20/07/2010



Dear <<First Name>>

Challenging Assumptions

“The harder you fight to hold onto specific assumptions the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them”. John Seely Brown.

When we are making decisions we make assumptions about the decision, the problem and the possible solutions. But effective decisions require us to carefully challenge our assumptions. We need to understand exactly what the assumptions we are making are and then determine if any of those assumptions are possibly incorrect. Then what are the consequences on our decision? 

There has been significant discussion in Australia about the NAPLAN ‘My School’ website and the appropriate testing that produces the results that the website then discloses. Closely related to this is the question of whether merit pay for teachers should be introduced? This has been a question that has been long debated in many countries over the years and I am not going to conclude on the relative merits of the idea. My point is to highlight that there are some underlying assumptions when considering merit pay for teachers. Firstly, that teacher’s are independent of each other. Secondly, the testing on an annual basis is an adequate review of how a child is performing. Thirdly, that teacher’s are motivated by money. Now if any of those assumptions are not valid, then the concept of merit pay for teachers could be flawed. If only one of those assumptions is invalid, then potentially the whole solution becomes invalid.

In our business we need to be careful when we are making decisions about whether its to introduce a new product, a new service, whether it’s to change how we are delivering a product or service; what assumptions are we making? It could be about the bonus scheme that we wish to incentivise our sales staff, what assumptions are being made in that idea? Challenge those assumptions to ensure that if one of those, or part of those is in any way incorrect, what are the consequences?

majorfocusgroupblog



 

The One Main Thing, The One Main Number
Wednesday 4 August 2010, Sydney NSW

In this one-day workshop you will learn how to identify the one main thing. You will learn how to identify the number that really matters.  And the good news is - the process is simple and fast (even if you hate numbers).
Through his information rich, thought challenging and pragmatic approach, Steve takes business through a journey in discovering:

• Why financial measures and KPI's are a waste of time. 
• How businesses REALLY make money (and no it is not how you think). 
• The 3 essential questions to ask before deciding ANYTHING in your business. 
• Simple strategies for working out hard measures for the soft issues. 
• The 5-step process to working out the one number that is critical for your business.

As you know I am all about making evidence based decisions, having the facts to make an informed and smart decision. Sometimes though that can lead us to a trap and that is where we are making decision based evidence. Where sometimes in our organisations we have made the decision then we are looking for information, facts and evidence to back up our decision, it is justifying the decision that we have made. Be careful not to have decision-based evidence.