Negativity Bias Case Study

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Negativity Bias: Adopt a policy of actively seeking positive information
It is recommended the COO adopt a policy of actively seeking out positive information about each employee then starting and ending conversations with employees by praising them in accordance with this information. The COO had a terrible habit of being hyper-critical about even the lightest of suggestions from his team and would stifle creative thought and open dialogue by immediately shooting down and picking apart ideas.
In order to counteract this tendency in his personality, the COO should consider keeping a journal of all of the positive things he likes about each employee and making an attempt to incorporate that information into his thinking. The hope is that this will foster a positive environment in which teammates feel encouraged to offer creative and unorthodox ideas about practices at the company and to speak out when they feel company strategy deviates from previously agreed-upon goals.
Further, the COO could ask his team to conduct the same experiment such that the culture of the company shifts from being querulous to one that is focused on identifying the best ideas and not stifling those ideas before they reach the group.

Omission Neglect: Enact procedures to procure information not currently available The CEO should seek out information that is not currently available to him and attempt to make more data driven-decisions by leveraging this information to assist his business judgment. While the CEO undoubtedly has strong instincts, having achieved two successful exits from prior ventures, his unwillingness to build structure into the organization’s decision-making process is placing the company at a disadvantage in the marketplace. The weekly routine for the company was to have a Thursday “sales meeting” where each salesperson discussed his (this was an all-male team; we’ll discuss that below) individual prospects for the territory to which he was assigned. The discussion invariably involved intangible and apologetic overtures to the efforts they were making and the potential leads they were generating in their allotted space, but was nearly always free from objective data. While it may be beneficial to the emotional well-being of a sales team that is struggling to hit week-over-week goals to maintain an environment where no one is able to judge what is being accomplished because what is being accomplished is nebulously defined, the company would be better served if each member were to bring actionable information to the table each week. For example, the salesperson may present the number of new leads generated in the prior week, the percentage chance each possessed to close based on clearly-defined metrics, and the expected revenue from each close. This would focus the company’s routines and actions on information that would help it align weekly operations with monthly and annual goals. In-Group Favoritism: Hire employees who challenge the status quo and give them a voice The company should attempt to hire those with more diverse beliefs and skill sets. While the team is on some level diverse with an Indian-American, a member who comes from an Orthodox Jewish family, and a Detroit-born engineer with a Kellogg MBA, the underlying and unfortunate fact is that they are all Midwestern white males aside from the founder and CEO. There is perhaps some industry-bias at play here as this type of company is generally seen as being overpopulated with white males; however, the team would do well to actively avoid this stereotype and seek out others with opinions in conflict with their own. The current in-group favoritism, while comfortable and leading to many enjoyable happy hours with ping-pong and such, is creating an intellectual drag on the company and resulting in perhaps some element of groupthink that is undermining its position relative to competitors. If the team were to allow someone who did not fit the
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In addition, management could activate the goals by stimulating end-states and means, placing words, symbols, and images conjuring up thoughts of the goals’ achievement throughout the office. These actions will build a common understanding of what the team is attempting to accomplish not just on a long-term abstract basis, but on a short-term day-to-day basis, allowing them to move in the same direction by developing common

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