Last week was about pizza and decision criteria.  When people told me about their favorite pizza, they often referenced nostalgia, so this week is about pizza, nostalgia, and objectivity.

My wife is from the Evansville, IN area.  In Evansville, there is a popular pizza place called Turoni’s (pizza pic to the right).  I remember going down to hang out with her family and they decided that they wanted to get a Turoni’s pizza.  I had never had it before.  The entire family ranted and raved about how awesome the pizza from there was.  They talked about how Turoni’s had been there ever since they were kids and what a treat it was to go there when they were growing up.  When I tried the pizza, it was good, but it wasn’t great.  I don’t know if it would make my top 10.  While I felt that way, her family ate the pizza and talked about how amazing it was.  

So what was happening?  I believe that nostalgia was playing a huge role in how they were experiencing the pizza.  They had grown up with this place.  This pizza wasn’t just pizza.  It was also good memories and celebrations.  They were attached to the pizza place, and I feel that got in the way of them being objective enough to realize the pizza is okay, but not amazing like they said.  If you think about it, you probably are nostalgic about a certain kind of pizza or some other restaurant.  I’m nostalgic about Pizza King (pizza pic at the bottom).  I’m convinced their Washburn pizza is the best ever!  It has ham, pepperoni, sausage, extra cheese, BBQ sauce, and a crisp thin crust.  At the same time, people who don’t have as much nostalgia about Pizza King often feel it’s good, but not the best ever.  My nostalgia is biasing me in one direction.

What does pizza and nostalgia have to do with anything?  In the above situations we both inflate how good the pizza is because of our nostalgia and our comfort with the pizza.  However, if we were more objective, we’d realize the pizza we are in love with is good, but not the most amazing thing ever.  Have you ever done something similar? 

We are all human and creatures of comfort and habit.  In work and in life, it’s too easy to do something because we are more accustomed to it vs. because it objectively being the best thing to do.  Think about the processes we follow.  How often do we blindly follow a process because we are used to it vs. objectively analyzing the process to see if it serves its purpose?  Think about the people we hire onto teams.  How often do we value a certain style and personality type vs. objectively realizing that different types of people can all solve the problem?  Think about evaluating someone doing a job that you have done in the past.  How often do we prefer people to do things our way, just because we are used to that?  We do all of these things, because we have emotional attachment to something.  In a way, we are nostalgic, and that blinds us from being truly objective.  The first step is acknowledging that nostalgia can blind us.  The second step is working to become more objective.

The challenge: How can we be more objective vs. just going along with where we are comfortable?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry