Predictive Index, Total Transparency or Circle of Scholars

Inspired by the April 16th HBR Management Tip of the Day: Ask Your “Loving Critics” for Real Feedback adapted from   To Get Honest Feedback, Leaders Need to Ask” by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner.

I respectfully disagree with the recommendation.  These esteemed authors seem incredibly kind of when they say “subordinates are often more reluctant” to point out deficiencies in their supervisors.  In my experience employees dread of dissension is more akin to a cultural cancer than a timidity toward truthfulness.  Positions of power are protected from protest at every level where self-serving silos defend their territorial borders with the same ferocity and plausible deniability prevalent on the ever expanding boarders of Crimea

The blood shed here is red ink in stakeholder value at all levels.    One supervisor I interviewed recently said; “There is an unwritten rule in our organization.  You never bring up an issue of concern in a meeting unless your superior brings it up first.”   What the cuss?

The solutions suggested in the aforementioned article is to find a group of trusted advisers.  Winston Churchill took this one step further.  He recognized he was so charismatic he set up a completely separate, nonpolitical group of statisticians whose only fear was that they would not be the best at telling the whole truth.  They had no political aspirations or even long term employment implications they were a temporary team assigned to break through the bulwark of biases to find the underlying essence.   

We all believe we do this simply as a matter of course in our daily activities and we all fail miserably. Our evolutionary adaptations have not kept up with or technological innovations.  We are hard wired to to use biases and heuristics to take short cuts.   It is a survival mechanism that allows us to make prehistorically rapid lifesaving decisions in an complex environment increasing unsuitable for System One suppositions.  Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman reminds us, in his research of many of the almost 100 biases and heuristics, that it is important to think both fast and slow.    

If you doubt this to be true read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book David and Goliath.  ADVANCED WARNING:  DO NOT READ THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS SEVERELY ASSAULTED.   Gladwell has the audacity to dine on the most sacred of cows with a warriors willpower and investigative omnipotence.  He cares even less about being liked than he does about having the most popular hairstyle.

I believe the disadvantage of self-selecting a circle of “loving critics” is that they will be more interested in the love they receive than the criticism they convey and will become just another layer interested primarily in protecting their pristine positions.   JFK’s most trusted advisers wanted him to drop a nuclear bomb on Cuba. read how he resolved this bastion of biases.

The second problem is that this group would be necessarily small and therefore subject to the law of small numbers which essentially demonstrates that regardless of how intelligent, forthcoming or well intentioned this group may be their perceptions (like all our perceptions) are always biased.

The better solution I suggest is to use an all-inclusive Predictive Model recognizing that groups are only intelligent when they are diverse, un-intimidated, transparent and invested in the accuracy of their analysis.

Rite-Solutions who describes themselves as “an employee-centric business to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to share in our collective success“* created a fun index.  Every employee, CEO to janitor logs on to their internal trading floor each day where a product or problem is posted.  Employees can ask questions, pose alternatives and ultimately choose whether or not to invest in a particular idea or solution.  Biases are cancelled out by the heterogeneity of the group and every participant is invested in making the best decision possible knowing their choices and commensurate accumulation of “fun finances” will be transparently available to all members of the team.  Peer influence of an intellectually invested group is a powerful resource for an accurate predictive index.

An alternate and, in my opinion, highly admirable solution was was boldly begun when Vineet Nayar as the new CEO of HCL Technologies set the example for every stakeholder by putting his 360 evaluation out for all (at that time) 30,000 employees to see and comment on.

In short don’t try and discern deficiencies from a self-selected few.  Create a culture where it is safe to express all opinions.  The best model I kind think of is preschool.  No answer is incorrect, anyone can be an author, artist, astronaut, athlete and everyone is an explorer.

*Compare this to HCLT which also puts customers second to employees.