Practical way of dealing with change resistance

😬If you work in investments for sure you know people who invest in the same names year after year.

Market sentiment changes,

macro environment change,

sectorial conditions change,

consumer preferences change,

new trends emerge and yet their favourite picks remain the same.🙃

We label this as symptoms of familiarity bias and confirmation bias and we find ourselves powerless in seeking to change the opinion of such investors.🤕

Arguments seem useless.

This is until you understand that the phenomenon relates to the way we filter the information.

❗Some of us are more attuned at seeing how things are similar.

Where some see notable differences others are more likely to find similarities, something known as sameness metaprogram.

👉In such cases, as counterintuitive as it sounds, is more likely to convince one to accept something different if you highlight how is similar to his/her preferred choice.

✅ For instance, "you might not believe this but company X is similar with your darling Y in that."

It is challenging if you are closer to a differences metaprogram and yet when looking purposefully you will definitely find some common factors: management, dividend policy, development stage, markets, M&A strategy, pricing power, liquidity etc are just a few things you can consider.

❗We can also seek to uncover the convincing strategy that one has or other metaprograms that are relevant.

Hence, understanding how we are different can be empowering:

👉You can learn how to purposefully use language to overcome these differences; 👉With these understandings you can gain access to specific tools for managing biases;

👉You can more easily recognise biases in your thinking and others;

👉No more rolling your eyes and debates that seem to go in circles