Be Less Zombie

10The Future and Its Naysayers

Three more voices that try to fudge the future.

Standing in the pathway of turning data into meaningful, actionable insights, lurk three zombie forces. Their names? Bias, ignorance and complacency.

Even the best-resourced organisations in the world are susceptible to their powers. In fact, in many cases, the larger the resources, the more powerful the forces.

Bias

Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, triumphs over logic on a regular basis. If our underlying beliefs about ourselves, our teams and the world are wonky, we're likely to make decisions that aren't in our collective future's interests.

One important source of conscious, yet unspoken, bias that I encounter frequently is fear. A manager sees a situation appearing on the horizon that provokes fear inside of him. That leads to denial or crazy-making control and micromanagement, neither of which lead to good decision-making about the future.

A lot has been written about the range and power of biases inside organisations. If you haven't done any analysis on the prevailing biases in your team or organisation, start now. The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton is a good place to begin.

Ignorance

Ignorance looks at the data and shrugs its shoulders. Either it's too complex or too technical to understand. But instead of inviting in an interpreter, pride will often kick-in at a senior level and the issue is dismissed as unimportant or ‘parked for review’ later in the year.

Complacency