Too many people making money off of the status quo

Status quo bias is an emotional bias ; a preference for the current state of affairs. The current baseline or status quo is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss. Status quo bias should be distinguished from a rational preference for the status quo ante, as when the current state of affairs is objectively superior to the available alternatives, or when imperfect information is a significant problem. A large body of evidence, however, shows that status quo bias frequently affects human decision-making. Status quo bias should also be distinguished from psychological inertiawhich refers to a lack of intervention in the current course of affairs. For example, consider a pristine lake where an industrial firm is planning to dump toxic chemicals. Status quo bias would involve avoiding change, and therefore intervening to prevent the firm from dumping toxic chemicals in the lake. Conversely, inertia would involve not intervening in the course of events that will change the lake.

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In making decisions, your mind may be your own worst enemy. Bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made—the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision-making process but rather in the mind of the decision maker. The way the human brain works can sabotage the choices we make. In this article, first published in , John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa examine eight psychological traps that can affect the way we make business decisions. The anchoring trap leads us to give disproportionate weight to the first information we receive. The status quo trap biases us toward maintaining the current situation—even when better alternatives exist. The sunk-cost trap inclines us to perpetuate the mistakes of the past.

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The confirming-evidence trap leads us to seek out information supporting an existing predilection and to discount opposing information. The framing trap occurs when we misstate a problem, undermining the entire decision-making process. The overconfidence trap makes us overestimate the accuracy of our forecasts. The prudence trap leads us to be overcautious when we make estimates about uncertain events. And the recallability trap prompts us to give undue weight to recent, dramatic events. The best way to avoid all the traps is awareness—forewarned is forearmed. But executives can also take other simple steps to protect themselves and their organizations from these mental lapses. The authors describe what managers can do to ensure that their important business decisions are sound and reliable. Making business decisions is your most crucial job—and your riskiest. New product development, mergers and acquisitions, executive hirings—bad decisions about any of these can ruin your company and your career. Where do bad decisions come from? Mostly from distortions and biases—a whole series of mental flaws—that sabotage our reasoning. The higher the stakes of your decision, the higher the risk of getting caught in a thinking trap. Worse, these traps can amplify one another—compounding flaws in our reasoning.

Keeping the same cable or satellite service. May 11, Only by working together is escape possible. Give a tight, 15 minute presentation and then discuss the idea for 45 minutes. Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society’s well. Opportunity , Common Sense , Political. Even the poorest whites, those who must live their lives only a few levels above, gain their self-esteem by gazing down on us. Then, during the following week, seek another new routine. Managing yourself. Find Your Account. Most people are familiar with the status quo bias. Eat well. Christian , People , Humanity.

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The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it. Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’. Challenging the status quo takes commitment, courage, imagination, and, above all, dedication to learning.

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change. I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march. People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo. When something really bad is going on in a culture, the average guy doesn’t see it. He can’t. He’s average and is surrounded by and immersed in the cant and discourse of the status quo.

Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo. Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.

Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people. If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger. Faith in God’s revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.

I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion — against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas. Tonight was a great opportunity to take on the political status quo that has given us trillion dollar deficits and put millions out of work.

Our objective was to inject some common sense into the conversation among Republicans at a time when business-as-usual simply won’t work. Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.

I would say any behavior that is not the status quo is interpreted as insanity, when, in fact, it might actually be enlightenment.

Insanity is sorta in the eye of the beholder. We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends tacit validity to this status quo.

People have morally identified with a subset of humanity rather than with humanity as a. Comedy is to force us to observe ourselves in ways that are humorous and yet, at the end of the day, that cause us enough discomfort with the status quo to make a change. Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society’s. Even the poorest whites, those who must live their lives only a few levels above, gain their self-esteem by gazing down on us.

Surely, they must know that their deliverance depends on letting down their ropes. Only by working together is escape possible. Over time, many reach out, but most simply watch, mesmerized into maintaining their unspoken commitment to keeping us where we are, at whatever cost to them or to us Bell. I hope that people will see that we don’t have to sit by the sidelines and watch as the two major parties limit their choices to slightly different flavors of the status quo.

It is, in fact, possible to join the fray, stand up for principles and offer a real too many people making money off of the status quo. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. Login Sign Up. Challenging The Status Quo Quotes facebook twitter googleplus.

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But what happens when a brave employee decides to challenge organizational conformity and offer new ideas that she sincerely believes would improve operations, before the company has embraced the idea of rebel talent? In our book, Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Withinwe offer suggestions for how employees can more effectively advance their good ideas, even in organizations resistant to constructive nonconformists. You fail to prioritize your ideas. But when you constantly suggest ideas, you risk diluting your impact, particularly if you never engage in the hard work of implementation.

The Anchoring Trap

Leaders may tune you out as someone who continuously feeds them new ideas. Go forward with the one or two suggestions you have that are most relevant for the organization and stand the best chance for implementation. You go solo. Temper that ego by working with others to advance your ideas for change. You may even need to be prepared to relinquish ownership of your idea so that a broader group can implement the change. Making the idea community property will improve it as more people will be bringing fresh perspectives to it, and you can avoid the backlash that can sometimes occur when you challenge management orthodoxy. You flunk the pitch meeting. So they stuff every research point, potential benefit, and details of implementation into an obese presentation that overwhelms and confuses listeners and leaves them no time for thoughtful discussion and feedback. Give a tight, 15 minute presentation and then discuss the idea for 45 minutes. During the conversation ask people what they liked about the idea, how it could be made stronger, and how they would advise proceeding.