Eliminating Noise from judgment: In his new book Noise, Daniel Kahneman claims that wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Noise can produce great unfairness. When you add bias to the mix, it can lead to undesirable consequences. Before we move to what we can do about it, I want to share how Kahneman describes judgement, bias and noise:
Judgment - Measurements in which the instrument is a human mind. It is a conclusion that can be summarized in a word or phrase;
Bias - Errors we can often see and even explain. It is directional;
Noise - Unwanted variability in judgments that should ideally be identical;
He then elaborates on how we can minimise bias (e.g. detect biases in real time, by designating a decision observer to identify signs of bias), and reduce noise (e.g. Decision Hygiene, like health hygiene, is prevention against an unidentified enemy. Handwashing, for example, prevents unknown pathogens from entering our bodies. In the same way, decision hygiene will prevent errors without knowing what they are). Here is Kahneman himself giving a few headlines on Noise. I found this fascinating, given how important judgement is to everything we do. Whether you are working on your Diversity and Inclusion efforts, embarking on a cultural change, becoming a better leader, or simply trying to improve your judgement, this book is worth a read.
Experimenting with Positioning: In the fight to attract consumers' attention, brand positioning is one of the key weapons marketers have to do that. In fact, one of the key success factors in marketing is the ability to bring their brands' positioning to life through their marketing initiatives. One way to make sure your positioning is strong, is to think of what consumers (or customers, patients, doctors, depending on your industry) would do/react/do instead, if your brand didn't exist.
Burger King has been particularly strong in testing this idea in real life. Back in 2008, they've created a social experiment that brought this to life beautifully. Check this out. And the benefits were incredible with lots of PR/earned media. I invite you to stop and reflect: What would your consumer/customer/patients do if your brand didn't exist? If the answer is...nothing, maybe it's time to start re-thinking your brand positioning strategy.
Enduring quote: "Better beats new every single time" - Martin Glenn (ex CEO of Pepsico UK, United Biscuits and the Football Association). His point is that very often, we get caught up trying to find that innovation that no one has ever thought about, that will be a blockbuster because it's so innovative and BIG. The search is tiring and limits your thinking. Research shows that focusing your efforts in doing BETTER than anyone else, has way more commercial benefits. Having worked for Nestle USA for many years, I've witnessed countless times, the Nestle spots an opportunity (very often already existing and in- market), and simply puts energy and resources behind to make it way BETTER (yes, sometimes this is so difficult, that Nestle ends buying the company/brand). So, it doesn't matter if you are as big as Nestle, or a one-man band, focus your energy in doing better than anyone else. What are you waiting for? If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say about your outputs? Better?
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