Helping Human Resources Play a Strategic Role in Decision-Making
by Larry Bloom and Adam BloomIt is not what we don’t know that causes problems; it is what we know that just ain’t so.
— Artemus Ward
Companies are Decision-Making Factories
Whether it makes chemicals, financial services, or software, an organization is a factory that also manufactures judgments and decisions. The decision-making process ultimately impact revenues, costs, employee loyalty, and more. To play a strategic role in the C-Suite, HR must help their company improve the quality of decision-making by 1) understanding the problems with the decision-making process and 2) helping executives and key employees avoid these problems.
The Decision-Making Process is Flawed
You see, many problems of businesses today are not the result of software bugs or other factors that occur outside our thinking, but rather they are “self-inflicted” as a result of mind-bugs™—bugs in the critical internal processes that occur in the five inches between our ears. The pervasiveness of mind-bugs in business decision-making is because mind-bugs are a product of human nature—hard-wired and highly resistant to feedback. Mind-bugs cause us to lament after the fact; “What was I thinking when I made that decision?” Read more