Decision patterns
The hidden forces that derail team decisions. Each pattern includes a definition, real-world examples from organizational failures, academic research, and structural countermeasures.
Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon where the desire for conformity and harmony in a group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, leading to irrational or dysfunctional decision-making.
Anchoring Bias
Anchoring bias is a cognitive bias where individuals rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions, causing subsequent judgments to be insufficiently adjusted from that initial anchor.
HiPPO Effect
The HiPPO effect (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) describes the tendency for teams to defer to the most senior or highest-ranking person's view, regardless of evidence, expertise, or the quality of other arguments presented.
Sunk Cost Trap
The sunk cost trap is the tendency to continue investing in a decision, project, or course of action because of previously invested resources (time, money, effort) rather than based on future value and expected returns.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.
False Consensus Effect
The false consensus effect is the cognitive bias where people overestimate the degree to which others share their beliefs, opinions, and preferences, leading to the assumption of agreement that has never been verified.
Information Cascade
An information cascade occurs when individuals, observing the actions of others before them, rationally decide to follow the crowd and ignore their own private information, leading to fragile group consensus that can be based on very little actual evidence.
Status Quo Bias
Status quo bias is the preference for the current state of affairs, where any change from the baseline is perceived as a loss. People tend to favor existing conditions even when better alternatives exist, because the disadvantages of change loom larger than its advantages.