The mind is a dangerous place.
pre-s: Do you have a clear purpose and strategy for your data team and how it fits in your organization? Next week on Sept 10th, I’m hosting a 4-hour workshop to give you the confidence and direction you need to lead with data. You will walk away with a clear purpose for your data team and a vision for how to prioritize and execute.
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Our biases and assumptions are littered like landmines across our work life - just waiting to catch us off guard.
A fundamental way this shows up? How we interpret outcomes.
Did you have a great outcome with that data project?
It probably sounds like this:
“What a great hire I made.”
“What a great project leader I am.”
“We worked really hard.”
“Our team is really technically skilled.”
We credit our skills. Pat ourselves on the back. This is the default position for good outcomes.
Did you have a bad outcome on the data project?
It probably sounds like this:
“That person lied during the interview. How could I have known?”
“The executives weren’t patient enough and pulled the budget early. We never got to finish the first phase.”
“The product we chose for our data platform couldn’t do the things we needed it to. It set us back months of work.”
“The software team was a constant bottleneck and couldn’t deliver us the data needed on time.”
We blame bad luck. Let ourselves off the hook.
This is our default position for bad outcomes.
All of the above quotes could be accurate to reality. But they also very heavily weighted toward one side.
Whether you have a great outcome or abysmal, the true cause is very likely in the middle between luck and skill. Your great outcome was influenced by several elements of luck. Your bad outcome was influenced by several aspects of your lack of skill or poor choices.
The problem with our natural bias to blame luck or skill is that we miss key learnings. We don’t accurately acknowledge the importance of things outside of our control. Or we fail to understand ways we contributed to poor outcomes.
Look back over the last 6 months and identify a good or bad outcome that occurred. How did you interpret that event? More luck or skill? What biases are evident in your thinking?
How could you reinterpret that event with a more balanced view of the role of luck and skill?
I’m here,
Sawyer
