JL Aguirre© 2006-2009

Threshold of Belief (TOB)

Joseph Lewis Aguirre

Threshold of Pain (TOP)

100

120

140

160

Sound Pressure Level dBSPL

Hearing threshold of pain found in literature

Increased Pain

Pain recovery varies by individual

Threshold of Belief - Defined

Threshold of belief (TOB)is defined as a level, point, or value above which a person is no longer willing to believe something is true or will take place and below which the person willingly accepts as true.

TOB is analogous to TOP: How much are you willing to pay for your belief? For example, are you willing to die and take otherwise innocent lives with you, because you believe heaven awaits you?

Threshold of Belief - DefinedBelief

Strength

Increased Belief

Material Space

Physical Space

Metaphysical Space

Decrease Belief

TOB is analogous to TOP: How much are you willing to pay for your belief? Willing to die, for instance?

My BASIC principle is that you don't make decisions because they are easy; you don't make them because they are cheap; you don't make them because they're popular; you make them because they're right

-- Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. Former President of Notre Dame

Hesburg’s Decision Making Principle

Lacking an effective decision making framework, we make decisions as a function of our Threshold of Belief (TOB).

A premise for example, is that We have access to digitized knowledge accumulated over the last 6,000 years. We are working on tools to extract that knowledge to make ethical business decisions.

Aguirre’s Decision Making Principle

Dilbert’s TOB in Action

TOB and Knowledge

Information

concepts

beliefsideas

Information

Information

InformationInformation

Information

Knowledge has been defined as the relevant, actionable information that passes through the belief (TOB) filter

TOB and Betsy’s CowI use Betsy the Cow and its friends to

illustrate DeBono’s Six hats, usually including a graphic asking the audience to tell me the first thing they see. Invariably, they see a couple - but most are not able to identify a baby - formed by the outline of the landscape.

TOB and Betsy’s Cow

Picture source: Anonymous

TOB And Forces of Influence

For years, law enforcement has worked on cataloguing thousands of facial expressions to used them as a pseudo lie detector.

MIT is working on social context prototypes taking advantage of what we say without uttering a word.

The point is that the assertion that “I can still be objective” may not be be quite true, as a function of TOB

TOB And Forces of Influence

For years, law enforcement has worked on cataloguing thousands of facial expressions to used them as a pseudo lie detector.

MIT is working on social context prototypes taking advantage of what we say without uttering a word.

The point is that the assertion that “I can still be objective” may not be be quite true, as a function of TOB

The Onion

Values

GOALS

STRUCTURE

CLIMATE

ENVIRONMENT

MarketplaceOther Teams

Culture CompetitionPressures

Clarity Commitment

Reward System

Reporting Relationships

Feedback System

Behavior Norm

Decision Making

Competition

Enthusiasm

Stress

Trust

Involvement

Flexibility

Collaboration Mission Philosophy

Accountability