[December 27, 2017] Over the Christmas holidays I had the fortune to speak with military veterans attending location colleges. I do this as a free service to them; something I had no opportunity as a student many decades ago. In one instance, I was surprised to see a college administrator in attendance who complained that I was working to establish an ROTC program.1 That administrator is an excellent first-rate example of someone jumping to conclusions.
There are many reasons people jump to conclusions yet the “why” they do it is not relevant to the point that doing so is risky. All of us have done it and will do so sometime in the future. Leaders, on the other hand, need to be particularly sensitive to the concept that once you jump to a conclusion – like this college administrator – the effect is likely to be unwanted.
In my case, I simply shrugged off the comments after informing the administrator that I was only present to help veterans attending their college.2 Often, I find that when I speak at colleges I get one of two reactions. First, I am thanked for bringing awareness to the veterans and their professors. Second, I’m looked upon as having nefarious intentions. While the latter is far less common, those I speak of doing the same as I have the same observations.
“We leap to conclusions and remember those conclusions as fact. We react on our own prejudices but don’t always recognize them as such.” – Ruth Ware, author of psychological crime thrillers
One of the risks I point out to veterans who attend college for the first time is that it is easy to make assumptions and jump to conclusions that are simply wrong. Basing our behavior on conclusions that are wrong makes like more difficult. Better to take a pause, consider our thoughts solicitously, and then make a better decision. Alas jumping to conclusions appears to be the nature of many of us humans.
As leaders, therefore, we must not only be aware of such a pitfall but take action to prevent it from occurring by our own acts and those of others. This is an education in part and practice. Just like learning mathematics, it takes practice and effort to overcome our ignorance. Due diligence is also a helpful trait and one that will carry leaders onward to great future successes.
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- ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) programs are a trigger for some college administrators who came of age during the 1960s and 70s. Through an ideology based upon Karl Marx and others, these college professors and administrators associate the military with all things bad and evil. While the accumulation of such acts decreases diversity on campus and shows an intellectual laziness is not the point here but I will note it as a mild rebuke.
- The young veterans in college today seem to me (using circumstantial evidence) to be a much more adaptive and better student than those of my generation returning to college. I make this as a simple observation but there is some empirical evidence in recent studies to confirm. They can take better care of themselves also and the current Post-911 GI Bill is far superior to the previous version.