Over the last couple of months, organisations have been forced to become more agile in their decision-making as they seek to respond to the changing social and business environment.
As we’ve been speaking to and supporting our client’s transition to virtual working, we’ve heard anecdotal evidence that they’ve been making faster and braver decisions to keep their people safe while maintaining an operating business.
… they’ve been making faster and braver decisions to keep their people safe while maintaining an operating business
However, as organisations start to remobilise and emerge from the lockdown, will the same rapid decision-making serve them well? And what can we learn from the brain that will help ensure effective decision-making in the next ‘new normal’?
Influences on our decision-making and the new normal
There is a lot of research looking at the economic, social and psychological factors that influence how and why we make the decisions we do. In this blog, I focus on three factors and their impact on decision-making in an organisation:
- Formal and informal inputs (Organisational and sociological)
- Confirmation bias (Psychological)
- Seeking certainty (Psychological)
Formal and informal inputs
When making decisions we are often provided with information (reports, data etc.) through a formal organisational process. Meetings are held with a restricted team of people who are considered to have the relevant knowledge and experience to understand the available material and make the required decisions.
However, not all the inputs we use in deliberation will be in this form. People often seek the opinions and views of others gathered in planned and unplanned informal meetings and interactions. I can recall many times when I’ve asked a colleague to help me think something through or to give me their opinion.
The level of remote working post Covid-19 is not yet known, but there seems to be general consensus that it will be significantly greater than before the crisis. This will reduce the opportunity for work-related sociological interaction and those random ‘water cooler’ conversations that are often folded into an individual’s opinion on the decision that needs to be made.
Similarly, we’re finding that some of our clients are bringing forward their digitalisation plans as part of their remobilisation strategy. This naturally brings with it higher levels of remote working, decentralised leadership and changes to the way decisions get made. This is discussed further in Mariam Mirza’s article ‘Is poor decision-making slowing down your digital transformation’?
The level of remote working post Covid-19 is not yet known, but there seems to be general consensus that it will be significantly greater than before the crisis. This will reduce the opportunity for work-related sociological interaction and those random ‘water cooler’ conversations
Confirmation bias
A way to increase the valuable informal element of decision-making is for people to proactively reach out to gain a different perspective from their colleagues / contacts. However, this needs to be done in a way which will overcome ‘confirmation bias’.
The brain deals with massive amounts of information and makes thousands of decisions each and every day. To be able to handle the required amount of processing the brain creates cognitive shortcuts (heuristics) to help guide decision-making and save time / energy. Some of these shortcuts manifest themselves as ‘biases’, of which we are generally unconscious. For additional thinking on this topic, you may wish to read our OE journal article “Data and the Heuristics Trap: Understanding Bias in Decision Making”.
Confirmation bias leads us to look for information and opinions that support our view that we are right – feeling right is rewarding to the brain. Opening up our thinking to review and challenge therefore feels like a threat so, unconsciously, people may not seek a diverse set of views (if left to choose who they receive input from).
Opening up our thinking to review and challenge therefore feels like a threat so, unconsciously, people may not seek a diverse set of views
Seeking certainty
In my recent blog I talked about the findings from neuroscience that suggest change and uncertainty at work is not registered any differently by the brain than a physical threat and so the natural human response is still ‘fight or flight’. To reduce the anxiety triggered by this response, the brain seeks to re-establish certainty as soon as possible.
As organisations reimagine and implement their new normal, they should seek a balance between continuing to make decisions quickly with the need to effectively explore and evaluate other options. The former will provide the certainty the brain seeks, the latter will ensure decisions have been effectively reviewed.
Tips for decision-making in the new normal
- Educate leaders / managers – biases and shortcuts used in decision-making are a natural mechanism used by the brain to deal with the massive amount of information and decisions it is expected to handle each day. Educating leaders / managers on how shortcuts and biases are a normal way for the brain to react will help raise awareness of the impact of these mechanisms. As a result of this increased understanding, leaders / managers will be able to be more accepting of processes and interventions aimed to overcome any shortcuts or biases.
- Identify diverse review network – organisations and individual leaders / managers should set up a network of colleagues / contacts that can provide a diverse set of opinions to help effectively challenge the thinking that is contributing to a decision.
- Reflection time – building-in time for people to reflect on their decisions and ensure that the speed of decision-making was not made to provide certainty.
- 2nd best answer – this technique requires a person to actively ask themselves if their first option wasn’t available what would be the next best decision. This forces the brain to come out of its normal decision-making approach and avoid the usual biases used.
This forces the brain to come out of its normal decision-making approach and avoid the usual biases used
Conclusion
As organisations begin to emerge, they will need to look at ways to maintain the best elements of the remote working experience. However, they will also need to consider the organisational, sociological and psychological impact that the new way of working has on the effectiveness of their decision-making.
For more information, please contact Julie Brophy.