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Gut-feeling or Data-driven decisions? PM's ethical tightrope

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Dr. Deepa Bhide Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Project managers often make split-second decisions based on intuition. But where does this "gut feeling" come from? Experience that shapes the intuition to anticipate potential challenges, reading between the lines, team dynamics, and similar or some more. PM's gut feeling, when honed through experience, can be a powerful tool when used wisely.

Consider this: Is it ethical to allow our hunches to steer decisions that could potentially influence the success of a project or even the well-being of others? While gut feelings can be powerful tools, relying solely on intuition without concrete data can lead to unforeseen consequences. It's a delicate balance between trusting your instincts and making informed, data-driven choices.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever made a decision based on gut feeling that turned out to be a game-changer? Or perhaps a gut call that led to a costly mistake? What are your thoughts?

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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Deepa -

Part of having "good judgment" is knowing when to trust your gut, when to trust your gut but back up that trust with evidence, and when to distrust your gut (maybe you are just hungry?).

One tactical example of this is receiving estimates from team members when we have sufficient domain knowledge to be able to know when those are either significant under or over stated. Depending on the team member's past track record with accuracy of estimates and our gut feel, we may decide whether asking for a second opinion is worthwhile.

Kiron
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Ming Yeung Adjunct Professor & Acting COO/CPO/CRO (contract)| Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Deepa,
The phenomenon of the "gut feeling" is fascinating. It's essentially our brain's way of making quick, subconscious judgments based on previous experiences and patterns we've observed. When a project manager, or anyone really, has years of experience, their intuition is honed to pick up on subtle cues and anticipate potential challenges—like an internal database of wisdom.
The ethical question you raised is indeed complex. Intuition can be a valuable asset, especially in fast-paced environments where quick decisions are necessary. However, relying solely on gut feelings without supporting data can be risky and may lead to unintended consequences. Balancing intuition with data-driven analysis ensures a more comprehensive approach to decision-making.
In my opinion, the best practice is to use intuition as a starting point or a check against data. If your gut feeling suggests a potential issue, it's wise to investigate further with data to validate or refute that hunch. This way, decisions are both informed and nuanced, leveraging the strengths of both intuition and data.
Thank you for the food for thoughts for fellow project practitioners.
Ming
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Bisharah Saeed Project Manager| Computacenter
From experience, what I feel is when sufficient data is available, there is no need to rely on gut feelings. On the other hand, gut feelings might be necessary in very specific situations provided we dont have data and we have sufficient experience to analyze it in our head. For example, I worked in the elearning industry and I dont need data to say that 1 graphic designer cannot finish a complex storyboard involving gamification in 2 days because I have handled several of those projects. On the other hand, when I have data on multiple graphic designers in a tracker, it makes it easier to analyze and go through the data driven path.

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