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a disproportionate amount of time try-ing to avoid past mistakes rather thantrying to find new successes.

Naturally, leaders want to spare co-workers the negative events theyendured, but it’s not always possibleand it’s not always prudent (especiallywhen the costs are low). People like totake risks and experience things forthemselves. Leaders would do well toremember this before they parcel outcautionary advice or prohibitions.

Experience is a better teacher thanmost, if not all, leaders. Leaders needto serve as resources, but not impedelearning. Leaders ought to hold theircoworkers accountable for results, butthey shouldn’t let their failures, or theircoworkers’, inhibit future risk-taking.

3. Pattern recognition bias. Yourbrain performs two functions very well:storing invariant memories of all pastsensory data and recognizing patternsso it knows where to store those inputs.Unfortunately, these two functionsadversely affect decision-making. Yourbrain is uncomfortable with ambiguity.It will attach information to a knownpattern, even if it’s not a perfect fit.There may not be much of a fit at all.Your brain is so eager to predict and fileinformation that you’re apt to overlookor oversimplify complex issues.

I often encounter leaders who areexperts at predicting their colleagues’behavior. These leaders get what theyexpect, in part because their expecta-tions are simple, known, and comfort-ing—unlike complex or evolvingissues. Instead of supporting a col-league’s desire to change, some leadersexpress disbelief. In fact, they sit andwait, looking to pounce on a return tothe old behavior: “Aha! I knew youwouldn’t change!” They want to beproven right, it seems, more than they

want to revise their beliefs. Revisingbeliefs requires a re-filing of informa-tion, of course, which our brains resist.

If someone is trying to change, betheir advocate. Be receptive to new infor-mation and patterns. Open a new file.

4. Frequency bias. What may seemlike serendipity or pure coincidencemay be a product of frequency bias.Many news outlets work off the samenews feeds. Bloggers comment on whatappears on these outlets or other blogs,and soon it feels like you can’t turnaround without hearing about Tiger’sone-car accident and rumored affair, orKristen Stewart’s skyrocketing career, orZhu Zhu Pets as the hot holiday gift forkids. It’s more about re-scooping today,than it is about getting the scoop.

Use the frequency bias to your bene-fit whenever possible (getting yourbrand or name out on multiple chan-nels), but don’t mistake the omnipres-ence of an image, person, product, orevent for its true importance. Makedecisions based upon objective merits,not the number of media “hits”.

5. Attachment bias. It’s hard to fullyappreciate your bias toward knownentities—people, product, processes.You may be blind to how far thatattachment extends. Kodak built itsbrand and business on film, but theywere also the first to discover digitalphotography. They had the sense topatent their discoveries, but imaginehow hard it must have been to let go offilm: their meal ticket since 1888. Thenagain, imagine how hard it must be towatch their revenue base erode, as theyscurry to keep up with digital imaging.

6. Recency bias. When read a list ofitems, you are more apt to recall theitems at the end. The first items on thelist are also more memorable than theones in the middle. Awareness of yourtendency to recall first and (especially)last items can lead to better decision-making. It might help you, for instance,give job candidates who weren’t thefirst or last interviewed a fair shake.

We’re all biased—so rather than op-erate from a position of moral certainty,start decision-making processes by tak-ing a bias inventory. Ask, “How mightmy opinion be shaped by historicalprecedent, negative emotional experi-ences, positive emotional attachment, orpredictive predilections?” and “Howmight I be influenced by a frequency orrecency bias?” Your decisions may notbe bias-free, but they’ll be wiser. PE

Gary B. Cohen is the author of JUST ASK LEADERSHIP(McGraw-Hill) and cofounder of CO2Partners, LLC.Visit www.justaskleadership.com.

ACTION: Recognize your biases.

by Gary Cohen

WHILE YOU MAY THINKthat you can make

important decisions free ofbias, you are likely biased to somedegree. But there are ways to manage itin order to serve others more fairly andeffectively. The first step is to identifysix common sources of bias that canhave a big impact on your decisions:

1. Historical bias. “Those who can-not learn from history are doomed torepeat it,” said George Santayana.When you hear this quote, you cananticipate what comes next: a plea tostudy historical situations that parallelthe current one in order to learn frompast mistakes and, to a lesser extentperhaps, successes. What you don’toften hear is the warning that ought tofollow: Context matters—a lot. Forexample, in making decisions asChairman of the United States FederalReserve, Ben Bernanke relies heavily onhis study of the economy during theGreat Depression. To date, the results ofBernanke’s maneuvers have been large-ly positive, and he’s earned his share ofsupporters. Warren Buffet, for one,gives Bernanke a thumbs-up for help-ing avert a monetary catastrophe.

Santayana subscribers are likely pleas-ed by Bernanke’s impulse to employlessons from the past, but today’s econ-omy is vastly different from the 1920’s.Back then, the FDIC had not set upinsurance for depositors, Freddie andFannie May did not exist, the flow ofinformation was slower, and the inter-national community was not nearly asinterdependent. An ominous cloud ofdebt hangs above us, and Bernanke’sstrategy may prove penny-wise andpound- (or multi-trillion-dollar) foolish.

It’s important to learn from past mis-takes and successes, but don’t overlookthe importance and complexity of cur-rent conditions—of context. Otherwise,you might wind up with a problem ofunprecedented proportions.

2. Negative emotional bias. You recallnegative events more often and moresharply than you do positive ones—inpart because memory serves an evolu-tionary purpose, warning you of dan-gers. This enhanced recall of negativeevents may explain why you may spend

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Beyond BiasM a k e b e t t e r d e c i s i o n s .

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