Perception is not reality, it’s the start of a conversation!

Perception is a complex process that involves seeing something, analyzing what it means based on our past experience and making an immediate determination of what that is; of what we perceive. It takes into account our pre-conceived ideas, prejudices, bias and judgments. When we rely only on our perception we are making assumptions, which, until validated, are not facts. The concept of ‘perception is reality’ is a piece of the analysis puzzle, but not a fact. Perceptions are a start of a conversation and require additional investigation before that perception is a fact. What do you see in the picture? Does this picture show a woman sitting in a garden looking at cottages across the meadow or a man’s face? Which is reality?

Hoodwinked

There is a great kids movie that illustrates this idea that what we perceive is not reality, in fact the truth is quite different than what we perceive. The movie is Hoodwinked, it’s the story of Little Red Riding Hood with Red, the Wolf, Granny, and the Woodsman. The word hoodwinked means ‘to deceive by false appearance’. In many ways, perception can be a false appearance. Warning, spoilers ahead if you have not seen the movie! In the movie, there is crime. The movie begins with a narrator ‘Red Riding Hood. You probably know the story. But there’s more to every tale than meets the eye. It’s just like they always say, you can’t judge a book by its cover. If you want to know the truth, you’ve gotta flip through the pages.” The movie shows pages being flipped; a map opened and zooms into a cottage. In the cottage is Red talking with the Wolf in a Granny costume. Red mentions the big ears, eyes and hands. The Wolf says he took down Granny and he would take her down too. Then Granny tumbles out of the closet gagged and tied up. While Red and the Wolf are reacting to that, a Huntsman flys through the window swinging an ax and the other three scream at this intrusion. This is the crime scene that investigators start to unravel. The detective determines they are all related to the cookie bandit crime, where goody recipes in the forest have been disappearing. Each of the four suspects tells their version of the story that leads up to them meeting in the forest. Through the story we learn that Red is worried that the cookie bandit will steal Granny’s recipes and wants to take the recipe book to her house through the woods. Granny is busy every time Red tries to talk with her, it appears that she is knitting, but the investigation reveals that her knitting needles are really ski poles. Granny is an extreme sports enthusiast known as ‘Triple G’. She is in an extreme sports ski competition and ends up coming into the house through the chimney and she is wrapped up in the parachute and the ripcords when Red finds her and the Wolf in her house. The Wolf is an investigative reporter who writes a column ‘Facts and Fairy Tales’ in the Once Upon a Times paper. He is working on the cookie bandit story, and suspects Red is the cookie bandit. He is at Granny’s house to question her. The Huntsman is really an actor acting in a Paul Bunyan cream commercial who is practicing his part chopping down trees and has an accident tumbling down the mountain to hurl himself through the window. These characters intersect at this moment and the perception is that the Wolf ties up Granny and wanted to eat her, the Huntsman was a crazy maniac coming to hurt them all and Red was trying to keep the family recipe book safe. The cookie bandit is a cute little bunny who intersected with all four suspects throughout their day. The perception

The movie shows pages being flipped; a map opened and zooms into a cottage. In the cottage is Red talking with the Wolf in a Granny costume. Red mentions the big ears, eyes and hands. The Wolf says he took down Granny and he would take her down too. Then Granny tumbles out of the closet gagged and tied up. While Red and the Wolf are reacting to that, a Huntsman flys through the window swinging an ax and the other three scream at this intrusion. This is the crime scene that investigators start to unravel. The detective determines they are all related to the cookie bandit crime, where goody recipes in the forest have been disappearing. Each of the four suspects tells their version of the story that leads up to them meeting in the forest. Through the story we learn that Red is worried that the cookie bandit will steal Granny’s recipes and wants to take the recipe book to her house through the woods. Granny is busy every time Red tries to talk with her, it appears that she is knitting, but the investigation reveals that her knitting needles are really ski poles. Granny is an extreme sports enthusiast known as ‘Triple G’. She is in an extreme sports ski competition and ends up coming into the house through the chimney and she is wrapped up in the parachute and the ripcords when Red finds her and the Wolf in her house. The Wolf is an investigative reporter who writes a column ‘Facts and Fairy Tales’ in the Once Upon a Times paper. He is working on the cookie bandit story, and suspects Red is the cookie bandit. He is at Granny’s house to question her. The Huntsman is really an actor acting in a Paul Bunyan cream commercial who is practicing his part chopping down trees and has an accident tumbling down the mountain to hurl himself through the window. These characters intersect at this moment and the perception is that the Wolf ties up Granny and wanted to eat her, the Huntsman was a crazy maniac coming to hurt them all and Red was trying to keep the family recipe book safe. The cookie bandit is a cute little bunny who intersected with all four suspects throughout their day. The perception

