How Bias Gets in the Way of Decisions Within Organizations from the Human Capital Innovations Podcast

Key insights

• Data literacy is about finding the story behind the data and understanding its context, challenging assumptions and biases that may lead to incorrect interpretations and decisions.
• Recognizing bias and understanding the potential impact of other variables is crucial in interpreting data accurately and making informed decisions within organizations.
• Critical thinking and asking hard questions are essential for making better informed decisions based on data.
• Understanding how the brain works is the number one business skill because it helps us understand why people do what they do and allows us to coach and improve them.
• The power of diversity and inclusion lies in the fact that different individuals have different brain experiences and pasts, leading to potentially different outputs and perspectives.
• Challenging assumptions and biases through self-reflection is crucial to avoid uncomfortable biases that drive decision-making and behavior.
• "We can become aware of our biases, create new neural pathways, and rewire our brain to change the way those biases take hold of us in the way we make decisions."
• Showing your work and questioning assumptions can help uncover biases and improve decision-making at both the individual and organizational level.

Summary

• 00:00 Data literacy is crucial for informed decision-making, but bias can hinder this process, so understanding and mitigating bias is essential for inclusive and equitable decision-making within organizations.
• Data literacy is important for making informed decisions, but bias can hinder this process, so it is crucial to understand and mitigate bias in order to achieve more inclusive and equitable decision-making within organizations.
• Kevin Hannigan is a senior leader who uses data and analytics to transform organizations, improve performance, and believes in constantly evolving and improving ourselves in business and personal life.
• The speaker mentions having two dogs and feeling bad that they are not included in their official family pictures.
• 02:52 Data literacy is crucial for organizations to interpret and challenge data biases, as it helps in making better decisions by understanding the story behind the numbers.
• Data literacy is the ability to interpret and analyze data, including qualitative information, and to critically think and challenge the data presented.
• Data literacy is about understanding the story behind the data and challenging biases to get to the true meaning, as numbers can have multiple interpretations.
• Having a clear goal and using critical thinking with data is essential for making better decisions within organizations, as different questions can lead to different answers.
• 06:08 The lack of willingness to challenge and add context to data can lead to negative impacts on decision-making within organizations, hindering meaningful conversations and addressing data corruption issues.
• Enrollment numbers during the pandemic had an impact on universities, and when presented with data showing a decline in enrollments in a program within his department, the speaker questioned the validity of the data and the decisions being made based on it.
• The lack of willingness to challenge and add context to data resulted in negative impacts on the department's decision-making, highlighting the importance of digging deeper and addressing data corruption issues.
• Organizations often face situations where individuals are put on the defensive and spend time dealing with presented information rather than having meaningful conversations, which can hinder decision-making.
• 09:28 Data literacy is essential in decision-making to avoid biases, as demonstrated by the mistaken correlation between eating hamburgers and reduced cancer risk; critical thinking and understanding the brain's biases are key to making informed decisions.
• Data literacy is crucial in decision-making as biases can lead to misinterpretation of data, and it is important to consider alternative factors that may influence the observed correlation.
• Eating more hamburgers was mistakenly correlated with a reduced risk of dying from cancer due to a confounding variable, highlighting the presence of bias in data interpretation.
• Critical thinking and having hard conversations, pushing back and asking questions, allows us to uncover the true meaning of data and make more informed decisions, while understanding how our brain and its implicit and unconscious biases influence our decision-making process.
• Understanding how the brain works is crucial in business because it helps explain why people behave the way they do, and the brain's shortcuts and flaws influence how it processes information and determines relevance.
• Making connections based on past experiences can lead to biased decision-making if the context has changed, and sometimes there may not be a direct connection at all.
• 13:50 Challenge assumptions and consider different perspectives to avoid bias in decision-making; surround yourself with diverse perspectives, practice mindfulness and self-reflection, and be aware of confirmation bias and motivated reasoning.
• Our brains make assumptions based on past experiences, but it's important to challenge these assumptions and consider different perspectives to avoid bias in decision-making.
• Unconscious biases can lead to irrational decisions and behaviors, so it is important to constantly challenge assumptions and reflect on one's thinking to avoid being driven by biases.
• Surround yourself with people who will point out your blind spots, practice mindfulness and self-reflection to minimize bias, and be aware of confirmation bias where you only pay attention to evidence that supports your beliefs.
• Challenge motivated reasoning by being aware of how it shapes and interprets information to support a desired outcome, and recognize that it is usually not intentional or malicious.
• Prejudice, bias, discriminatory practices, and stereotyping stem from mental shortcuts in our brains, but we can become aware of them, create new neural pathways, and change our decision-making process; at the organizational level, biases are built into systems and procedures, and becoming aware of both individual and organizational biases is important.
• 18:36 People's initial impressions of products can be influenced by biased reviews, but seeking diverse perspectives, questioning information, and creating an inclusive environment can help organizations make better decisions and avoid bias.
• People's initial impressions of a product on Amazon or other review platforms can be influenced by biased reviews, leading to skepticism or misunderstanding, but additional reviews can provide more context and clarify the situation.
• Ask diverse perspectives, question the truthfulness of information, show your work, and create an environment where everyone's voice is heard to avoid bias and make better decisions within organizations.
• Industries like science and medicine use the scientific method to come up with hypotheses and actively seek information to disprove them, but in business, people often rely on biased thinking and anecdotal evidence.
• 21:31 Seek information to disprove biases and be aware of their existence when making decisions; turn data into actionable wisdom by framing the question properly and assessing acceptable risks rather than absolute safety; a restaurant's hiring decision based on the chef's five-star meals without considering the goal of quick service resulted in failure; connect with Kevin Hanegan on his website or LinkedIn to learn more about his work.
• Use the scientific method to make decisions by seeking information to disprove biases and be aware of their existence.
• Data can be turned into actionable wisdom by first identifying the question or decision at hand, framing it properly, and understanding that the goal is to assess acceptable risks rather than absolute safety.
• A restaurant made a hiring decision based on the chef's five-star meals without considering the restaurant's goal of quick service, resulting in the chef's failure.
• To connect with Kevin Hanegan and learn more about his work, visit his website or find him on LinkedIn.
• 24:54 Data literacy is important for everyone, not just data scientists, as it helps us make better decisions and avoid biases when interpreting information from sources like Amazon reviews, news, and weather forecasts.