Common Sense

This one-day workshop (1) deconstructs the phenomenon of common sense, or everyday understanding and thinking, to its constituent cognitive operations, (2) examines the heuristic biases that commonly subvert everyday judgments and decisions, and (3) reviews cognitive and dispositional prescriptions to mitigate them. A cognitive-psychological perspective is enacted in simplest terms. It is framed cybernetically to address professional and industrial priorities laterally and exhibit the relation of common sense — discerned as an information process — to organizational performance. The workshop has been developed from the author’s published scientific research, former experience as a CIA Operations Officer, and current work coaching US Military and Special Forces in the cognitive and operational processes ingredient to successful intelligence and psychological operations during war.