What Cognitive Biases Prevent You from Communicating Successfully?
From the Communication Excellence in Project Management Blog
by Bill Brantley
Although Project Managers spend 90% of their time communicating, communication in project management is the most underdeveloped skill for project managers. This blog will help Project Managers become better communicators and thus, better Project Managers.
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Categories
cockpit resource management,
cognitive bias,
collaboration,
communication,
communication constitutes projects,
communicative constitution of organizations,
complexity leadership,
coordinated management of meaning,
emergent model,
emotional culture,
employee engagement,
failure,
growth mindset,
Leadership,
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organizational agility,
organizational elasticity,
organizational health,
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quality of communication experience,
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task saturation,
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understanding
Date
An exercise that I use in my project management communication course is to have the students pick a cognitive bias from the Wikipedia list of cognitive biases. I have the student explain the cognitive bias and then ask how they could spot this cognitive bias in someone else. Then, I ask the student to explain how to neutralize the cognitive bias so that the student can communicate effectively despite the cognitive bias.
For example, imagine that a project sponsor has the “planning fallacy” cognitive bias. So, when communicating project deadlines to this sponsor, how does a student give a realistic estimate without the sponsor pushing for more optimistic (and difficult to achieve) deadlines? I have the student roleplay various communication strategies and have the other students critique the strategies. I believe it is a great learning experience for future project managers.
How do you deal with cognitive biases? Not only with stakeholders and project team members but your cognitive biases? Are you teaching your project team members to recognize and work around their cognitive biases when communicating?
Posted on: March 07, 2016 02:05 PM |
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Comments (9)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Interesting subject Bill but do you believe that this will eliminate pushing for more realistic dates (Referring to your example) ? Can you ellaborate more on this please.
Excellent approach, Bill. I think most people are not aware of cognitive biases. Mere acknowledgement of their existence helps in alleviating some of their negative influence on outcomes.
Good hint to how we can understand ourselves better to handle the challenges at hand.
It does not eliminate threats from the outside, as Rami points out.
You could argue though, that your mind can shape your reality (or: your attitude influences your stakeholders). Having a strong mind is a target then, which gets us back to leadership skills, emotional intelligence and self-awareness, including being aware of your own cognitive biases.
A good article on a related topic (Lollapalooza Effect) is by Charlie Munger.
Hello Rami:
Yes, that is one situation students struggle with. Knowing the cognitive bias doesn't eliminate the planning fallacy issue - unless your sponsor also recognizes his or her cognitive bias. So, the task is twice as hard: having the sponsor accept that they have a cognitive bias and then, not let the cognitive bias affect their perceptions. This is a great segue when discussing how to build a trusting relationship.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Bill,
Indeed it is and as you've mentioned it is a two way open communication.
Markus Kopko
AI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.ai
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Hi Bill,
this blog makes me actually wishing to participating in one of your courses .... i had a course about communication sometime ago and it was very, very good and i have learned much there. It is always also much about psychologic and this whole field is very complex and interesting. Hmmm, i think i should go for another course in near future ... ;)
Gina Abudi
President| Abudi Consulting LLC
Amherst, Nh, United States
Thanks for sharing; I enjoyed the article and it sounds like a great activity!
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Bill
Interesting this reflection on the topic: "What Cognitive Biases Prevent You from Communicating Successfully?"
Thanks for sharing
Relevant questions: "How do you deal with cognitive biases? Not only with stakeholders and project team members but your cognitive biases?"
Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Thought-provoking stuff here. Thanks for sharing this approach with us
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