Decision-Making Traps for Teams to Avoid

Decision-Making Traps for Teams to Avoid
Decision-making traps can be viewed as unexplored biases. While decision-making biases cannot be eliminated, effective leaders and high performing teams can anticipate and mitigate preconceptions if they know what to look and listen for. And the higher the stakes or your vested interest in the decision, the more likely these decision-making traps for teams to avoid will emerge.

Top Biases and Tips to Mitigate Them
Based upon new manager training data, here is the list of the most common decision-making traps for teams and tips to avoid them.

• Confirmation Bias
  Confirmation bias occurs when we favor information that confirms our preconceptions and disregard evidence to the contrary. This decision-making trap can lead to poor decisions as leaders might overlook critical data that contradicts their initial beliefs.

  Tips to Mitigate Confirmation Bias
  Encourage psychological team safety and a culture of constructive debate where team members feel comfortable voicing and challenging assumptions. Consider deploying a “red team” to explicitly function as devil’s advocates to present alternative viewpoints and push toward a well-rounded analysis. Ask “How might we sabotage our current thinking?”

• Anchoring Bias
  Anchoring refers to relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the “anchor”) when making decisions. Anchoring bias can stand in the way of a clear picture and artificially narrow options before other ideas are fully vetted. This can skew judgment and result in suboptimal outcomes.

  Tips to Mitigate Anchoring Bias
  Gather a wide range of data points before making decisions. Reframe the problem to look at it from different angles and institute a decision-making process that forces everyone to consider multiple perspectives to purposefully dilute the influence of initial information.  Ask “What if” and “How might we?”

• Overconfidence Bias
  Overconfidence bias occurs when leaders have an inflated belief in their own abilities or the accuracy of their information. This can lead to risky decisions without adequate consideration of potential pitfalls. It can also lead to complacency.

  Tips to Mitigate Overconfidence Bias
  Foster a culture of humility, benchmarking, continuous learning. Encourage leaders to seek feedback and regularly review past decisions in project postmortems to learn from mistakes.  Ask, “What can get in the way of continued success?”

• Recency Bias
  We know from decision making training that the recency bias, or availability heuristic, is the tendency to take mental shortcuts and make judgments based on readily available or latest information rather than all relevant data. This can result in skewed risk assessments and decisions. For example, after seeing several news reports about car accidents, you might make a judgment that accidents are much more common in your area than they really are.

  Tips to Mitigate Recency Bias
  Implement a structured decision-making process that emphasizes data collection and analysis. Ensure that decisions are based on comprehensive information rather than anecdotal evidence. Ask, “what else should we consider to objectively measure the true probabilities we are evaluating?”

• Groupthink Bias
  Groupthink, or “herd mentality,” occurs when the desire for harmony and conformity within a group leads to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making. A common mistake during action learning leadership development programs, team members may seek to suppress dissenting opinions rather than conduct a critical evaluation of the decision at hand.

  Tips to Mitigate Groupthink Bias
  Promote diversity of thought and encourage open dialogue. Assign independent teams to assess the same problem and compare their conclusions to identify potential biases.  Ask, “What unspoken assumptions might the group hold regarding this decision?”

• Sunk Cost Fallacy Bias
  The sunk cost fallacy is the inclination to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, even when it is no longer viable. This can lead to throwing good resources after bad to justify past choices.

  Tips to Mitigate Sunk Cost Fallacy Bias
  Focus on future potential rather than past investments. Regularly review projects and be willing to pivot or abandon initiatives that no longer align with strategic goals. Ask, “Are we focusing on the desired outcome or the past?”

• Status Quo Bias
  Status quo bias is the preference for the current situation, leading to resistance to change. This can hinder innovation and adaptation even when status quo is not the best option.

  Tips to Mitigate Status Quo Bias
  Cultivate a mindset of agility and adaptability. Encourage experimentation and celebrate successful changes to demonstrate the benefits of moving beyond the status quo. Ask, “How does staying the same help us achieve our goals?”  and “Would we choose how we are currently doing it if we started from scratch?”

• Framing Effect Bias
  The framing effect occurs when decisions are influenced by the way information is presented rather than the information itself. Different wording or context can lead to vastly different choices.

  Tips to Mitigate Framing Effect Bias
  Present information in multiple ways to identify potential framing biases. Focus on the core data and consider how alternative presentations might alter perceptions. Always frame and reframe the problem or opportunity in a way that generates multiple options and collaborative debate.  Ask, “If we had fresh eyes, how would we frame the context?”

A Note on Different Types of Decisions
Not all decisions are of equal importance or urgency.  Invest the time to clearly differentiate irreversible decisions from decisions that can be easily adjusted as more data presents itself.  Then, do not get trapped into spending too much time and effort for a decision that can be modified over time.”

A Note on Alignment vs. Agreement
We know from change management consulting experts that alignment is a must-have and agreement is a nice to have in most decision scenarios. It is ok to disagree as long as you can fully commit as a team.

The Bottom Line
We know from leadership simulation assessment data that even the most seasoned leaders can fall prey to cognitive biases and decision-making traps that hinder performance and engagement. When it comes to effective decision-making, go fast to go slow.  Be thoughtful and intentional in how you and your team make decisions.  Because you will never have 100% of the data, focus on getting it 80% right while avoiding the most common decision-making traps.

To learn more about decision making traps for teams, download 3 Steps to Set Your Team Up to Make Better Decisions