By Scott Mautz
Successful decision-making hinges on gathering and analysing data effectively. Here, Scott Mautz argues the benefits of the “Collect and Respect” credo, and puts forward strategies to broaden perspective, avoid biases, and critically assess the available information, so helping to ensure that your decisions derive the optimum leverage from it.
Leaders are required to make decisions all day long, but some are more skilled at making them than others. In my research, I have found that the best leaders draw on their mental strength for the discipline, courage, and conviction it takes to make better decisions, more decisively.
One key area to focus on to improve your decision-making is data – both collecting it and analysing it wisely. Research from the Kellogg School of Management showed that, in the typical meeting, an average of three people do over 70 per cent of the talking. That makes it hard to get a diversity of input to aid decision-making, especially if there are introverts you’d like to hear from. But a breadth of input is critical for making great decisions. Otherwise, you risk working in an echo chamber, a vacuum, with only a few vocal opinions shaping an incomplete point of view.
Of course, just collecting data to broaden your point of view isn’t enough. Potentially great decisions turn into misguided ones when that data isn’t properly analysed.
To ensure that you’re gathering perspective-broadening data, in the right way, and to then properly honour and respect that data by analysing it critically, you should invoke the “Collect and Respect” credo. The credo centres on three fundamental points to keep in mind when collecting data, along with three key points for analysing data.
When Collecting Data Force Fresh Perspective
This simply means to gather data from sources outside of your typical circle. For example, encourage introverts at that meeting to share their points of view. Or get an informed outsider’s point of view – someone in the industry, but not close to the decision. For example, say you’re struggling to decide which vendor should supply a key component. So, you bring in outsiders from other companies, all of whom have experience with each vendor, and who can share pros and cons of each.
It also helps to seek out others to contradict your opinion, not validate it. Ask someone to play devil’s advocate and challenge assumptions. Of course, this isn’t about gathering so much data that you overwhelm yourself or unduly delay a decision, but about expanding your point of view selectively and wisely.
Beware the Danger of Familiarity
Being super-knowledgeable in an area can be just as dangerous as helpful. When making a decision on a familiar topic, it’s easy to cut corners and just rely on what you already know to make the call. But when you do, you lose objectivity and may miss important, fresh perspectives. For example, say you have to hire someone for a role on your team, a role you’ve personally occupied in the past. So, you cut the hiring process short and hire someone like you (since you did the job so well and know what it takes). But, in so doing, you miss interviewing candidates who might be very different from you, and who would bring a much-needed new perspective to the table. The goal here is to keep challenging what you know and recognise when you’re too close to be objective.
Revisit Your Values
While collecting a variety of data, don’t forget one constant: your values. Revisiting your values can make it clear what to decide. Values can turn guesses into good decisions. For example, if a core value is risk-taking, your decision should probably push some boundaries.
When Analysing Data
1. Be Mindful of How Data Is Presented to You
Every piece of information you receive from someone else has been structured, represented, or filtered in a way intended to influence your opinion. Be careful to avoid what neuroscientists call the “framing bias”. This bias occurs when your decision is influenced not by what information is presented, but how it’s presented.
As a simple example to illustrate, a team shows a chart visually indicating a high growth rate for a product (Chart A below), for the period from April through May.
At a glance, the overall visual impression is one of high growth. But when you change the scale of the chart and examine the same data over a longer time period, from January through July (Chart B), you see it’s a modest short-term spike amid an overall alarming decline. How data is presented can shape the decision you make, so it’s important to keep a critical eye.
Now, some framing of information is often helpful, for example to help make different decision options clearer. Just keep in mind the motivations behind the information or argument presented. Be clear on what is fact and what is opinion. Watch for potential distortion or exaggeration of facts or data. And surround yourself with people who can help break down and interpret the data you have access to, and who can help course-correct any of your misperceptions about the data.
2. Listen Carefully to What’s Said and Not Said
Actively listen when people are sharing data or their point of view. Ask lots of questions. Don’t get swayed by emotion and pay attention to what’s not being said. For example, you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy that new car. And while the salesperson goes on about the fantastic mileage, they’re not answering your question about safety ratings. There’s often something behind what’s not being said.
3. Analyse Versus Paralyse
Invest the time you’ve allotted to carefully analyse the data you’ve collected. But don’t drown in the data, getting paralysed by it all, unable to discern what to do next.
Look for patterns in data, or discrepancies and inconsistencies. Of course, keep an open mind, but at the same time, question data sources and apply some healthy scepticism. If it’s a big strategic decision, take time to analyse, up until the point you worry that the opportunity will pass you by (like when acquiring a key competitor or investing in a start-up).
Again, though, avoid analysis paralysis. Equipped with the best information and perspective you have, just make the call. And don’t look back – except, possibly, to later evaluate that decision and learn from it.
You can also overcome analysis paralysis by following the advice of Google’s first chief decision scientist, Cassie Kozyrkov, who says this of critical analysis: commit to your default decision up front. Meaning, pick a decision among your emerging options, up front, using your best judgement of the pros and cons of the options at that time. Ask yourself, “If I see no additional data, or more influential data, beyond what I’ve already seen, what will I do? Which decision would I make if I had to choose right now?” Then, have the discipline to stick to your default choice if the data doesn’t clearly tell you otherwise. This keeps you from swimming in the data for too long or relying on it too much.
4. Your First Small Step
Mark deadlines for upcoming substantive decisions on your calendar. Also mark a window of time before each deadline for data collection and analysis (reviewing the “Collect and Respect” credo principles for each at that time). We often don’t gather the data we need for an informed decision because we feel rushed for time, not able to wait for the data. So, plan for it. And keep in mind that the data is only as good as your disciplined analysis of it. Being careless in the process here is as unhelpful as never having collected the data to begin with.
5. In Moments of Weakness
Sometimes you have to rush to a decision or just make the call, and that’s understandable. But when you feel like you’ve skipped the data collection and analysis steps and it could have affected the quality of the decision, commit to upping your discipline next time around. Remember the decision you made without proper analysis, and compare it to the one you made where you did due diligence. You’ll surely see a difference in the quality of decision that will reinforce the importance of getting back on track here for future decisions.
There’s no question that decision-making is one of the key tests of leadership. By developing good data-gathering and analysis habits, you’ll be on your way to passing that test with flying colours.
About the Author
Scott Mautz – author of The Mentally Strong Leader, is the founder and CEO of Profound Performance™, a keynote, training, and coaching company. Mautz is a former Procter & Gamble executive who successfully ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion-dollar businesses. He is also the multi-award-winning author of Leading from the Middle, Find the Fire, and Make It Matter. Mautz has been named a “CEO Thought-leader” by the Chief Executives Guild and a “Top 50 Leadership Innovator” by Inc.com, He is faculty on reserve at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business for Executive Education and is a top instructor at LinkedIn Learning. To learn more, visit his website: www.scottmautz.com.
