Exploring the principles of a decision-driven approach — In a previous post, we introduced a conversation that isn’t new (mentioned as early as 2010) but, it’s coming back with force — decision-driven vs. data-driven decision making. Within the last couple of years (led by Cassie Kozyrkov, Lorien Pratt, Judea Pearl, and others), this ‘data science + decision science’…

Leading with questions, not looking for answers — We’ve all heard about ‘data-driven decision making’. The past decade has seen a race for more and more data — as if we just had perfect information, we’d make the right decision. This has often been described as being data-rich, but insight-poor. Taking it to the extreme, it seems paradoxical. …

A model for fostering productive discord, not avoiding conflict — “A growing reliance on teams in changing and uncertain organizational environments creates a managerial imperative to understand the factors that enable team learning” Amy Edmundson, Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams Psychological safety is a term that has grown significantly in popularity over the last five years even…

Creativity, optionality, and avoiding pre-mature convergence — If you’ve ever been part of a design thinking workshop or any similar ideation activities, you’ll be familiar with the level of importance ‘creativity and innovation’ places on divergent thinking. It’s long been seen as a necessary capability for producing novel ideas.‍

The story of ‘Crew Resource Management’ and a general exploration of productive disagreement. — In 1978, United Airlines Flight 173 was headed from New York City to Portland. On arrival, a mechanical failure caused the landing gear to deploy incorrectly. The captain, at the time, was one of the most senior pilots on United’s staff and had been with the airline for almost 30…

Memory, Image Theory, and the empty pursuit of certainty — Sometimes it feels like all we do is plan — and then plan for more planning. But what are the cognitive mechanisms we use to ‘plan’? and are they optimized for getting things ‘right’? If we were optimized to be right, we probably wouldn’t be so quick to anchor to…

Tools to mitigate commitment bias and overconfidence — Last week, we wrote about how ‘conviction’ is a very human attribute responsible for our powerful, yet irrational ability to almost will positive outcomes into existence; presumably against all odds. Today we’ll cover the dark side of conviction and overconfidence — and unfortunately, the more common tendency to overcommit and…

Conviction as a decision making superpower and exploring ‘narrative theory’ — If you’ve been following these posts, you may have noticed the word conviction comes up quite a bit. …

How OKRs act as a decision making framework — [As a Manager], you’re no longer paid for the amount of work you do; you’re paid for the quality of decisions you make.” - John Doerr, Measure What Matters Over the past 5 years, while working on OKR capabilities for Jira Align, I’ve interviewed and engaged with dozens of organizations…