Those who've bickered about business and industry with me over a cup of coffee know I love to blend larger socio-observations into the folds of commerce. After all, businesses exist within these environments and sometimes even create them. Because of this congruence, I'm forever enticed by their relation. As it relates to this post, I'm specifically interested how business leaders make decisions amongst the relentless flow of information in the modern, data-driven world.
The concept of Rapid Cognition or "thin-slicing" is why people declare; "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression." Thin-slicing refers to the ability of the unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of information and is a dazzling part of of how people make sense of sophisticated problems such as the hiring of a new executive. Does it take 8 months for a hiring manager to understand a new-hire's competency or can a settled understanding be had during a single interview? Much outstanding research supports the fact that the single interview may, given certain a certain context, be more reliable. So how can this be used in business?
I've been recently writing much about the prevalence of data and real-time decision making in business. The relentless pursuit of data-driven businesses has flooded most executives minds with more raw information than is bearable and though these metrics do ease many business processes, they also can distract. Information-overload is pervasive and the topic of many corporate training sessions for small businesses and corporate chains like big-box stores. I recently spoke with a professional friend who Manages a local Walgreens store. He reviews hundreds of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) daily, which are a product of the sophisticated data-driven business Walgreens runs. I'm curious how his intuitive senses and thinly-sliced judgment may stack against these KPIs. This Walgreens Manager shares the decision-maker role with countless others within industry trying to make highly influential decisions in regards to very complex problems and sometimes we hear stories of courageous executives turning off the dashboards, etc. and using the the Gut. The Gut is a product of thin-slicing and research has proven its effectiveness in decision making. Decision-makers use it when they walk a factory floor or make deals via a hand shake. The disregard the endless complexities associated with the decision and instead make smart decisions in hours, minutes, and seconds. Because of proven success, I suggest a tempered look at using thin-slicing during everyday decision making as well as during highly complex problems. This can work especially well with problems that present countless variables to consider. Overall, it's simply another angle by which a complex decision can be refined into manageable parts.
A Final Dash of Salt…
Many factors affect the quality of a decision made using rapid cognition techniques and therefore it is inherently full of caveats. However, I'm most interested how the many topics of data-driven commerce, several which have been touched on in prior posts, can be influenced by rapid cognition. Business leaders are flooded with data, much of it benign. Rapid cognition may be the key to making quick, deeply reliable, and sophisticated decisions without getting lost in the sea of information.
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