How to Develop New Initiatives Free From Bias or Assumptions
The Dashboard Effect is a book about how companies are using data to move to the forefront of their industries. Some call it the Fifth Industrial Revolution. Others call it Digital Transformation. At Blue Margin we simply call it The Dashboard Effect. It means automating the process of alignment and accountability throughout an organization, with the result being a transformation to a healthier culture, faster growth, and higher profits.
Chapter 3 of the book examines institutional bias and how it can stifle progress.
In the drive for growth and profitability, executives must balance strategic initiatives with day-to-day operations. There is only so much time to improve the plane while you are busy flying it. Therefore, executives need a good methodology to assess which initiatives and strategies should make the cut.
Trust Empirical Data, Not Your Gut
Your gut may play a valuable role in certain aspects of your business, but determining which initiatives are worthy of your company’s time, money, and resources is not one of them. We are all guilty of trusting intuition when it comes to making major decisions, and there are likely several assumptions or habits so deeply ingrained in your company’s workflows or culture that you have inadvertently mistaken them for empirical truths.
This phenomenon is famously addressed in the book Moneyball, in which Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team, took an unconventional approach to selecting his players. Against the status quo, Beane bypassed players with more traditional and subjective markers of success in favor of those who held characteristics that had provided statistically better results. While his methods were widely criticized at first, his reliance on data rather than gut instinct led the Oakland A’s to an unprecedented winning streak in 2002.
Data, unlike intuition, can be measured and examined free of manipulation or bias. This simple shift in perspective can help you make informed decisions that yield the results you need without investing additional time and resources into the less effective guess-and-check method.
Confront Individual and Organizational Bias
Bias is particularly harmful to new business initiatives because we are so often blind to it. Biases can cloud the judgment of key individuals or executives, but they can also be adopted by entire organizations. The most common workplace biases affecting organizations include first-impression bias, groupthink bias, justification bias, ostrich bias, and proximity bias. It is not a question of whether we have experienced bias. It is a question of how often.
First-impression bias describes the baseless significance or loyalty we attribute to the first information we receive on a topic. The bias shapes our faith in or understanding of any further research we conduct, which can persuade us to invest countless hours and dollars into what we perceive to be the best course of action when it may just be the first course of action we were exposed to. This is one of the most common mistakes good leaders make, and data is the most reliable correction available.
Adam Grant, a renowned organizational psychologist, emphasizes that bias is not just an individual problem: organizations carry bias too, often passed on as norms or traditions that become embedded in how things are done. Changing organizational systems is how you change organizational habits.
Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, Senior Associate Dean of Executive MBA Programs at Duke University, adds that addressing organizational bias has to be institutionalized. It starts with education, then moves to collecting and analyzing data to find where systemic biases exist in the structure of the organization, and then to developing concrete responses. The answer to avoiding the costly pitfalls of building initiatives on a foundation of bias is always the same: data.
Only Invest in Ideas Worth Measuring
New initiatives require time to develop, launch, and integrate into the company workflow and culture. Rather than investing time and money in initiatives with little hope of providing measurable change, Blue Margin follows two simple rules: measure everything we do, and only do things that are worth measuring. This policy provides a filter that protects us from investing in marginal processes or initiatives, channeling our efforts toward highest-value projects and minimizing the time and energy required by the traditional guess-and-check method.
We also work hard to ensure every member of the Blue Margin team has direct and easy access to the metrics measuring our progress toward success. We accomplish this with dashboards. Similar to the heads-up displays found in newer cars that project vital information directly in your line of sight, we recommend giving prominence to automated dashboards on your company intranet, on screens throughout the office, and via automated email alerts. This allows your team to see in a single glance what their goal is, how they stand against that goal, and how much time they have to reach it.
This practice is what we call The Dashboard Effect and has proven effective not only in our own business but in the many organizations we serve.
Experience the Dashboard Effect Today
Blue Margin has partnered with hundreds of organizations who have chosen to take aggressive action against the costly repercussions of decisions based on bias and intuition. If you would like to learn more about The Dashboard Effect or discuss how our services could increase your organization’s profits or efficiency, check out our available case studies or contact a member of our team today.
