The Best Way to Make Good Decisions and Win Arguments

Facts. Facts are always the best way to make a good decision and win an argument. When I tell you that micromanagement in a no-no (because EVERYONE knows that!), so what? Maybe it is awful but it works. And all we need is for it to work.

False. I do know. Because I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive that details the science behind motivation. What they found is that people who are correctly motivated, intrinsically motivated, are harder workers. Micromanagement is an extrinsic motivator.

Facts allow me to suggest and maintain all the things that help to make a great working culture here at GBL. And when I come up against a blocker, if I have a study or science on my side, it is pretty difficult to lose the argument.

For example, I had accidentally started hiring people in pairs. It was a coincidence the first couple of times, but soon I realized that these pairs turned into super teams. Working closely together, relying on each other and, not at all afraid to take on bigger projects because they had a partner on which they could rely.

The first of those teams actually both went on to be promoted to Team Leads one after the other.

I wanted to optimize for this kind of hiring, giving our new employees the same opportunity. However, all I had was my own anecdotal evidence. Sure, it had worked out really well two or three times, but does that make a pattern? Maybe we just got lucky and these were the outliers.

Bring in the facts!

Ron Friedman’s book The Best Place To Work has a chapter about workplace friendships. As it turns out, based on Gallup Polls, workplace friendships keep people passionate, focused and loyal to their employers.

The chapter also goes into another fascinating experiment on the science behind friendship itself. Art Aron developed a way to artificially create the circumstances under which friendships occur. And could make it happen in just an hour!

It turns out, the conditions under which you start a new job are very similar to the conditions that build friendships.

I had stumbled onto a practice that forges workplace friendships as early as the first day in our office.

It is now our standard practice to optimize for two employees starting simultaneously. I will push out start dates and negotiate contracts to make it happen. The extra week on the job, as it turns out, isn’t nearly as productive as having your own new work bff.

Any time a hiring manager argues that it would be so much nicer to have their new hire in the door faster, I have science to back up my decision.

Some of the other things that I have learned in the science-based books (the books are listed below) are:

• The quality that most people want in a leader is honesty but what sets leaders apart is forward thinking.
• Be very careful about bias in an interview. You are motivated to like and hire someone similar yourself.
• Money is not nearly as motivating as you think it is.
• Failure is highly underrated.

To find out for yourself and win yourself some arguments, I suggest you read:

Drive by Daniel Pink

The Best Places to Work by Ron Friedman

Work Rules by Laszlo Block

The Truth about Leadership: The No-Fads Heart of the Matter Facts You Need to Know by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

Send us your own suggestions for fact-based books as they apply science to better business practices!