Posts Tagged ‘feedback’

Lebron’s Decision-making Fallacy

Friday, July 9th, 2010


I suppose that if you are regularly referred to as the “Chosen One” and the “Second Coming,” it’s understandable that you would anoint yourself the “King.” And then why not have an appropriately regal coronation on ESPN? Certainly, your subjects — prostrated and intoxicated by awe and wonder — will praise the wisdom of your decision-making.

Like Homer’s ancient heroes, Lebron James is driven by a deep desire to defeat mortality and to live perpetually as the greatest and most admired basketball player ever. And he was likely traveling that path, until his certainty bias washed out the road.

Outside of Miami, fan and media response to his narcissistic self-annointing has been nearly universally scathing. Just a few examples:

How did James miscalculate so egregiously? He was a victim of certainty bias.

Robert Burton, author of On Being Certain, has exposed the hazards of “believing you are right even when you’re not.” His central premise: “Despite how certainty feels, it is neither a conscious choice nor even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of ‘knowing what we know’ are sensations that feel like thoughts, but arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that function independently of reason.”

In an October 2008 article in Scientific American entitled The Certainty Bias: A Potentially Dangerous Mental Flaw, Burton discusses how to avoid its pitfalls: “I don’t believe that we can avoid certainty bias, but we can mitigate its effect by becoming aware of how our mind assesses itself…I’ve taken strong exception to the popular notion that we can rely upon hunches and gut feelings as though they reflect the accuracy of a thought.

“My hope is the converse; we need to recognize that the feelings of certainty and conviction are involuntary mental sensations, not logical conclusions. Intuitions, gut feelings and hunches are neither right nor wrong but tentative ideas that must then be submitted to empirical testing. If such testing isn’t possible (such as in deciding whether or not to pull out of Iraq), then we must accept that any absolute stance is merely a personal vision, not a statement of fact.”

No one reading this blog has been deified. But like Lebron James, we are all susceptible to certainty bias. Good thinking requires that we be aware of and avoid its dangers. As Burton concludes: “Only in the absence of certainty can we have open-mindedness, mental flexibility and willingness to contemplate alternative ideas.”


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Errors are Portals of Discovery

Sunday, May 16th, 2010


Errors are…the portals of discovery.

James Joyce, Ulysses

Fear to make a mistake, to fail, or to take a risk is perhaps the most
general and common emotional block in problem solving.

James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting

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Years ago, my five-year-old son was assigned to paint a school bus. When he came home that day from kindergarten, he had his school bus, which he had painted blue. Sprawled over his painting were his teacher’s comments: School buses are yellow! In red ink, of course.

I found this interesting for two reasons. First, I wondered if the teacher was familiar with Pablo Picasso’s “blue period” — or with Jim Morrison, for that matter. More practically, I observed that the majority of school buses in our community are, indeed, blue. (See photo left.) Nonetheless, the teacher’s reprimand: School buses are yellow!

Yes, my son’s experience was extreme, but I suspect that most of us have had some similar experience growing up. We can all conjure up that painful memory of having offered an innovative solution or novel idea, only to be told that we were wrong or — worse — to be ridiculed or laughed at.

Consequently, we have been conditioned to seek the right answer and to expect a reward for it. The impacts of this conditioning are significant. We can become risk averse, prefer safe alternatives, reject novelty and sub-optimize.

Effective problem solving and decision-making requires that we embrace risk and accept the inevitable mistakes as learning opportunities. Our errors enrich us, opening portals through which we discover invigorating perspectives and flashes of insight. With each risk, we become more facile problem solvers, more dexterous decision-makers. We grow increasingly clever, agile and — if we keep at it long enough — wise.

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Bugs Bunny Didn’t Brainstorm

Monday, April 5th, 2010


Chuck Jones is a creative genius who towers over American popular culture. Best known as the director of Looney Toons shorts featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd, he knew a thing or two about creative process.

In his autobiography, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, the creator of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote describes a process he and his Warner Brothers colleagues used as an alternative to brainstorming. The “yes” session is designed to explore the potential within nascent ideas.

According to Jones, “The ‘yes’ session imposes only one discipline: the abolition of the word ‘no.’” Jones clearly disdained naysayers. “Anyone can say ‘no’… It is a cheap word because it requires no explanation, and many men and women have acquired a reputation for intelligence who know only this word and have used it in place of thought on every occasion.”

In a “yes” session, anything goes, but only if it is “positive, supportive and affirmative to the premise.” No negatives are allowed. “All roadblocks impeding the advancement and exploration of the value of an idea are forbidden.”

If you need evidence of the effectiveness of a “yes” session, treat yourself to seven minutes of Jones’ brilliance in this hilarious parody of Rossini’sThe Barber of Seville, starring Bugs and Elmer Fudd.

The next time you or your colleagues are problem solving, try the “yes” session. Before you say “No,” say “Yes!” to a new idea — and in as many ways as possible. Like Edward DeBono’s PMI technique discussed in a previous post, the “yes” session ensures that feedback does not kill ideas but enlivens them; results not in the pain of rejection but the thrill of creation.

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Open Your Feedback Loop

Monday, March 15th, 2010


Avoid defensiveness in receiving feedback. Defensiveness almost inevitably works against high quality problem solving. First, it blinds you to the problems in your problem solving. Second, it discourages others from offering feedback.

Robert Sternberg, The Triarchic Mind: A New Theory of Human Intelligence

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It’s the rare person who enjoys feedback. All of us are subject to human frailty. We are uncomfortable under the critical scrutiny of our colleagues, family members, friends — even ourselves. Criticism hurts. Who wants to suffer? We tend to keep our feedback loops closed.

But the habit of seeking and acting on feedback is essential to good thinking, effective problem solving and high performance. Edward DeBono‘s Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) is a structured method for providing feedback in a way that is psychologically safe for anyone receiving the feedback. It’s a very simple approach.

  • Pluses: First, seek positive feedback and list all the strengths of the idea or solution set.
  • Minuses: Second, list the all weaknesses.
  • Interesting: Third, complete this statement: “It would be interesting if…”

There are many advantages to PMI. Because it begins by listing all the pluses, PMI makes the feedback safe for the idea generator. Before criticism, there is affirmation. Not only does this step steel the idea generator for the criticism to come, but it indicates what’s at stake and could be lost by rejecting the idea or solution set.

Further, the listing of minuses now prepares for what Tim Hurson calls “generative judgment.” The identified weaknesses provoke additional creative thinking. “It would be interesting to see if…” leads to modifications or extensions that will exploit the pluses and mitigate or eliminate the minuses.

In this way, feedback does not kill ideas but enlivens them; it results not in the pain of rejection but the thrill of creation.

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