A truism in this world is that we all end up reading our own press. Whenever someone clicks the “Like” button on one of my posts here or on LinkedIn, I get a sudden rush of feeling important. It is easy to start thinking about how smart you are because you got some clicks.
Similarly, we tend to interact with the same people regularly at work. We learn their patterns and what they like/dislike. Over time, all presentations and analyses are put together to meet the patterns of those we interact with instead of a neutral benchmark. It’s an easy pattern to fall into because it helps make life easier because putting things into the format and voice that is expected reduces the friction involved in getting to complete.
The Echo Chamber is that place where the things we experience become the reality we react to. When you work in the Boise, Idaho real estate market, it’s easy to think that it’s a big market – because for you and your customers it is. But if you want to dominate Boise, should you do things the way they have always been done or should you bring in some of the appropriate best practices from New York, Chicago, London and elsewhere?
When we do work, we tend to fall back on our experiences. If you rely too heavily on experience you end up doing things the same way without changing or improving; you start to miss out on nuance. Your experience becomes your Echo Chamber.
There’s a great saying: never believe your own press clippings. The story as it exists in your echo chamber is never the reality anyone else experiences.