D. Commitment To Analysis

   You are already familiar with one of the primary reasons for opting with a group rather than an individual to solve your particular problem — i.e., idea generation. Now we address a second — defocus. Because they are a group you can expect a wide variety of opinions, alternate frames of mind, personal viewpoints and explanations to enter into the group discussions.

   Wouldn't we be amazing if the human mind could simultaneously focus its attention on more than one problem at a time! Well, we can't. At best, all we can do is rapidly switch focus among several items or areas of interest that may be occupying our attention at some given time (and — with practice — very rapidly! Think of a juggler, or a basketball star, or football quarterback). Similarly, simultaneously thinking about the past and future, while addressing problems in the present time, is a feat that we don't customarily find simple to do. Usually must we actively switch our focus from considering one to the other.

    When we employ a group to analyze the situation confronting us, the task of analysis can be divided and subdivided into parts and sub-parts that then can be picked apart and analyzed very thoroughly, achieving a level of scrutiny that no single person could accomplish with an individual analysis of the problem in the same amount of time. It is important for the group to brainstorm and recognize ALL the different avenues that their attention may need to focus on in the way of finding an optimal, and perhaps unique, solution. Nothing is rejected as too unusual, strange or unlikely to yield some useful solution. Group decision-making demands having an open mind, a willingness to listen to and embrace fresh, new perspectives. All possibilities are allowed for and thoroughly analyzed.

   Furthermore, fruitful lessons can be found in human history. Take the time to look backward before you move forward into unknown territory. On the opposite end of that notion, fruitful lessons can be imagined if we take the time to plan ahead and imagine possible problems and consequences before they occur. This is the primary motivation behind computer modeling and simulation.

   When we employ a group to solve a particular problem, those dedicated to solving the problem can more effectively criticize their own immediate solutions, with some individuals questioning and probing the conclusions of others, to root out any assumptions or oversights made in the process. Realize that as the years pass individuals tend to accumulate a store of beliefs, perceptions and habitual responses which allow them to navigate through the mental terrain without having to exert a tremendous amount of effort to re-analyze and re-evaluate all that may be going on. We rely on those heuristics and memories to manage our world in a relaxed state, sometimes overlooking subtle or rare possibilities never hitherto experienced or imagined. We don't take the time or make the effort to analyze every situation and sub-problem from a myriad of analytical or emotional perspectives, viewpoints or paradigms. What seems true is assumed true, and we prefer to rely on new, unexpected experience to inform us when we are wrong. We don't seek broader, scientific, or more authoritative and competent verification of all our perceptions, preferring to assume accuracy and wait for some naturally occurring experience to expose a latent misperception. We don't enjoy the idea of having to double-check the accuracy of our perceptions. Caring about e-v-e-r-y-thing is just too _ _ _ _ stressful! After all, learning by trial-and-error is effortless and natural.

   The idea is not to be so lazy! Carefully consider the consequences should your perceptions turn out to be inaccurate, incomplete or totally untrue. Exert the required effort to safeguard against misperception. Before responding according to how things may seem, take a moment to imagine something else that may be going on. Exert the necessary effort to brainstorm to recognize possibilities beyond the expected or conventional. Be creative. Force your imagination to roam everywhere. You will be surprised at the results sometimes. Moreover, make the effort to seek out the appropriate documentation backing up your assumptions or perceptions. You will at times find documents contradicting those assumptions or perceptions, and it is at those times that you will be thankful for the extra effort you have disciplined yourself into so as to avoid a decision you may have later regretted.

   Remember your ultimate focus — Safety. Imagine possible accidents before they occur. Imagine a possible security breach. Imagine something else you may be overlooking? Imagine what is beyond your sensory range — what you don’t see, don’t hear, don’t feel and so on. Imagine that you may not be imagining every possibility! What then?

   Realize that, in some cases, years or even decades may pass before a “better way” is finally recognized as a consequence of exhaustive research, analysis or some accidental discovery. Might there be a cheaper way? safer way? more efficient? more responsible? selfless or compassionate? any subsequent criticisms of "fairness" you may be overlooking? Imagine the consequences should your perceptions stray off the mark. What safeguards do you have in place in the event that things don't go quite as planned? Recognize also that sometimes short-term diversions or losses can lead to significantly greater long-term gains.

...the mere fact that a huge overload of complicated information has to be processed in order to arrive at an optimal choice is sufficient to induce competent and highly efficient decision-makers to resort to simple decision rules that fail to take account of the full complexity of issues at hand. Then, too, there are ego-defensive tendencies and all sorts of self-serving biases that incline a person to lapse into wishful thinking rather than expending the [required] effort to obtain the best available realistic information and evaluate it critically.
— Irving Lester Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, 1982.

