My son recently disagreed with a decision I made about him watching more television. He left the room in a huff and I figured that was the end of it. A few minutes later he came in with three stuffed animals (to be more specific – Chompers the Dolphin, Killer Whale, and Blue Elephant). He proceeded to explain to me that he had asked all three of the animals and they all agreed that he should be able to watch another show. I laughed and offered him a stack of books instead. Needless to say, Chompers was hurt.
Thinking more about it, my son turning to Chompers and his cohorts to get feedback is a very common situation in business. Managers think that something is going well so they ask a few of their peers or direct reports that they are close with what they think of the new product/process/idea. Chances are they are going to tell him they like; assuming they are honest people, they probably DO like it. If they are close enough to the manager for him/her to ask their opinion, there is a good chance that they share viewpoints and values. In the stats world, this has an amazingly technical name: selection bias (ok, maybe not that technical). Wikipedia has a nice summary on the topic, but the point is this. If you want people to agree with you, ask like-minded people you are close to on a daily basis. If you want the truth, ask like-minded people but ALSO ask people you don’t interact with and who don’t have an investment (personal or professional) in the answer.
Chompers gave me a couple bad looks the next few days, but I’m hoping we’ll get past it soon.
