Anchoring, Decision Making and Project Management

Luis,

Anchoring creates a path of least resistance that (normally) leads to unsatisfactory results, and I’ve seen it in every domain that I have worked in. It leads to a problem that I call “knowledge rationing,” and it’s something that every project manager should be aware of and “protect against.” In my experience, the cost of Anchoring is highest in the realm of architecture, where thoughts, ideas, and concepts must be fully challenged. When they are not, projects are at risk of (ultimately) collapsing under their own weight.

The solution to Anchoring is a concept I’ve talked about before called “challenge-based problem solving” or “challenge-based thought.” It’s an approach that is purposely designed to prevent anchoring from occurring and is something that must be taught and mandated in teams. I addressed it in page-2 of the Ask or Answer thread if anyone is interested.

Good topic Luis.

In my experience negative anchoring happens under a couple situations:
1) people are not adequately prepared for the discussion and latch on to the first comment to try and hide their failure, and
2) overly aggressive individuals, understanding the anchoring process, want to lead and dominate the conversation and achieve their preferred results.
One technique that can be used to avoid anchoring is to have what I call a 'barn storming' start to a session where ideas are presented and recorded without detail discussion. Discussion only starts when a number of ideas have been identified - the more relevant ideas float to the top rather than the first. Hopefully the first idea becomes 'hidden' within the group rather then becoming the anchor.
You are still going to get the unprepared hanging onto other's ideas and have to deal with the aggressive participant however should be easier to manage.