Hans Rosling was a famed Swedish statistician and widely admired TED speaker. Rosling passed away before he could see his new book, Factfullness, climb to the top of the New York Times bestseller lists. Bill Gates calls the book one of the most important he’s ever read.
Rosling’s book, Factfullness: Ten Reasons Why We’re Wrong About the World—And Why Things Are Better Than You Think, falls into my favorite category of books right now—I call them ‘progress’ books because they go into exhaustive detail and provide mountains of evidence to show that our world is making remarkable progress each and every day. These books will fill you with gratitude and hope, two mindsets that are essential to leadership.
I’ve spoken to several progress authors including Johan Norberg and Steven Pinker. The most common question they hear is, “If we’ve made so much progress, why don’t most people know about it?” For example, over the past twenty years, the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped in half. Yet, in survey after survey, in country after country, only about 7% of respondents get the answer right.
Rosling does a good job of explaining the mental biases that make it difficult for us to perceive the world as getting better. Understanding these mental hurdles will help you stand out as a leader who must, by definition, have a broader perspective most people do not.
Control the negativity instinct. According to Rosling, the natural human tendency to over dramatize everything that’s bad– “the negativity instinct”—causes a loss of hope. Therefore, overcoming or at least recognizing the negativity instinct is an important lesson for leaders who want to drive their companies and the world forward. Rosling didn’t call himself an optimist. Instead, he preferred “possibilitist.” In Rosling’s definition, a possibilitist is someone “who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason. Someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview.”
Recognize that things can be bad and better. Rosling believed we can have two thoughts in our head at the same time—bad and better. Rosling was a communicator who used metaphors to visualize concepts. In his book, he likens the world to a premature baby in an incubator. The baby’s health status might be bad, but slow changes in its heart rate, breathing, and other vital signs are improving every day. Each and every day, the world gets better. For example, more than 200,000 will be lifted out of extreme poverty today. The same happened yesterday and the day before and the day before that. Remarkable progress is occurring each and every day in every measure of human well-being. It’s a reason for hope, but people still suffer every day. Things can be bad and better—but to focus on the bad is debilitating and demoralizing.
Filter bad news and look for the good. Bad is stronger than good, and so it makes sense that media rely on the bad to grab our attention. Negative stories are more dramatic than neutral or positive ones. I was in front of the camera for 15 years as a television news journalist and TV anchor. I also studied business. Every morning I would read positive business trends or groundbreaking news on progress, followed by a trip to the studio where I would spend the next eight hours preparing to deliver bad news. “The human brain is a product of a millions of years of evolution, and we are hard-wired with instincts that helped our ancestors to survive,” writes Rosling. And that’s why potential threats grab our attention quickly. But according to Rosling, “Fears that evolved to protect us are now doing us harm.”
Rosling’s recommendation is not simply to avoid bad news. Instead he recommends that we actively look for good news. “Positive changes may be more common, but they don’t find you. You need to find them. And if you look in the statistics, they are everywhere,” writes Rosling.
Leaders, by definition, must have a broader perspective than the average person. Rosling’s book will help you recognize and control your own negative biases that stand in the way of progress.