Cognitive Biases

People are not the only participants in your team meetings. Their cognitive biases—ways of thinking and interpreting the world—also show up:

☢ Limiting innovation
☢ Preventing understanding of issues
☢ Hindering team development

Some of the especially problematic biases in a team setting include:

⛔ Status Quo Bias: The preference for maintaining the current situation or a previous decision and resistance to actions that may lead to change.

⛔ Confirmation Bias is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to seek out, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses.

⛔ Anchoring Bias is a cognitive bias that occurs when individuals rely too heavily on an initial piece of information (the "anchor") when making decisions, even if it's unrelated or irrelevant to the decision at hand.

⛔ Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing to invest resources (time, money, effort) into a project or decision based on past investments, even when the current costs outweigh the benefits.

⛔ Groupthink: The phenomenon where a group prioritizes consensus and conformity over critical thinking and critical analysis. Charismatic leaders and strong group identity increase susceptibility.

⛔ Dunning-Kruger Effect: The phenomenon where individuals with limited knowledge or competence in a domain overestimate their own ability.

⛔ Overconfidence Bias: (similar to Dunning-Kruger effect) The tendency to hold a too-optimistic assessment of one’s own abilities and the feasibility of plans.

⛔ Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome: A form of bias that favors internal solutions and ideas over those from the outside, even when those external solutions might be more efficient or innovative.

⛔ Availability Heuristic is a cognitive bias that influences the way people judge the frequency or probability of events based on how easily examples come to mind.

⛔ Escalation of Commitment: Persisting with a decision or course of action, even when it is found to be failing, due to the investment already made.

Mitigation methods for these biases can include:

✅ Foster a learning and reflective culture

✅ Utilize structured decision-making and feedback (i.e., STUDY or after-action reviews)

✅ Promote diversity and open communication

✅ Encourage experimentation and adaptability

✅ Data-driven decision making (keeping in mind, some of the most important figures are unknown and unknowable)

✅ Mentorship and competency development

✅ Promote and recognize the value of external solutions