The Bright Side Of Bias

Introduction

The purpose of this article is not to provide more information about how biases are harmful to us, or to explain why it is essential to check for biases when working with a team on projects that involve important decisions that carry risks. Rather, it intends to offer an alternative perspective by looking at the "other side of the coin". By doing so, can be demonstrated how this way of thinking may improve decision-making by taking into account other factors that are sometimes overlooked, such as passion, emotions, and deep knowledge of the subject matter and more.

Abstract

Biases are often mistaken for poor decision-making when dealing with tough decisions and uncertainties. However, they are often just misinterpretations of people who have previously made bad decisions in the wrong circumstances, which have led to the current understatement of bias. This article aims to show that biases can be used in a positive way by being passionate and thoughtful about a specific subject and then applying those biases to take projects to the next level.

Therefore, biases can become a different way of evaluating solutions, and perhaps even a better way of taking risks. When people look at things from their unique perspective and bring their own knowledge to a project, it can be an important upgrade to the project. Passion comes with a mix of important perspectives that are often missing from projects, which can bring alignment, satisfaction, and a sense of ownership to the project. People who like their job are much more willing to do everything to ensure the project becomes a success. Therefore, people with passion and understanding are more likely to make better decisions than those without it. This way of tackling decisions and problems can have a huge positive impact on how projects are developed.

However, passion can sometimes lead to unpredictability, and if not managed properly, it can lead to unsafe decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary to use other tools to counteract the "dark side" of biases. Although biases can sometimes lead to difficult and poor decisions, it is important not to ignore the potential of good ideas that can come from exploring projects in this way. Passion and knowledge are often ignored and left out of projects because decisions are not filtered properly, leading to problems that could have been solved.

To address the downsides, it is important to use useful tools to evaluate and reflect on decisions and filter them well enough to bring out the best aspects.

What is a Bias?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, bias is "A strong feeling in favour of or against one group of people, or one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement" The same dictionary also mentions that bias is a bad thing that all humans have due to the way we think, act, and feel about things. We develop opinions on various matters and use them when interacting with others. This gives us a unique way of thinking based on our upbringing, relationship with our parents, education, financial status, travel experience, life experiences, and willingness to embrace change. However, having a bias does not necessarily make an opinion bad or wrong.

Biases can be used to achieve something that we all know is wrong, such as damaging someone. This is known as the "dark side" of biases, and it can greatly affect how we do things if not controlled or taken into consideration considerably. More information on this topic can be found in the article, "Biases in Project Management"

There is a fine line between what people believe and what is right, and biases have been used against others due to a sense of superiority or supremacy. This has caused great harm to humanity in the past. In modern society, it is important to consider biases while striving for the best way of doing things. Biases will always be present, so it is better to work with them rather than against them. By doing so, projects can become greater, more unique, and more successful.

What is the bright side ?

The bright side of bias is when everyone can be themselves at work, doing what they're passionate about and utilizing their unique perspectives and experiences to improve the way things are done. When managers trust their workers, companies and workers alike can benefit from this approach, resulting in better developed and finalized projects, as well as improved products, services, customer satisfaction, and sales.

This can begin by finding the right fit for a job or project or by providing training to capable individuals. It's important for companies to instill a sense of ownership in their workers towards the company and their projects, as this makes workers love what they do and feel the freedom to do their job in their own unique way, while also working harder to achieve goals and finalize projects in the best possible way.

Maintaining trust and involvement with workers involves helping them progress by allowing them to learn more about their subject or by providing them with useful tools for the job. Companies can also inspire involvement in other projects depending on their development, and can even provide different incentives based on job performance or meeting deadlines.

To continue building trust and involvement, companies should invest time in getting to know their workers better. Basic information such as hobbies, interests, things they want to learn, or whether they have kids or pets can help to better understand their perspectives and potentially lead to the generation of brilliant ideas to solve problems in their projects. Additionally, this sense of connectivity can help to create a working environment where people of different nationalities can work together, sharing their beliefs and ways of doing things. This can also include weekly activities on Fridays, as well as being part of a group that shares their passion or hobby.

This means that the Danish flat non-hierarchical way of working is a big plus for developing a sense of involvement, respect, and a space where all hands on deck mean everyone agrees to do the next step in continuing the project, which may be time-consuming but ultimately yields great results. Companies should adopt this approach to improve their projects and products.

How to be on the bright side?

Now that there is possible to see the other side of the coin, what can we possibly do to embrace biases and flip the coin towards its bright side view?

Here are some examples of tools that can be used to find the right track or to work with the bright biased side and how:

Decision Matrix

- The decision matrix is a simple tool which can help to understand the different possibilities in between different decisions that are needed to take. This is a fair tool because it allowed the complete team to get involved in the decision, which includes their way of thinking in the final solution this tool can be optimized when every decision is weight depending on their importance/relevance and so decisions ended up being aligned with the project/company or towards a common goal.

- Robust decisions making is a much more complex tool and it could replace a risk assessment process because it analyzes pre-information that sometimes is superficially looked at, and that is definitively needed to be observed.

- Choosing advantages

- , all these tools can maintain harmony and the "down to earth" decision-making so errors can be avoided at maximum.