   This is what separates the Professional Decision Maker from the novice or non-professional: Self-Discipline to Put Your Mind To Work to imagine and recognize subtle possibilities you may be overlooking so that NO ONE may subsequently suffer from some oversight on your part. Commit yourself to re-evaluating — double-checking and triple-checking — your planning in a dedicated effort to avoid the possibility that some subtle or rare possibility may have been overlooked. Work hard at eliminating the possibility for potential error. Allow for other perspectives, alternate paradigms and analytical techniques: You will find your own perceptions and beliefs to be WRONG sometimes.

...encourage the group to give high priority to airing objections and doubts.
— Irving Lester Janis, Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, 1972.

   You shall also find helpful to keep in mind avoiding restricting your thinking to categories or absolutes. Rather than confining your thinking to, say, a choice between possibility A versus possibility B, imagine possibility AB, which combines elements contained in both ideas. Or maybe imagine possibility ABE, which combines ideas A and B with some other possibility E that you may be currently overlooking. Recognize that Reality is totally oblivious to the notion of "categories." That concept is a human invention. As a very simple example, think of the modern scientific classification for all those creatures we label "protists," a classification which include creatures that are in some ways animals and in other ways plants! This line of thinking can extend to any field of analysis. (Imagine in the future geneticists creating a fruit that is half orange and half apple! Why not?)

   Additionally, recognize the value of overview. The experienced and competent professional is aware of common errors and oversights, but may stubbornly reject possibilities never before experienced. The inexperienced, but still competent, young professional may be more inclined to think along those lines he or she has been trained to address while overlooking possibilities that his or her teachers may have failed to emphasize or were simply unaware of themselves. Overview is attained when we imagine and allow for ALL possibilities and prepare for them, rather than assuming that things will always work out as they always had before. Imagine each subtle possibility — however rare or remote — analyze the alternatives and consequences associated with each, and prepare for them, rather than assuming they just will never arise or are just too unlikely to worry over.

   Further, recognize your priorities. At the pinnacle should be considerations of Responsibility, Safety and Righteousness. Recognize that sometimes the "Right Decision" hurts. In fact, responsibility (embarrassment) and safety (costs associated with equipment, training and monitoring) demand so. You must be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices in the present time so as to avoid greater losses later on. (Note the emphasis on "necessary." We must always brainstorm to discover alternate possibilities so as to ascertain that we don't swiftly "sacrifice" what we may have been able to save if we had recognized some alternate [honest] possibility beforehand.)

   As a final word on Righteousness, recognize your own innate tendencies so that you may appropriately override them and arrive at a loftier, more Righteous Decision:

...the ruler should win the allegiance of his subjects by his example and by his self-sacrificing care for them. — Frederick Charles Copleston, A History of Philosophy: Greece & Rome, Vol. I, 1965.

If a decision seems to entail that someone must bear a considerable burden, do you immediately throw the entire burden on one particular person? Or do you exhaust all means at trying to locate, say, a group of persons who would be better able to cope with the demands of that burden? Are you doing what you can to reduce the magnitude of the burden yourself? Is your own selfish apathy interfering with the decisions you make, or are you considerate of all those whose lives your decisions must take account of?

    E. Commitment To Documentation

   As simple as this may seem, it is actually much more demanding than you may realize.

   Documenting every idea analyzed and tried is the only means your organization has so as to prevent those who succeed you from having to re-analyze and re-try everything you may have attempted yourself.

   Difficulties arise because the task, itself, of documenting everything is time-consuming and potentially costly. Who do you assign the task to so that other duties aren't neglected? How is the information stored? Depending on the resources you have, those aren't necessarily easy problems to resolve and ones you will need to confront for yourself in your own particular situation. None of us is immortal, and one day that particular employee who knows so much about everything happening in your organization will need to be replaced by someone else who then will need to relearn everything all over again. Prudence demands that you begin to document his or her knowledge so that those who follow will have something to rapidly absorb and refer to in his or her absence.

   The documents you store ARE the memory of your organization, and they will help those who follow to avoid making the same mistakes you have so that your own organization's growth can proceed unimpeded with instances of learning by trial-and-error kept to a minimum.

All opinions expressed in this web site, unless otherwise noted, are my own, Michael Gaspard. If you notice any errors or have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know by e-mailing webmaster@mdpme.com. Thank you!

This web page was last updated on Monday, February 2, 2004.
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