How to Minimise Bias in Strategic Decision Making

How to take Bias out of Strategic Decision Making

As a leader, it is critical to make decisions. But how do you limit biases when looking for solutions? In this article, we will explore techniques to tackle bias and improve strategic decision making.

Strategic decision making
Strategic decision making
What research tells us…

In 2010 Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony, advisors to McKinsey & Company published a fascinating article on behavioural strategy in decision making.

Their research found that subconscious biases will undermine strategic decision making if they are left unchecked by the decision makers. To be efficient, leaders will understandably rely on the judgement of a team to provide them with advice. But unfortunately, biases can creep into any team’s reasoning and distort this advice.

A team can subconsciously dismiss evidence that contradicts something they strongly believe, or it can give too much weight to certain data sets, leading to faulty comparisons. By adopting a behavioural strategy to test the processes that lead to a recommendation, leaders can counter this subconscious bias and improve their strategic decision making.

Four steps to adopting a behavioural strategy in decision taking
  1. Decide which decisions warrant the effort
    It can be counterproductive and divisive to apply this review to all decisions. It can demotivate and even have an effect on the team’s overall performance. The strategy is better applied to rare critical decisions and to those important decisions that shape a company’s strategy over time.
  2. Identify the biases most likely to affect critical decisions
    Discuss and surface biases that may be undermining the decision making process. Evaluate past decisions and look at current decision processes. Repeated biases can become cultural traits creating dysfunctional patterns.
  3. Select practices & tools to counter the most relevant biases
    Select and put in place “debiasing” practices and tools. Decide on the specific tools that will work best for your company and its culture. Use mechanisms that are appropriate to the type of decision you are taking, to your company context, and to the decision making styles of your leaders.
  4. Embed practices into formal processes
    Good decision-making requires continual practice by all members of the management team. Instinct isn’t a good way to decide, it is important to embed these practices and processes in your company’s culture; that way you can ensure that the practices are used regularly and not just when someone feels uncertain about which way to go.
Making better decisions | Olivier Sibony (EN)

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Conclusion

This behavioural strategy path requires the commitment of the whole management team. You may not be able to completely eradicate bias from your decisions, but by applying the techniques highlighted in this article you can at least minimise them.


“You need internal critics—people who have the courage to give you feedback. This requires a certain comfort with confrontation, so it’s a skill that has to be developed. The decisions that come out of allowing people to have different views are often harder to implement than what comes out of consensus decision making, but they’re also better.” Anne Mulchay, chairman and former CEO of Xerox.

Attend the one-day course on Strategic Decision Making to discover other ways to take strategic decisions.

How to Build Rapport: 4 Techniques for Success

How to Build Rapport

When you are trying to develop rapport with others, make the Oxford Dictionary definition your mantra: “a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well”.

What does it take to accelerate “close and harmonious” communication with those you want to build strong and trusted relationships? STL takes a look at some simple but powerful strategies that help us to build rapport.

How to Build Rapport
How to Build Rapport
First Impressions Count

As with many business activities such as Negotiations, the way we appear and present ourselves matters. Your appearance helps you to connect with people and to lay the foundation of the relationship.

Matching your image to that of the people you are meeting suggests that you are, “one of a kind”. Ensuring you arrive in plenty of time for the meeting will set the tone. This applies not only to the meeting but also to the relationship.

Non-verbal Communication Engages OTHERS

The value and impact that a skillful and natural use of gestures, eye contact, facial expressions and a dynamic voice can have, is key. In global business situations, smile from time to time and look people in the eye when you are speaking.

You may have an especially important point to make. If so, you could raise your voice, slow your pace, or add a physical gesture to emphasize it. Good posture is important to convey confidence and gives others a sense of confidence.

Mirror and match your counterpart

However, if you are only concerned with your own image and body language, there won’t be alignment with your counterpart, which could alienate them.

Remember harmony?

You can generate rapport through harmonious communication. That means watching how the other person acts and interacts and matching their style. Also, take note of their facial expressions and try to respond in kind.

If they lean in and nod as you speak, you could mirror that by acting in the same way and using affirmative statements to encourage them.

Finding Common Ground

Once rapport is established, don’t stop there. Whether you are making small talk, getting to know your counterpart, or in the cut and thrust of a serious discussion, identify common ground. This can help you to take the rapport-building process to the next level.

Exploring shared topics is something that naturally excites people because it very quickly leads to more common ground, common acquaintances, and surprises.

Most importantly perhaps, people like to talk about themselves. Topics of shared interest enable you to demonstrate genuine interest. This helps to overcome the hidden barriers and develop warm and reciprocal conversations.

In Summary…

Relationships take time to build. Developing rapport with others can help you make quick gains. By ensuring you make great first impressions, using engaging non-verbal and vocal techniques, matching your counterpart, and finding common ground you can build rapport quickly and lay a foundation for strong relationships.