Our brains makeup roughly 2% of our body weight, yet use 20% of our energy. The brain is the single most energy intensive organ in our body, but through evolution, our brain has found ways to conserve energy, and thus, we have developed cognitive biases or short cuts.
One such bias is the pro-innovation bias, or the affinity to be overly optimistic about an innovation’s practicality in society. This bias can get in the way of our thinking and cause us to overlook limitations or weaknesses of an idea.
Becoming Aware of our Biases
One of the greatest examples of this is the Titanic. The magnificent ship was one of the most innovative developments of its time, and it was proclaimed to be the “unsinkable ship.”
When the Titanic collided with an iceberg it punched holes into the starboard side of the ship, causing water to flood the ship, and ultimately causing the ship to sink. Many different factors played into the tragedy of the Titanic, including the ship was sailing too fast, the iron rivets were too weak, and because of its “unsinkable” reputation, too few life boats were placed on the ship to save all of those aboard. Learn more about cognitive biases that impact our agility here.
Blinded by the Light
Many times a new invention or an exciting new opportunity can send us reeling in enthusiasm and eagerness towards the finish line, but oftentimes this will lead to an oversight that should have been easily spotted. One way to avoid this kind of oversight is through developing a pre-mortem.
Conducting a pre-mortem is a strategy found in the Unlocking Personal Agility course and it is what saves us from looking back on a project gone wrong, and thinking how could I have not foreseen that issue?
Personal Agility Spawns Corporate Agility
By asking your staff to sit down and conduct a pre-mortem, you are essentially asking them to imagine that the project fails – “What are all of the scenarios in which the project might fail and what could happen if it does?” These kinds of questions will help your team to work backward to determine the flaws in the project and what could lead to failure. A pre-mortem’s purpose is to help you identify the weaknesses now to eliminate any defects before the launch of a new idea or project.
Conducting a pre-mortem is just one of the useful tools that the Unlocking Personal Agility course teaches participants.
To learn more about TRACOM’s Agility Training view our Research Library