Blindspotting. In In this conversation, we talk about the concept of blindspotting. What it is, how to do it. The power of intellectual humility and how to practice it in your actual life. The difference between seekers and knowers, and when each of those mindsets is useful. The three major thinking traps that we often fall into. How to disentangle ego from identity. Manage defensiveness, which has been a big problem for me. And turn feedback into growth. Feedback is often very annoying but often also very valuable. We also talk about the role of curiosity, building psychological safety on your teams, which can be your family, your friend group, but psychological safety, and you'll hear her discuss this, is just the secret sauce to well functioning organizations or groups of people. And finally, we talk about how to read the room in workplaces, in relationships, in global contexts, and really why the ability to read the room is such a key to good leadership. Before we dive in, I wanna do a quick plug here for the new 10% app. So cool to be able to say those words. The app has just gone live. We will be doing a free New Year's meditation challenge …