What biases should you avoid when solving problems?

When solving problems, it's important to avoid biases that can distort our judgment. Here's a summary of key biases to watch out for: Confirmation Bias: Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs. Availability Bias: Giving more weight to readily available information. Anchoring Bias: Relying too heavily on initial information. Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating our own abilities or knowledge. Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing with a decision due to past investments, even when irrational. Bandwagon Effect: Adopting beliefs or behaviors because others do. Hindsight Bias: Seeing events as more predictable after they've occurred. Framing Effect: Being influenced by how information is presented.

When solving problems, watch out for biases like only looking for information that confirms what you already believe (confirmation bias), relying too much on recent info (availability bias), and thinking you know more than you do (overconfidence bias). Avoid sticking with something just because you've already invested a lot (sunk cost fallacy) and be careful not to follow the crowd blindly (groupthink). Remember, our brains can play tricks on us, so stay open-minded and consider all perspectives for better decision-making.

To be a great problem solver, it's important to be aware of common biases that can affect your decisions. Here are some tips: - Challenge your beliefs and seek diverse opinions. - Collect a wide range of data. - Question initial assumptions and consider multiple reference points. - Focus on future costs and benefits, not past investments. - Encourage open discussions and welcome diverse perspectives. - Seek feedback and evaluate your confidence levels regularly. - Reflect on your decision-making process and learn from past experiences. - Balance your focus by consciously considering positive aspects. By addressing these biases, you'll make better decisions and improve your problem-solving skills.

I counter confirmation bias by consciously reminding myself that what succeeded in the past might not yield the same results again. Constantly seeking new knowledge is essential. In this evolving world, it's crucial to remain open to change and embrace improved approaches to doing things.

In the process of tackling a problem, I came to a profound realisation: recognising the right moment to seek assistance and support is crucial. It's important to understand that the optimal solution may not always emerge from our own efforts alone.

It always helps to go to the actual place (gemba), to see the actual thing. This often is the place where teams come to the realization that the initial perception of the issue is quite far removed from reality.

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When tackling problems, it is critical to be aware of biases. All of them in their own unique way can take us away from identifying the solution. Look out for anchoring bias. It is where we get fixated on our first impression or piece of information, which may not be right. It is important to stay flexible, exploring and considering different vantage points, and be open to adjust our views based on the full picture. To keep it simple, be open to change and embracing the best solutions!

To mitigate anchoring bias, refrain from hasty decisions with inadequate or irrelevant data, seek more evidence, and adapt estimates with new information.

Anchoring bias can lead to skewed judgments by giving excessive weight to initial information. To counter it, refrain from hasty decisions, seek comprehensive data, and be willing to adjust your outlook as you gather more information.

"Problem description" is the most important part of issue investigation and avoid any bias. We shouldn't make conclusions by the "symptom" we saw but base on the fact and data to judge.

This is important during your initial stage of problem solving updates. As you are still working on details, not full details are gathered. Therefore whatever you are framing U need to be very careful. Once you identified the issue you worked on action result will justify you words. Even thought if you noticed something contridict to your previous statement you will have full justification. So collect the data accurately.

Framing bias skews decisions based on how information is presented rather than its substance. To counter it, stay mindful of language and context, explore various framings, and prioritize objective analysis to make more rational choices.

The framing bias might be the hardest ones to overcome, because it’s triggering very ancient mechanisms. While I had a lot of success in team settings to overcome availability bias, confirmation bias and anchoring bias by establishing the rotating role of “devils advocate”, a person who was specifically tasked to challenge assumptions, ask critical questions and request considering the opposite of the suggested solution, this didn’t seem to help avoiding the Framing bias. I agree with the approach to take the time to ask the same question in different ways and talk about the emotional response. Include open ended questions in the exercise, the tend to spark more creative ideas.

When I get information from the result log file about a specific component suspected of being faulty, I tend to focus my attention on that particular component/region. I could be overlooking other areas that could also be contributing to the problem. To mitigate framing bias in PCB troubleshooting, it's important to consider the broader context, assess the entire circuit and be open to the possibility that the issue may not be confined to the initially identified area. This approach helps ensure a more comprehensive and effective troubleshooting process.

Recalling a dendrite growth challenge within electronics, I struggled to comprehend this phenomenon since it was not widely publicized or discussed. I had never even heard the terms in university. Assuming the lack of occurrence due to personal experience or historical information may lead you to begin to ignore actual evidence, although it may be infrequent of sparse. Maintaining an open mind and researching the subject comprehensively was the only way to combat this for me personally.

