Global Leadership Assessment

Study Notes

Spotlight on Decision Making: Outsmarting Biases

The article discusses decision making and the need to outsmart biases when evaluating job candidates.
It presents a scenario of evaluating a highly qualified job candidate for a leadership position in a different country.
Despite the candidate's impressive qualifications and flawless interview responses, the decision-maker senses something isn't right but can't pinpoint it.
The article questions how to make a decision in such a scenario, where intuition conflicts with the candidate's qualifications.
It challenges the common tendency to trust intuition, suggesting that going against one's gut feeling is necessary to test its reliability.
The authors highlight the importance of testing intuition by occasionally going against it, as it's the only way to truly know if it's helping make good decisions.
The scenario presented reflects the struggle between relying on intuition and objectively evaluating a candidate's qualifications.
The article emphasizes the need to consciously outsmart biases and not solely rely on intuition, despite its past success.
It points out that without testing intuition by going against it, one cannot be certain of its effectiveness in decision making.
The article was published in May 2015 on HBR.org, indicating its relevance to managerial decision-making discussions.
The scenario highlights the complexity of decision-making processes, especially in managerial roles where intuition and qualifications often conflict.
The authors, Jack B. Soll, Katherine L. Milkman, and John W. Payne, aim to provide insights on overcoming biases in decision making, particularly in hiring scenarios.