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Bias Busters Collection

It happens to the best of us. We don’t realize that some of our decisions are affected by cognitive and organizational biases. Our new Bias Busters series presents articles on the most common biases and ways you can address them.

Article

Bias Busters: The perils of executive typecasting

– Decision making can be clouded when people attribute others’ actions and motivations to the societal roles that they play (such as parent, teacher, and manager).
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: When good intentions get derailed
– Motivated reasoning can lead people to believe everything’s fine despite evidence to the contrary. Here’s how to counter emotions with facts.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: When the crowd isn’t necessarily wise
– Leaders need to recognize herd mentality when it happens—and explore the contrarian view to help break the spell.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: A better way to brainstorm
– Structured conversation during brainstorming sessions removes some of the risks that can thwart honest discussion.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Don’t steer your strategy by the wrong star
– Leaders’ plans may falter if they’re relying on superficial analogies to find answers to their biggest problems.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Lifting your head from the sand
– Business conversations work better when business leaders actively acknowledge potentially unpleasant information rather than run from it.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: War games? Here’s what they’re good for
– Strategy decisions are interdependent decisions. Don’t forget to anticipate competitors’ moves when making your own.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Seeing strategy alternatives in the momentum case
– A momentum case can reveal what could happen if a company takes no, or only limited, strategic action.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Avoiding snap judgments
– When making important business decisions, it’s critical to put first impressions aside and explore the facts.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Getting both sides of the story
– How can the CEO break employees’ silence and get the critical input needed to make the right strategic moves?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Knowing when to kill a project
– You’re keen on encouraging innovation and letting a thousand flowers bloom, but how do you sort the weeds from the seeds?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Premortems: Being smart at the start
– Conducting a premortem can help teams anticipate project failure—and head it off at the pass.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Up-front contingency planning
– Avoid throwing good money after bad by developing “contingent road maps”—plans for updating your investment strategy based on unbiased feedback from the market.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Pruning projects proactively
– Companies hang on too long to underperforming assets. Continual pruning can help them avoid significant losses.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Resisting the allure of ‘glamour’ projects
– Don’t starve maintenance projects of funds.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Being objective about budgets
– Anchoring bias can hold back the budgeting process, influencing your targets despite your best efforts. Address it and refocus difficult conversations.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Bias Busters: Taking the ‘outside view’
– Using a reference class can help executives gain much-needed perspective to inform their decision making.