As a newly-appointed Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), I have been assigned by a judge to get to know and to advocate on behalf of the best interests of a child within the Baltimore City foster care system. I will be learning about her educational, medical, social service, and mental health needs; and making sure they are understood by the court system and being met by the team that works with her.
In my training, the instructor underscored the importance of staying open-minded and asking as many questions as I can from as many people in the child’s life as I can – before I start to form an opinion on what can or should be done to support her. I thought, “No problem. I love asking questions and my 4th grade teacher said that I’m ‘highly inquisitive,’ so, I’ve got this.”
Yet, I’m finding that I’ve underestimated the lure to form conclusions based on gut instinct. I start to weave the facts that I’m learning together into a narrative, where my mind and imagination fill in the gaps. This insight shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me. At entreQuest, we regularly speak with executive leaders on the importance of stories – how they can shape them to gain advantage, as well as how they can resist believing (or coach their teams to resist) stories about other team members that may not be grounded in reality.
Interestingly, the strategies that I am putting into practice in my role as a volunteer advocate are actually quite similar to the advice we would offer a leader on how to make a good decision and avoid potential blind spots:
Leaders often have strong gut instincts. It is part of what makes them effective. But gut instinct has its downsides, and can be really harmful in some situations. Remember to recognize, record, reflect, and refresh to avoid potential pitfalls of conclusions and decisions that are based on incomplete information.