My very first project was to convert about 2,000 application programs to the latest model mainframe computer.  The organization for which I worked had installed a new mainframe 12 months earlier.  We were 12 months into an 18 month conversion and 9 months behind.  The Data Processing Manager had just been replaced and the new manager assigned me to lead the project.  The programming staff was generally opposed to the change in computers and had been dragging their feet in modifying the programs to run on the new system.  There were several issues.  Only one is of concern here.   One of the senior members of the staff had for months been saying the new system was useless and could not be used because it was incapable of writing duplicate records to a simple sequential file.  He said he had discovered this flaw when he was trying to convert a program that needed to write duplicate records and failed on the new system, even though it ran fine on the old system.   Everyone should have known better, and perhaps they did but this was being used as reason why there was no point in putting any effort into the conversion project.  I wrote a short program that wrote the same record to a file 20 times.  The record was "It is absurd to believe that this computer cannot write duplicate records."  I then printed the file with a standard utility and distributed the program and the print out to every staff member. 

The programmer who originally made the claim grudgingly went back to the conversion and found the mistake he had made in converting the program.

The belief was obviously faulty.  No one should have fallen for it but they clearly believed it.  I have little doubt that it was an excuse to not do something they did not want to do.  I will never know the real cause but between the data processing manager being fired because the conversion was so far behind schedule and making everyone look stupid about the "no duplicate records" claim the staff got back to work and completed the conversion.

It was nearly 2 decades before I realized there was another faulty belief operating here.  Perhaps it was my arrogance or my science training.  One of the things that scientists tend to learn is that the way to correct someone else’s faulty belief is direct intellectual confrontation.  There is a tendency to share the mistake of another in a less than kind manner.  I suppose there is at least the benefit that this tends to make scientists very careful in their work.  They pride themselves on their intelligence and after once being embarrassed by making a mistake they take extreme care to be correct.  Perhaps it works in the world of science.  But in the rest of the world it is clearly a faulty belief.

Most of the time it is not so easy to show a faulty belief is so clearly wrong.  Very frequently the direct attack approach will simply cause the person to more strongly defend their position.  And some times you can be wrong and then you really look silly.  Furthermore I created a great deal of animosity, which was counter productive to future working relationships. 

There is a better way.  But, first some more examples.

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