predictably irrational: are we in control of our decisions?
if you have 17 minutes to spare, check out this TED talk by dan ariely about the irrational behavior that we all exhibit when making decisions. this kind of behavioral analysis can be vitally important to business.
we make decisions every day from something as seemingly simple as what tasks to prioritize first, or as complex and important as what million dollar software contract to purchase over another. and not only that, but we sell other people on making decisions every day too, from which teammates to promote, to what projects to continue funding. if we can get a better understanding of how we make decisions, we can begin to shape our work environments to be more beneficial to us.
it’s strange to think that, in a world where information is so ubiquitous, there would be any kind of trouble making decisions. as you see, however, from the examples that dan ariely shows us — information is not the only factor which affects our logical process. knowing our cognitive limitations, and how to exploit those limitations, may be the next big thing in business.
“crazy handful of nothing”
image by john scardino (that's me)
when i really think about it, it’s difficult for me to believe that i’m only 25 (coming up on 26).
i’m a real hard-charger; always have been.
that makes putting my career into perspective all the more difficult. in the grand scheme of everything, i’m only just starting out. i’ve got miles of road ahead of me.
i’ve had more than a handful of colleagues say that i’m “on the fast track to principal.” for someone in my position, that’s some high praise. but i, being young, still know a bit about the way the world works: there is no fast track.
i have to pay my dues just like everyone else (and by “pay my dues” i mean “deal with organizational politics”). i have to work hard just like everyone else. i’m young, so i’ll go on making mistakes that young people make. i don’t fear mistakes because i know that’s how people learn. i do fear, however, that people will hold my mistakes against me. i fear that people may use those mistakes to define who i am.
it may take me 10 years to get where i’d like to be going, or maybe more; that’s the hardest thing for me to internalize at the moment. i really feel like i can have an impact right now. the trick is going to be in finding a way to make an impact on my world as it is today. if i can’t affect change at the higher levels, then i need to work on making change happen around me; start with the world i know first.
for me, my hope is that my leadership will give me the opportunity to make my mistakes, and provide me the necessary support when i do find myself in those situations — rather than holding them against me. i hope that, while the journey may be long and hard, as time goes by i won’t forget about who i am and what makes me the person i look at in the mirror every day (and it’s not just about cool shades and a fierce mustache). i hope to keep the same passion for doing what i do.
i need to put faith in myself and believe that as long as i do what i have been doing, i’ll reach the end of my road with a few hours of daylight left to spare.
what would you do with 8 hours a week?
image by steve.grosbois, flickr artist
you work for 32 hours from monday through thursday. you wake up on friday morning with an extra spring in your step, looking forward to the upcoming weekend. but today isn’t your ‘normal’ friday; today is different.
instead of working on client deliverables, or manning the grill at a local restaurant, or waiting tables down at the pub, you get 8 hours to do whatever you’d like to do.
what would you do with it?
would you start work on that big idea you’ve always had? would you enroll in a culinary course in your area? would you learn how to brew your own beer? … or would you play farmville on facebook? or sleep in until noon? or drink some free cold ones that your friends bring you out back behind the bar?
if you’re an employer, why not give your employees 8 hours a week and see what they do with it? trust me, you’ll recognize the ones who are worthwhile and the ones who aren’t very quickly.
then, invest heavily in the ones that are because they’re going to take your organization places. they’re natural born world-shakers.
avon walk for breast cancer
salutations.
i’m posting this across multiple channels, so pardon the interruption. my good friend (and most favoritest person in the world) shivani is participating in the avon walk for breast cancer. i wanted to share her latest update with you all:
Hello again, Friends and Family!
Wow! I am truly touched by your generosity. To those of you who have already donated, thank you so much! In just two weeks, I have already raised $650, and I can’t tell you how much your support means to me.
Things are progressing just as well on the training front. This past Saturday, I completed my first official eight mile training walk at 8am with a group of Avon Walkers, along with my dear and loving mother, Savi, who joined me in walking from Clinton Cove Park/Pier 95 (near 55th Street along the Hudson River), all the way down to Chambers Street, and then back again. I can’t thank her enough for being on her feet for those three hours!
After getting a chance to meet with repeat Walkers and Walker Coordinators this past weekend, I’m learning more about how important the Avon Walk is to those fighting breast cancer, and about the impact the funds raised can have by supporting all aspects of the cause – whether it’s research, education, prevention, treatment or support to those already battling this disease.
As I get closer and closer to the event, I’m more determined than ever to reach my fundraising goal of $1,800. And as they say, every little bit counts, so whether it’s ten dollars or a hundred dollars, please give what you can. Donating is quick and easy – just visit my fundraising personal page below.
Thank you again – I’ll keep you posted!