Here are the main ideas to mitigate the impact of the availability bias and make more informed decisions : - Data-Driven Decisions: Use objective data and statistics to base your judgments. - Understand your sources : Don't rely solely on what's readily available. Seek the raw data with history to reprocess it and compare it to the initial assumptions. - Emotional Influence: Emotions impact what most memorable for you and for others. Be aware of it when you are taking decisions. - Update Your Knowledge: Staying up to date about novelties and innovations can reduce the influence of obselete irrelevant information.

Availability bias distorts judgment by overemphasizing easily recallable events. Counter it by relying on data, not just memory, and by considering alternative scenarios and counterexamples to make more balanced assessments.

Availability bias is often influenced by our recency bias. We can recall events, problems or outcomes that have occurred to us easier, especially if they've happened recently. Consider alternative datapoints, colleagues' opinions or further research, rather than your own instinct of the probability of a scenario occurring to challenge your underlying bias.

Availability bias refers to the tendency to rely on readily available information, often from recent or memorable events, rather than considering a broader range of data or perspectives.

Hindsight bias tricks us into thinking we always knew the outcome. It's like calling a coin toss after seeing the result. We need to stay open to new experiences, avoiding overconfidence.

Hindsight bias distorts our perception by making events appear predictable after the fact. To counter it, document your decision-making process, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, and seek diverse perspectives to foster a more accurate understanding of outcomes.

Hindsight bias can be framed positively as "lessons learnt" to enhance preparedness for future similar events. It is important to remember that even after the event has passed, one can remain oblivious to even that which seems 'obvious' in hindsight.

Confirmation bias is also one of the "enemies" that lead us down the wrong path. It normally comes from experience and previous successes that lead us to overestimate ourselves as know-it-all professionals, which in fact blinds us to other potential solutions and makes us underestimate the complexity of an issue and the potential risks (such as inaccurate assessments, risk of inaction, bad decisional process), and make decisions based on misplaced certainty. Recognizing the overconfidence bias is the first step to avoiding its pitfalls. Embracing humility by acknowledging the constraints of a singular perspective, recognizing the limits of our own knowledge, and embracing open-mindedness is the formula for conquering this bias.

Hindsight bias refers to the tendency to believe that an event was more predictable or obvious after it has occurred, which can cloud judgment and prevent learning from past mistakes.

Keeping opinion over observation can result in biases. Opinion can build up based on first information, previous experiences or perspective. To overcome this situation, one needs to develop a "First-of-a-kind" mindset, which means every problem must be considered as new as it would be if occurring for the first time. Collet the relevant data and observations by challenging yourself by asking -What if I am wrong? -Did I overlook anything? -Is the source reliable? -Do I have any previous evidence recorded? -Did I put effort into resolving the problem? Sometimes, you have to make quick decisions, be neutral and review your decision when time allows. Observation and recording instances can help in the correct decision-making.

It's important to avoid biases such as confirmation bias (favoring information that confirms preconceptions), anchoring bias (relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered), availability bias (judging the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind), and status quo bias (preferring things to stay the same). It's also crucial to be aware of cognitive biases related to group dynamics, like groupthink, where the desire for harmony or conformity in a group can result in irrational or dysfunctional decision-making. Striving for objectivity and considering multiple perspectives can help mitigate these biases.

I am sharing two (2) additional biases below that I need help with as well. Overconfidence bias is a cognitive bias that makes you erroneously inflate your skills and knowledge. It causes you to lose your objective perspective, which creates unrealistic expectations and disappointment. To counter it, look for evidence that contradicts your beliefs and ask others for feedback. Recency bias is also a cognitive bias that causes you to assume that future events will resemble recent experiences. You focus on the information that you recently acquired. To counter it, you need to consider a broader time frame and assess long-term trends and patterns, examine historical data, conduct a detailed study, and request expert advice.

Something I do (and teach my staff to do) is to ascertain why we are trying to solve the problem before we attempt to solve the problem. Many times I've seen people (myself not exempted from that term) rush in with a flurry of activity, but ultimately realise we wasted precious time and effort because intent was not aligned with purpose. For example, when assessing a complaint , our determination may differ if the purpose is to determine culpability (we take the lens of this complainant) vs if the purpose is to determine the ongoing risk to the public (we take the lens of future users of the service). In short, before asking "what should I do?" or "how should I do this?", first always ask "why are we doing this in the first place?".

Avoid: -thinking that there’s only one way to solve the problem -thinking that what you’ve always done will always be the right answer -thinking that your answer has to be the right one