"Every choice we make in life is an experiment. Every day offers fresh opportunities to find better decision-making frames. We live in a time when data is more plentiful, cheaper to analyze, and easier to translate into action than ever before. Smartphones, websites, digital databases, and apps put information at our fingertips. But it only becomes useful if we know how to make sense of it."
- CHARLES DUHIGG
I believe nothing motivates like progress. Why you might wonder son!
To make progress one needs to make decisions
Now while this approach produces miracles at workplace, it also enforces a pre condition - culture of psychological safety. My definition of psychological safety being people are comfortable being who they are at work.It is a pity that managers are not taught this basic tenet in their curriculums.
How do we make decisions when there is less than ideal data available. Bayesian theory of thinking states humans have the astounding ability to make predictions about the future. Sometimes the predictions could go wrong.
Often decisions get skewed because the person making the decision hasn't had enough exposure to factors influencing the decision. Some people despite having the data are blinded by opinions - theirs or others and blunders, not decisions are made.
A classic example that many of us can relate to is the 1996 cricket World Cup semifinal between India and Srilanka at Kolkata.
The data Azharuddin the Indian captain definitely had access to
1.this was the tournament where Sanat Jayasurya and Romesh Kaluwitharana , the opening pair for Srilanka redefined how cricket will be played henceforth.
They decided to take advantage of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs and started belting the white ball from ball number 1. In the group stages largely due to this pair Srilanka made short work of India with Manoj prabakhar the Indian all rounder who was a medium pace bowler started bowling offspin, for this was the humiliation being handed out to him by the lankans.
Srilanka's success was also attributed to the fact that they were chasing down targets very well.
First data point : Srilanka are not used to setting targets. There might be a vulnerability that could be taken advantage off.
Second data point: the pitch at Eden gardens was looking like a faded gold coin .
Azhar chose to ignore the second data although it was available. As expected the pitch was an utter disaster with ball turning 170 degrees and with Muralidharan in the opposition India were put to the guillotine.
Make decisions fast, not too fast by considering all the available data and without bias and then iterate..
Make progress, progress feeds motivation and everyone gets to control their area of competence.
I surely made my decision. Didn't take me days, weeks or months. Flat 2 days. That's it.
The problem with leaders who do not encourage diverse opinions and perspectives to flourish is that they will end up with people who have absolutely nothing to say.
In the meanwhile let us focus on
Making sense of whatever data we have
Use our life experiences to expand our understanding further
Experiment with the above
For this is what a growth mindset is truly about…..
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs