“Objectivity is impossible, despite our best intentions”
“Despite their best intentions, executives fall prey to cognitive and organizational biases that get in the way of good decision making.” So opens a current McKinsey and Company article, stating C-suites are particularly adverse to accepting: “How could I possibly have risen to the top of the ranks if I am vulnerable to blind spots and biases?!”
Behavioral economists have amassed undeniable evidence that “motivated reasoning” (I love that term) impacts every mortal. McKinsey, Strategic Decision Group and others have offered guidance for navigating these pitfalls for more than a decade. Yet Corporate America largely ignores these warnings. So, to answer the skeptical executive: You succeeded despite harmful biases only because colleagues and competitors are also ignoring the same warnings.
The full damage goes unnoticed because few organizations equip themselves to reliably detect biases before or after decisions are made. No one measures the capital and talent squandered on second- or third-rate solutions versus the better (albeit less desirable) solutions that were passed over (or never even surfaced). If we meet or exceed the original business case forecasts, we declare victory, never knowing what we would have achieved with active bias defenses.
The Motivations Map
The McKinsey article offers one of many defenses: the Motivations Map applied at the front end of strategic work, documenting the organizational forces that skew perspectives such as bonus KPIs. And to be clear – this is not an issue of unethical behavior nor lower intelligence (in fact, higher intelligence can make one more vulnerable to some biases and blind spots!).
A further step is individually polling the project team members at the beginning of the work: What do you think is going to be the best solution? What do your boss and colleagues hope will be the recommendation? What do you hope is not the outcome of this due diligence?
The Best Defense
Yet even using the Motivations Map and every other behavioral tool in the arsenal does not provide strong protection. The research warns that awareness of our biases does not change our perspectives… we likely land on the same second-rate outcome anyway.
The best defense to ensure our capital and strategy teams include members who are truly unbiased (indifferent to the ultimate recommendation so long as it maximizes the organization’s success), trained in detecting and neutralizing biases, have sufficient authority to course correct when biases are derailing decision excellence.
If we are not actively applying effective defenses, we are almost certainly squandering resources and opportunities but will never know it.
Strategic Bets 