While Red and the Wolf are reacting to that, a Huntsman flys through the window swinging an ax and the other three scream at this intrusion. This is the crime scene that investigators start to unravel. The detective determines they are all related to the cookie bandit crime, where goody recipes in the forest have been disappearing. Each of the four suspects tells their version of the story that leads up to them meeting in the forest. Through the story we learn that Red is worried that the cookie bandit will steal Granny’s recipes and wants to take the recipe book to her house through the woods. Granny is busy every time Red tries to talk with her, it appears that she is knitting, but the investigation reveals that her knitting needles are really ski poles. Granny is an extreme sports enthusiast known as ‘Triple G’. She is in an extreme sports ski competition and ends up coming into the house through the chimney and she is wrapped up in the parachute and the ripcords when Red finds her and the Wolf in her house. The Wolf is an investigative reporter who writes a column ‘Facts and Fairy Tales’ in the Once Upon a Times paper. He is working on the cookie bandit story, and suspects Red is the cookie bandit. He is at Granny’s house to question her. The Huntsman is really an actor acting in a Paul Bunyan cream commercial who is practicing his part chopping down trees and has an accident tumbling down the mountain to hurl himself through the window. These characters intersect at this moment and the perception is that the Wolf ties up Granny and wanted to eat her, the Huntsman was a crazy maniac coming to hurt them all and Red was trying to keep the family recipe book safe. The cookie bandit is a cute little bunny who intersected with all four suspects throughout their day. The perception

The movie shows pages being flipped; a map opened and zooms into a cottage. In the cottage is Red talking with the Wolf in a Granny costume. Red mentions the big ears, eyes and hands. The Wolf says he took down Granny and he would take her down too. Then Granny tumbles out of the closet gagged and tied up. While Red and the Wolf are reacting to that, a Huntsman flys through the window swinging an ax and the other three scream at this intrusion. This is the crime scene that investigators start to unravel. The detective determines they are all related to the cookie bandit crime, where goody recipes in the forest have been disappearing. Each of the four suspects tells their version of the story that leads up to them meeting in the forest. Through the story we learn that Red is worried that the cookie bandit will steal Granny’s recipes and wants to take the recipe book to her house through the woods. Granny is busy every time Red tries to talk with her, it appears that she is knitting, but the investigation reveals that her knitting needles are really ski poles. Granny is an extreme sports enthusiast known as ‘Triple G’. She is in an extreme sports ski competition and ends up coming into the house through the chimney and she is wrapped up in the parachute and the ripcords when Red finds her and the Wolf in her house. The Wolf is an investigative reporter who writes a column ‘Facts and Fairy Tales’ in the Once Upon a Times paper. He is working on the cookie bandit story, and suspects Red is the cookie bandit. He is at Granny’s house to question her. The Huntsman is really an actor acting in a Paul Bunyan cream commercial who is practicing his part chopping down trees and has an accident tumbling down the mountain to hurl himself through the window. These characters intersect at this moment and the perception is that the Wolf ties up Granny and wanted to eat her, the Huntsman was a crazy maniac coming to hurt them all and Red was trying to keep the family recipe book safe. The cookie bandit is a cute little bunny who intersected with all four suspects throughout their day. The perception for each character about what was happening was wrong. The detective, a frog named Flippers, starts flipping through the pages of the book of each character and has a conversation about what happened.

Analysis Misperception

This is such an important concept! Using the technique observation we perceive what someone is doing. We see their actions, choices, and decisions in their work. However, our perception about what is really happening is not complete without a conversation. To declare a fact based on our perception without talking with someone is a mistake. It’s an assumption that is not validated. It can be a costly mistake. There are countless examples of how this impacts people, projects, and processes.

Think about performance reviews. I had an experience during an annual review that was a great learning experience about the danger of perception. A comment appeared on my annual performance review that related to a specific one time issue and not indicative of my performance as a whole. I was surprised and a frustrated to see this perception added to my review. My leader was new, inexperienced and made a mistake. This leader made a mistake in assuming that one person’s perception of one incident was a fact that represented my performance. When challenged, she admitted that it didn’t belong there because it was not a fact representing my overall performance. Her perception was wrong.

Think about cross-functional projects. Stakeholders are familiar with their piece of the process and that is their only perception. A data change in their piece will not impact anything other than what they need it for. If data is entered in one user interface we can report on it, right? The perception that what we do is a fact is only the start to understand the whole. A data element entered in a user interface may never be stored anywhere for reporting. Removing a data element that they don’t use or adding an additional option to a field could have a tremendous disruption to other stakeholders. This perception is the start of a conversation.

Perception antidote

To counteract the danger of perception, analysts must use multiple techniques. Observation is an important piece to uncover the facts. Observe, start the story based on what you see. Confirm what you see with interviews, conversations with others. Continue to analyze using interface analysis, document analysis, or other techniques to validate the perception with conversation and turn it into fact. Don’t be hoodwinked into believing that perception is reality! Use perception to start a conversation and uncover the facts of the situation!

Heather, a BA Without Borders