Welcome Professionals…
…what a title! I had to look up the term in the dictionary to find the official word for the phenomenom I perceived. From my point of view, illusionary superiority is quite common among top management consultants. Let me explain by a very simple example.
Our household has a new washing machine since half a year. When the machine was delivered, I took a glance at the manual. It read that that the most efficient program was already pre-selected and available at only one push of a button. When I discovered that the most efficient program took 3.5 hours to run, I decided to go with a simple warm washing program that took only 1 hour to complete. The laundry is getting clean and it must be even more efficient, I figured.
Well, that was a cognitive bias as it turned out. I had thought I would be smart in choosing another program. In fact I had jumped to a conclusion. Less time equals more efficiency, I thought. That is apparently wrong. I did not invest the attention to research the reasons why a longer program could be more efficient, e.g. by using heat pumps to reuse energy.
It was a classic case of illusiory superiority. Being aware of it saves me from the next misjudgment.
Stay curious,
Malte
