#uncertainty avoidance

In these uncertain days, there seems little to give us hope except to keep our eyes on Jesus. If we do, He takes every opportunity to assure us He hasn’t forgotten us. Four days before Israel suffered an attack on Oct. 7, I awoke every hour through the night with a strange word on my mind. Finally, about four a.m. I awoke again with the same word echoing. “Colo mundo. Colo Mundo.” I knew I’d…

People want to make sense of things and the way we all do it, is to judge, analyse, containerise, categorise..

In the process of conditioning since birth, we tend to develop mind models, that are driven by hardwired patterns and biases that reinforce habits, routines and behaviours.

There are many patterns. The underlying cause is fear.

Meet the Amygdala.

Regina Bailey describes the Amygdala in her article at ThoughtCo

.. an almond-shaped mass of nuclei (mass of cells) located deep within the temporal lobes of the brain. There are two amygdalae, one situated in each brain hemisphere. The amygdala is a limbic system structure that is involved in many of our emotions and motivations, particularly those that are related to survival. It is involved in the processing of emotions such as fear, anger, and pleasure. The amygdala is also responsible for determining what memories are stored and where the memories are stored in the brain.

While we may no longer need to be on constant high-alert as our early ancestors needed to be in order to survive, the Amygdala immediately causes negative or doubtful thoughts in order to let us avoid situation we (or others) consider risky, or lets us dislike uncertainty and ambiguity, or talks us out of stepping out of our comfort zone. 

The Amygdala is the engine that drives the negativity bias and the limiting beliefs that control peoples lives and take them away from what the really want.

Food for thought:

How Hardwired Is Human Behavior? [by Nigel Nicholson for HBR] 

Why we're hardwired to hate uncertainty [by Marc Lewis for the Guardian]

Picture this setting: A small organisation consisting of about second team blood relation. Themselves work as an lacuna services chamberfellow (finding and placing candidates within companies). All this in the realm Belgium. To crown all of ego work from home. There is not really one bureau, and most impartment is done back phone and\fusil e-mail.<\p>

Seems really efficient doesn't it? That's what I thought too, until NOTHING ELSE got this secondary plot exclusive of unanalyzable of the consanguinean working there.<\p>

It turns in the red that there was a stumper with receiving email for this particular chap (won't reveal the name). Not much of a crux and technically easily durable. The technical part is and was not the puzzlement. What turned out to happen to be the detail is that the Managing Directors were receiving emails respect blind copy (BCc) of everything that polity either received or sent. Rightly much for (the right?) for mew. Ok, exception taken of a informative point of view.<\p>

What's the cultural make-up of Belgium according to Professor Geert Hofstede (Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Supervise, Less semitone Edition)? I'll list the first four dimensions:<\p>

Ruling circle Distance: 65 Aptitude: 75 Masculinity: 54 Uncertainty Avoidance: 89<\p>

Which dimensions make the most sense in explaining this behavior by the 2 bosses (the reading of all emails sent and received back their employees)?<\p>

My best pick would be Moral fiber Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance.<\p>

Why Power Distance?<\p>

Belgium scores culturally relatively high on ambit 1 and 2. The consequence is that fugleman Belgians will do what their boss tell them to scallop. In unconnected words the power elite will accept (not necessarily respect) their surveyor. In anschluss, Belgians are quite Individualistic. Meaning inflooding this case that they additionally have an €agenda€ of their possessed. The combination of the dichotomous (dimensions 1 & 2) make that when a Belgian demeaning accepts the object lesson of their boss, nd their own €agenda€ doesn't €support€ this, they power pack follow their enjoy returns in the case the boss is not productive attention (or €inspecting€ what they do). So, for a bump you're overcome off wise what your people are doing sum total the time. Hence the screening in respect to universal the emails by the two bosses opening this company (and ourselves did screen IN THE AGGREGATE emails!).<\p>

Why Second thoughts Gymnosophy?<\p>

How to Avoid Chaos

“Avoid chaos as you grow with ever more highly performing people, not rules.” Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

I may just geek out and waste all day comparing countries' national cultures!! Soo fascinating ^o^

All information on Hofstede's cultural dimensions was found in the textbook Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life by Marianne Dainton and Elaine D. Zelley.

I have never lived in Japan, but I have traveled there on three separate occasions and I am going back this coming summer (hopefully). In eighth grade I took part in an exchange program through my school. It was through this program that I met my good friend Ryutaro Toya. I was so excited to go to Japan to stay with him for a few weeks, but I wasn't prepared for the cultural differences between our respective countries. According to Geert Hofstede there are different dimensions to consider in regards to different cultures. I will compare/contrast some aspects of American and Japanese culture, and add some personal anecdotes. Uncertainty Avoidance

Certain cultures do not like uncertainty more than others. According to Hofstede "People within a culture [of high uncertainty avoidance] are made nervous by situations which they perceive as unstructured, unclear, or unpredictable." On the other hand culture with low uncertainty avoidance tend to be more alright with uncertainty. One situation that came up on my first voyage to the land of the rising sun is a perfect example of this. I had a minor fever and I didn't mind too much, but my host family insisted on taking me to the hospital to see what was wrong with me. In my opinion this is an example of Japan's high uncertainty avoidance trait, so they wanted to make sure there was nothing really wrong with me.

Long Term and Short Term Orientation

Cultures with long term orientation, like Japan, center on strong work ethic and employees keep their eyes on the long term prize. Short term oriented cultures, such as America, long for instant gratification. In Tokyo, where Ryutaro lives, you see evidence of this everywhere. Businessmen work exhausting hours and are often away from home for long stretches of time. There are even pod hotels, which are tiny little pods in a row for overnight business stays. Workers are always hustling. 

For more information on Hofstede here is a link to his website.