Uncommon Sense

By Aneta Darlington – first published here: Uncommon sense – SHEQ Management

Within half a second, the all-knowing Google search engine is able to return about 1.8 billion results for the typed phrase “common sense”. The Britannica Dictionary definition explains common sense as “The ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions”.

Personally, I seem to struggle with the last part of this definition, as I was always taught that what I might understand as a “good decision” might not be “good” at all, not “good enough”, or not good for everyone around me. Then again, maybe I am just being too picky.  Apparently, when it comes to this I am quite aligned with Voltaire, who in his 1764 book Dictionnaire Philosophique Portatif wrote that “common sense is not so common”. So, if the inappropriateness of this phrase was pinpointed 260 years ago, why is it still in such common use?

The first time I ever heard anyone using this expression was during my studies in the United States. One summer afternoon I met my classmate sitting outside the school’s cafeteria; there were no more chairs available, so I sat on one of the large, decorative stones next to the tables. Suddenly, my friend yelled out: “Get off that! you should never sit on a hot stone. Don’t you know that? It’s common sense!” At the time, I was 19 years old. I had only ever heard (mostly from my mother), that one should never sit on a cold stone, because it could make one sick. Back home, that was understood as common sense.

Understanding of the “common” sense

The main difference in this anecdote arose not from the temperature of the stone, but from our upbringing: I was raised in Poland and my friend in Brazil, while we both studied in New Jersey – a state that was never too cold nor too hot. As a matter of fact, it was a place where no one would ever blame the temperature of a stone for any sickness. So, which one of us was wrong? Voltaire would probably say that our common knowledge was not wrong, but rather that we did not share common ground. If “common sense” were common, we probably would not have such a diversity of opinions.

The whole point of contributions accredited to common sense is that our everyday language goes so much further than the interplay of funny social media memes, comments, or GIFs. It is often characterised as sarcasm, mockery, hostility, or even bullying. An innocent sarcastic comment makes its way to our phone, then into our vocabulary, and the end result may be a hurtful interaction with our coworkers. If we think about “sense” as a collection of what we see, read, hear, feel, remember, and combine with our memories, experiences, beliefs, and ethics, we might conclude that sense is not common, but rather very individual. 

Using such a phrase is a simple blind spot for assumptions. Many might say that the phrase is just a combination of words, while others might argue that it is just a mental shortcut – a meaningless expression. However, as neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart points out, words matter, because they create neuropathways for thoughts, followed by actions which have the ability to create our reality. 

That is exactly what we see in everyday life. The idea of common sense itself is not wrong. However, there is a relatively common misconception that common sense is the same as common understanding. There are a couple of points worth considering when regarding the commonality of things:

Common things occur commonly

In his article, “Common Sense is not so Common (What We All Need to Remember)”, Dr Joseph Alpert stated that “common things occur commonly”. I would like to take this opportunity to tweak this slightly: “common things can occur commonly, but only in particular environments.” For example, many Polish people would say that it is unhealthy to sit on cold stones (whether or not any medical research supports this is another story). However, a place like Brazil – 10,000km from the colder parts of Europe – might share very similar information (or misinformation) commonly understood as “common sense”, but with a polar opposite understanding of its meaning.

What may be commonplace somewhere might be uncommon or even considered rude somewhere else; something very common in one industry may be very unusual in others, even if the environments seem to be exactly the same. Many times I have heard people in the safety industry refer to checklists as a “tick and flick” exercise. However, not every checklist can be treated as such and there are industries that treat all their checklists with the utmost respect.

For almost 10 years, I worked as a cabin crew member for one of the biggest Middle Eastern airlines. On many occasions I encountered medical cases, delayed flights, and difficult passengers, but I never faced any situation where crews’ or passengers’ lives or safety were in danger. I am absolutely certain that this was due to various airport and airline employees taking their checklists very seriously.

“Common sense” or “common understanding”?

The main issue with common sense lies in the fact that it occurs locally. Very often its factuality is not checked and the “misinformation” is simply repeated from one person to another – and from one generation to another – just like the story of falling sick from sitting on a cold stone.

Way too often in incident investigations, risk-focused audits, or management engagement walkabouts (call them as you may) people hear: “What were you thinking? Why did you do that? Don’t you have any common sense?” This implies that if people do not have common sense, they have no sense at all. Since there was an incident that resulted in an investigation, there was probably some discrepancy in what was perceived as common sense. Therefore, it would be more advisable to look for a common understanding: so, once we are sure there is an understanding, we need to ensure that it becomes common and that it contains no misinformation.

As humans, our everyday interactions provide a tremendous amount of learning about the world, each other, and often ourselves. We always need to be careful, however, to avoid becoming trapped in the world of misinformation wrongly labelled “common sense”. Always keep in mind that what is common to some might not be common to others.

For example, I learnt to drive in Poland, where it was normal for me to drive on the right-hand side of the road, with the steering wheel on the left of the car. Shortly after getting my licence, I moved to the US, where people also drive on the right side of the road, although I needed to get used to using miles rather than kilometres – not too much of a difference, I would say.

In October last year, I visited South Africa on holiday and had to drive a rental car. Shortly before the trip, I recall a friend asking me if I was nervous at the thought of driving on the opposite side of the road. I responded that I was not nervous at all – that it would be easy. After all, driving was common sense, no matter in which country or on which side of the road I had to drive.

What a rude awakening it was when I started driving! At first, I was so tense and stressed out at having to drive on the left-hand side of the road, sitting on the right-hand side of the car. Everything I thought was common sense about driving was no longer common at all. The first day was the most stressful driving experience I ever had since learning to drive about 20 years before; nothing made sense.

Conclusion

Something that has been known for 260 years, like Voltaire’s assertion that “common sense is not so common”, should already be a common understanding on its own. Clearly, though, this is not always the case. Many people still regularly use the phrase, often creating an unpleasant interaction. Maybe next time, before asking whether or not someone has any common sense, we should think twice and be the change that Voltaire wanted to see in the world.

The more we learn about the world, others, and ourselves, the more we understand how little we know about what is common. As a matter of fact, it is through intuitive flexibility, openness, and humility that we become equipped to understand the things that might not be so common. This allows us to better focus on creating a common understanding of common sense… especially while sitting on moderately heated stones.