“Common sense” has a deceptively comforting ring, evoking accumulated wisdom gleaned from lived experience and “simpler times.” But in truth, relying solely on common sense as your compass often leads to dangerously poor judgments and assumptions. While personal experiences provide one useful data point, true wisdom integrates broad, diverse perspectives.

The Flawed Notion of “Common” Sense

So-called common sense suggests judgments based on what seems obvious and self-evident from your specific background and limited life observations. But it suffers from severe shortcomings:

It presumes that most people share your singular views, which is rarely the case in a complex world. In reality, different vantage points yield entirely different “common sense” conclusions.
It recklessly extrapolates universal truths about issues from your own highly limited, subjective experiences and anecdotal information. There are typically exceptions.
It conveniently aligns with your inherent confirmation biases that favor facts conforming to your existing worldview and discount contradicting evidence.
It often lacks broader contextual facts, nuance, alternate hypotheses, and empirical testing required to determine causality versus correlation.
It frequently conflicts with scientific consensus, rigorous data analysis, and subject matter expertise that reveal more complex dynamics.

Relying solely on “common sense” dangerously neglects to reality test your assumptions and mental models against alternative explanations. It breeds false confidence in gut reactions and facilitates decisions founded on intellectual quicksand.

Cultivating Broader, Evidence-Based Perspective

The attached Psychology Today article by Jim Taylor Ph.D. neatly encapsulates the inherent need to move beyond “common sense” alone if leaders wish to form accurate, nuanced perspectives. Some key principles include:

Maintain an open, growth-oriented mindset willing to reach conclusions that may contradict your pre-existing hunches, assumptions or expectations. Don’t let bias limit input.
Proactively hypothesize multiple, alternative explanations for outcomes, not just those you intuitively favor or wish to be true. Welcome having your beliefs constructively challenged.
Seek out and collect a large, highly diverse sample of perspectives, data points and information. Don’t just ask those who you already know share all of your current views and biases.
Commit to analyzing any information you receive completely objectively, not just selectively looking for data to affirm your preliminary opinions. Let facts guide conclusions, not the reverse.
Draw reasoned conclusions predicated on synthesizing insights from a rigorous, inclusive inquiry process, not emotion, convention or groupthink.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201107/common-sense-is-neither-common-nor-sense

True Wisdom Requires Integrating Broad Inputs

While your past experiences and observations provide one very useful vantage point, true wisdom integrates a mosaic of many different sources of data, ideation, and expertise before reaching conclusions or choosing courses of action. Any leader who dismissively claims “common sense” alone is sufficient reveals their own profound intellectual limitations.

Lasting progress requires humility about how much you don’t know, comfort with ambiguity, intellectual curiosity about different worldviews, and skill synthesizing diverse perspectives - abilities executive coaching can directly strengthen. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need any support combating the immense perils of relying solely on “common sense” as a decision-making guide. Our shared growth depends on moving far beyond the gaps and biases inherent in any one person’s subjective life experience. A bigger world awaits.