Much love,
ShivaniP.S. you can find out more about the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer by visiting www.avonwalk.org
she’s awesome, and she needs your help to reach her goal. if you’re awesome too, you’ll make a donation; whatever you can spare. every little bit can make a difference. just click on the link for her personal page to make a donation — tell her johnny sent you 
thanks for helping out and being excellent! #fistbump
solution-based approach vs. problem-based approach
image by flickr artist, Dunechaser
there’s a distinct difference between a solution-based approach and a problem-based approach. let me give you an example of what i mean.
i was watching a show on pbs that was talking about battleground mobility — from the time of egyptian chariots through to today’s modern, technologically advanced tanks. i found the bit about the development of the tank to be quite interesting.
during the first world war, trench warfare had become the status quo. miles and miles of fronts in europe and russia covered in 6ft wide trenches. it made fighting a conventional land battle extremely deadly, and the allies were finding out just how difficult it would be to take down the german war machine. until a technologically curious winston churchill had an idea.
consultants consulting consultants
image by eqqman, flickr artist
it’s pretty easy when you’re working hard on a project to become engrossed in it. all your energy becomes focused on one thing, and one thing only: delivering results.
be careful, though, because you might be delivering the wrong results.
when we get that kind of laser focus sometimes it’s hard to break free from it. ”i have a deadline, i have to get this done, and i have to get it done right now.” so, being the good workers we are, we start to work towards accomplishing that goal. unfortunately, we sometimes go down the wrong path in getting to the finish line. instead of looking at our available options, we pick the one we know will work even if it has consequences. we’re not as efficient anymore. our processes can be improved. our tasks are disjointed. our products don’t provide value.
these things happen, and they happen often. it might start with priorities that all become worthless because every task now has ‘critical’ or ‘high’ importance. it might start with a demanding client who asks you to turn a demo into a fully functional work product within a week. but at the end of the day, it’s just something that happens. that’s why i think — especially for those of us who work as consultants — that it’s so important we don’t forget to turn a consulting eye on ourselves.
what meetings are we having? do they provide value? has the mission of our project team changed? do we still have the same goals in mind as we had 3 months before? 6 months before? 12 months before? does our leadership structure still serve the client well? does it serve the project team members well?
these questions and more are questions that need to be answered, but — perhaps more importantly — they need to drive tangible change. it’s really simple to ask the question (i just did!); it’s a bit more difficult to implement changes based on the answers you get in return.
sometimes you just have to look in the mirror.
the crystal merchant
image by michael seljos, flickr artist
two years ago when i was laid off, a good friend of mine visited and gave me a book to read. that book was paulo coelho’s the alchemist. it’s a great tale about a shepherd who gives up the life he knows in search of a lost treasure.
at that time in my life, it was a story that i needed to hear. now, two years later, i find myself re-reading it to remember the book’s lessons, and hopefully to learn a few new ones along the way. while it’s easy to be wrapped up in the story of the main character and his journey, the secondary characters hold lessons just as important, like the lessons learned from the crystal merchant.
in the alchemist, santiago takes up a job with a merchant, cleaning the crystal in his shop. with his help, the merchant — who had run his shop in the same exact spot for 30 years — begins to earn more business. it’s when santiago begins to propose some changes to the shop to help increase business even more that we gain a better understanding of the merchant.
competition vs. collaboration — how far can you jump?
image by unclebumpy, flickr artist
i recently came across a post on wired.com’s science section about american bullfrogs and their leaping ability. in short: when in the wild, bullfrogs have a certain expectation of maximum leaping distance which scientists have previously measured at 4.3 meters. however, at a county fair in california’s calaveras county their bullfrogs have been known to leap over 7 meters when involved in their frog jumping competitions. that’s quite an improvement!
in business, it seems everyone is focused on collaboration; on finding synergies and maximizing productivity. but what if we increasingly looked not towards collaboration on our teams, but towards competition? how would the game change then?
on work-life balance: the college football paradigm
image by wfyurasko, flickr artist
recently, i had a conversation with my career manager at work (that’s kind of like a mentor to non-booz allen people). we talked about a few different topics, one of them was “work-life balance.”
the question of “how’s your work-life balance?” is always met by me with the same answer: “i don’t really have one.” it’s not because i’m not afforded the support of my teammates or my leadership. booz allen actually doesn’t like when we work too hard, too much. our firm recognizes that happy workers are better workers, and they don’t want their best and brightest minds getting burned out. but for me, i just really enjoy what i do. i’ve got some great teammates — fantastic ones even. i’ve got a whole digital collection of coworkers from twitter, yammer, and other online realms whom i love interacting with every day. why would i want to take time away from that? but at the same time, i am also a bit fearful of taking vacations or leaving work early when i’ve met my billable hours for the month. the reason why is because of the college football paradigm.
on knee-jerk reactions
things don’t always go as you had planned. something at some point will happen which throws off your expectations. no project is without it’s problems challenges (sorry, in the consulting world we don’t like the word ‘problem’ because it has a negative connotation to it) — but before you institute solutions, you absolutely have to think about how it will affect the entire dynamic.
the problem with knee-jerk reactions is that they are generally conceived by the “fight or flight” portion of our brains; the portion of our brains that doesn’t consider impacts beyond the immediate situation. so while the reaction might be good for you right now in diffusing the situation or mitigating the issue, it may end up having negative impacts down the line.
fight the urge to make those knee-jerk reactions. your task, your project, your business is far too important to hinge its future on a decision made without just deliberation. before you make a decision on how to solve your next challenge, ask yourself two simple questions: “have i gathered multiple points of view?” and “have i really given good thought to this?”
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