New Years Resolutions: Channeling Professor Brian Uzzi

One of my favorite lessons I learned at Kellogg involves the fallibility of the human mind in business situations. More specifically, we're prone to all sorts of cognitive biases. Instead of (or perhaps in addition to) quitting smoking, losing 10 pounds, or training for a marathon, it might be a good idea to try to avoid doing any of these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Two of the most common biases I see in the working world are the confirmation bias and the anchoring bias. (I'm sure my readers, all thousands of you, have some experiences with a few on that list as well.) If you recognizes these biases, you can use this recognition to make better decisions and avoid having derail meetings. To avoid the confirmation bias, make sure you're answering why you shouldn't be making a certain decision. To avoid the anchoring bias, try to re-anchor your audience on a different idea if they seem to be getting off track.

And in the words of the enigmatic Professor Brian Uzzi, whose class I really enjoyed, "Yeah . . . good . . . " (inside joke - sorry outsiders).