Who stole my criteria?

While walking through a store you see a nice pair of shoes. When you go to try them on you realize you are already wearing the exact same pair.
 
What do you mean change school start times by ten minutes, have you no concern for the educational consequences?

Decentralized administration can't work. It is more important for me to be able to cover for the principal when they are away than it is to increase my access to students and teachers.

Why do we choose things that have a common theme?
Why do some people seem to think in a different language?
Why do people resist change regardless of need and supporting evidence?

When I am shopping I know that if there is a blue+yellow option available my mind will work double time to intellectualize that one as the best selection.  Blue+yellow is not strong enough to make me buy something I don’t actually need and it is also not every blue and every yellow – something akin to RGB 255/255/0 and 0/0/128 - but I do possess blue and yellow joggers, sandals and back pack (just a quick inventory). It is fortunate that blue+yellow is not a common combination for really important things – suits or cars to name two. My guess for the source of this fixation is the kitchen floor tiles in the house I lived in until I was eleven with my mother’s good cooking creating the comforting association.

We all have prejudices that form a spectrum of criteria that help us make decisions when things get too difficult, too confusing, too foreign or when we are pressed for time. Educators use the 'educational consequences' line for everything from soup to nuts, thinking it is the appropriate response that will make the questioner go away feeling less than smart while reinforcing the circle of wagons around protected territory. Change breaks our automaton switch and actually requires us to become engaged with our surroundings and reconsider the cause and effect of our actions.

Groups have similar default behaviours. They can define direction or delineate no-go zones. Knowing the culture of an organization is the key to making a successful presentation, generating valuable discussion or getting a decision that actually solves a problem.

We live In a world where change is the only constant. Change can render the familiar territory meaningless. What worked yesterday suddenly doesn't. Change can force us to rationalize the new and unknown. Defaulting to what is familiar risks unfulfilled potential and becoming irrelevant. Being aware of your filters and prejudices is critical to evolving to meet the new challenges.

Maybe Darwin was right after all.