We, as human beings, are undoubtedly affected by both our cognition (the inner) and our behavior (the outer). As with most experiences in business, as in life, this can be good or bad depending on the way we use it. In the Harvard Business Review article “Teaching Smart People How to Learn” (Argyris, 1991), this relationship between our inner and outer experience is an extremely important component.

The article discusses how, in the author’s experience, “smart” people (well-educated, high-powered professionals) have more difficulty than would be expected in dealing with failure and turning it into a learning experience. Argyris submits that most professionals are almost always successful at what they do and have no real experience with failure and thus do not know how to handle it when it finally does occur (and it is always a matter of when not if). Furthermore, he indicates that, in his estimation, most professionals have been trained with too much emphasis on the outer and problem solving in the external environment when, in fact, the root of many problems may lie in the inner environment (our cognition).

The article outlines some cases which are good examples of disconnect between people’s behaviors and what they self-report as their inner beliefs. Recognizing this disconnect and that it is irreconcilable with the fact that it is virtually impossible, in a normal person, to have a disconnect between the inner and the outer states (cognitive dissonance results) is a first step in the right direction toward achieving concrete results in improving interpersonal (business or otherwise) relationships and learning from those that may have failed. This recognition of disconnect should lead us to look inward and perform some healthy scrutiny of our own inner belief systems and possible reflexive reactions. Maybe our self-reported beliefs and the inner states we report to the world are not accurate at all. Maybe if we could get to the point that we know our own inner experiences better we could understand and improve in our outer experiences and our interactions with others in both business settings and life in general.  If we improve the inner we improve the outer; if we improve the outer we improve the inner.