11 ways our brains trip us up at work
Understanding how cognitive biases affect us in the workplace
This article originally appeared on the Range Blog.
Our brains are energy hungry and responsible for processing huge amounts of data. As such, they are constantly looking for shortcuts. They seek heuristics and abstractions to speed up decision making and reduce the amount of energy spent thinking.
Most of the time these heuristics are useful and the reason we’re able to get on with our daily lives. But when they break down, they lead to irrationality, a distorted perspective on reality, and inaccurate judgement.
Even the smartest people are susceptible to faulty thinking.
There are dozens of well-known mental shortcuts that regularly trip us up; these are collectively referred to as cognitive biases. In the workplace, they affect how we interact with colleagues, how we make decisions, and who we reward and recognize.
In this article, we’ll take a look at eleven cognitive biases that affect team coordination and culture in the workplace every day.
