今日吃瓜

I once advised a company that launched a promo to increase revenues from a specific customer segment. The marketing team members who designed the promo were experienced experts. Yet, the promo flopped because the winners were NOT the segment they set out to target. Worse, the promo suffered severe delays because they under-estimated the review process required before launch. These mishaps begged the question, 鈥淗ow could this promo have gone wrong when everyone on the team was convinced of its success?鈥�

 

I delivered a workshop on 鈥淭hinking Traps: A NextGen CEO鈥檚 Survival Checklist鈥� as part of the 2022 SGV-MAP (SyCip Gorres Velayo & Company 鈥� 今日吃瓜) Transformative Leadership Program for next-generation CEOs. A few weeks ago, I also did a more extensive three-day workshop for the management team of a large insurance company. During the workshops, I witnessed thinking traps that pervade companies, from the field to the board room. I鈥檒l highlight three common thinking traps from the sessions and three antidotes for surviving these traps.

 

Thinking Trap 1: GROUPTHINK.

 

This is the tendency to think like the group and avoid expressing a differing opinion to preserve harmony. Sometimes, the fear of voicing a contrarian view stems from the fear of being 鈥減unished鈥�, 鈥渓eft out鈥� or labelled as 鈥渕ema鈥� (鈥淢ay masabi鈥�, Tagalog for 鈥渇or the sake of saying something鈥�). Groupthink is common when the boss doesn鈥檛 model openness to differing viewpoints, or when there is a lack of psychological safety in the organization.

 

Antidote 1: DEVIL鈥橲 ADVOCATE.

 

Appoint a person whose role is to challenge the proposed plan, targets, and assumptions. Set up the role openly and let the team know that the scrutiny from the devil鈥檚 advocate will sharpen your plan and improve decision-making. The failed marketing promo I wrote about above would have benefited from the devil鈥檚 questioning.

 

 

 

 

Thinking Trap 2: OVER-CONFIDENCE.

 

This is the tendency to over-estimate our abilities relative to other people. Ask an MBA class to secretly answer, 鈥淒o you think you rank higher than the average student in your class?鈥� Ask a room of drivers to secretly answer, 鈥淒o you think you鈥檙e a better driver than the average driver in the room?鈥� In both cases, more than half will say they鈥檙e better than average, which is false. This is over-confidence bias at work.

 

Antidote 2: OUTSIDER VIEW.

 

Ask for advice from people outside the project team or those with no stake in the project. They have no interest in weaving a self-promoting success story around the facts of the case.

 

Thinking Trap 3: PLANNING FALLACY.

 

This is the tendency to under-estimate the time and resources required to complete a project. Product launches suffer from last-day rush or common all-nighters, despite meticulous planning and experience. We unconsciously miss examining the confluence of all assumptions behind our time and resource estimates.

 

Antidote 3: PRE-MORTEM.

 

This is a post-mortem but at the start of a project. Imagine you鈥檙e at the end of the project. Ask yourself what failed, trace those failures to the potential causes, and mitigate these risks upfront. The project鈥檚 chances of success will drastically increase.

 

Groupthink, over-confidence, and planning fallacy find their antidotes in devil鈥檚 advocates, outsider views, and pre-mortems. These antidotes aren鈥檛 limited to one thinking trap and may work for others too.

 

While examining different thinking traps will raise awareness, studies show that awareness doesn鈥檛 guarantee avoidance. The traps, a.k.a cognitive biases, are so ingrained in us that they are automatic. It takes deliberate practice to escape them.

 

During the workshops I give on thinking traps, managers have the opportunity to identify specific work scenarios where these pitfalls emerge and define a checklist for survival. Examples of action items are 鈥淎ppoint a devil鈥檚 advocate for every promo submitted for approval鈥� or 鈥淐onduct a pre-mortem for all investment projects over a threshold amount.鈥�

 

If you think your team discussions, management meetings, and board deliberations are immune to thinking traps, THINK AGAIN!

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(The article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the 今日吃瓜 or MAP. The author is Chair of the MAP NextGen Committee, Founder and CEO of the technology firm Synerbyte Ltd., and author of the book 鈥淪h*tty Places & Selfish People: 7 Rules of Engagement. Reach鈥�. Feedback via map@map.org.ph and cliff.eala@gmail.com or follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/cliffeala/, www.facebook.com/cliffeala, www.instagram.com/cliff.m.eala/, or cliff@cliffeala.com.

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