Biases in Our Thinking and the Work Community
Addressing biases in thinking helps the team to make more objective and informed decisions, which improves both collaboration and results.
Biases in Our Thinking and the Work Community
What is the need? A simulation is suitable for a team interested in developing their thinking and decision-making and getting to know each other better. The simulation requires the team to be able to reflect on their own actions and thinking, while assessing how their thinking biases affect their day-to-day work. The simulation helps to identify and understand these biases, fostering a culture of open discussion and improving team collaboration.
Why does it work? The simulation is based on research on thinking biases, in particular Daniel Kahnemann's "Thinking, fast and slow". The exercise helps the team deal with common biases such as stereotypes, confirmation bias and "not invented here" thinking, and learn about their impact on decision-making and collaboration. This increases awareness and improves the team's ability to make informed decisions.
What about in practice? In the simulation's backstory, your company sponsors a Tall Ships Race sailing ship, and your team spends team days at sea. The team faces work and sailing challenges, where their biases in thinking become apparent. The exercise includes ten tasks in which team members learn to identify and avoid biases in their thinking. After each task, they discuss solutions, listen to the views of others and learn about the impact of biases on the team.
Research background
The simulation has been compiled from various sources on cognitive bias, the most important of which is Kahnemann's Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011).
More than 100 bottlenecks have been identified and the most relevant for the functioning of work communities have been selected. In practice, the most debatable and thought-provoking biases have been selected, such as the reinforcement bias, groupthink and the status quo bias.
This simulation is different from the others in that the topics covered are not familiar to many players. In addition to team discussion and learning from colleagues, the simulation has a clear introductory objective: to make participants aware of biases.
Objectives
- Familiarise you with individual and team cognitive bias and its effects in the workplace
- Highlight individual differences in our thinking patterns and the strengths and weaknesses of different people
- Enables critical and analytical discussion and development of team practices.
For whom
- For teams of 4-16 people. The content of the simulation is conceptually demanding: biases in thinking require more introspection than, for example, preferences for different jobs.
- We recommend at least a short introduction to the topic before the simulation. We can provide a 20-30 minute introduction before the simulation or the client can provide a more extensive introduction.
- The simulation lasts about 2 hours.
