The Tendency Towards Bias

Hi friend! Happy Tuesday!

It's election day, wild! If you haven't, and live here in the US, I highly encourage you to vote... your vote does matter and it's an incredible privilege.

The week after vacation (and the week before) are always punishment it seems, and last week definitely was full and challenging. But man, this week started off with a bang and after 9 hours of meetings yesterday, I am so excited for the rest of November - big things in store!

A Quick Apology You might not have read into it, or you may have.

Regardless, I made a mistake last week and I'd like to ask for your forgiveness, friend.

I regret what I included in my email, and at the same time, am grateful for the opportunity to be humbled and make things right.

I definitely reacted to a couple of highly-emotional conversations and let that spill over into my email.

Now, while I cut out about 850 words that were originally in it, the attitude and tone were still present, and for that, I'm truly sorry.

And that's a clear distinction I'm striving to make in my life; I still meant a lot of what I wrote, however, because of the intent/tone it shouldn't have been sent.

Oftentimes, it's better not to say anything ;)

Ok, well hopefully that made sense - I definitely wanted to clear that up before moving on with the rest of this email.

The Tendency Towards Bias At the end of September, my company launched an assessment for organizations and small business that feel "stuck" and are striving to SCALE.

It was an incredible process.

I have spent probably over a year now studying a theory on the scalability of organizations that I was ecstatic about integrating into a pre-assessment that I now use before working with clients.

Now, I won't bore you with any of that theory, but I did think it would be fun to recap one little experience I had, because I've seen the application of this lesson relevant in my own life.

As I distilled the theory (Organizational Lifecycle Model as I call it) into something that could be quantified and have an industry-agnostic application (meaning it applies to basically everyone), I realized that unless there is intentional guidance, data will lean toward a presumed bias.

Before you check out, here's what that means: being UNbiased takes effort. Being biased, is actually more natural.

Again, without going into details, the data I was compiling, weighting, and structuring in the form of an assessment was actually tending toward a bias, right from the get-go. '

It blew my mind.

I didn't tell the data what I wanted, or that it should produce a particular result (in fact, I wanted something neutral ... a window into the business if you will).

But without any guidance, it tended toward a very particular bias, and the results proved that.

(I'm actually still revising the questions, answers, and weights - but it's pretty close.)

This made me ponder my own life.

I have learned a lot about myself in the last year and half, and in doing so, I've discovered how often I react, respond, and perform from a place of bias.

And to give some context, I have always considered myself a pretty unbiased person.

Turns out, there was a huge lack of self-awareness there, but we'll save that for another day.

I've learned recently, that in order to remain as unbiased, neutral, and fair (so hard for me to use that word) as possible, it requires an intentional, conscious effort.

Ok, so is being biased wrong?

Not at all!

But there are certainly times where taking the seat of neutrality, to assess a situation, and to respond in a calm and calculated way is very much required.

In these scenarios, I've been challenged to see the need to be more intentional in my efforts and not rely on my "innate ability to be unbiased" which turns out, not even a computer can do that, let alone me.

So, small, maybe too simple of a thought, and definitely humbling, but I thought it was worth sharing a little glimpse into both the work I've been buried in as well as the lessons gained through the experience.

Biggest lessons learned are these:

Less is more, and likely I need to keep quiet, not speak.

My "unbiased" opinion is likely more dogmatic and subjective than I realize.

What systems am I going to put (and KEEP) in place in order to keep my biases in check?

I hope you have an amazing week, friend!