A couple of months ago I had several conversations that ended on discussing biases. In one of them I said “look, I will give you my opinion on that, but I need to make my tendency clear”.
It made me reflect about how I became more conscious about preferences and prejudices, since I decided to be more active in searching for my own.
I truly believe that being honest about it is kind to whomever we are talking to. But to be honest about your biases, you need to know them. Not only detect, but be conscious about them. It is pretty easy to tell when we are misjudged. But what happens when our judgement is biased? Can we see it so easily?
So, if you are still here with me, let’s play a game. Think of one or two words that come to your mind about this article. Right now. It doesn’t matter if you know me (and so you have more information about what to expect) or if you don’t (so, you just have the title, a few lines and my profile).
I have been judged based on biases, for sure, all of us. For better or for worse. But let’s not focus on this.
Instead, I am interested in the times I was the one who misjudged someone or something because my reception antenna was contaminated by experiences and sedimented ideas.
For the last five years I have been doing something I really enjoy: watching start-up pitches. First as a colleague, then as a mentor, as a judge, as an investor. The thing is, the less time and less info you have to evaluate something, the more you use your biases. They act like shortcuts to help you make decisions.
So, one day after a pitch that was totally different from my expectations, I created a game to play with myself. I started doing exactly what I asked you to do in the beginning of this article. When the pitch was about to start, I wrote down one or two words about that company or the entrepreneurs. Based on what I knew so far. It could be the first slide, how the company or project was introduced, or even how anxious or confident the entrepreneurs looked like.
What have I been learning from this experience?
1) Bias is really about ourselves
The first layer of learning is from the simple exercise, comparing the words I wrote (my expectations) with what I saw in the presentation. Then I started asking myself why was I having that expectation about that person / business? The simplest tendency is thinking positively about ourselves and our experiences. A person with similar life story, selling a product I would love to buy, coming from the same city or background, a business that sounds familiar tend to have a positive first impression. Consequently, a positive expectation about what comes next.
So, why did I think that founder was arrogant? Or why did I write in that piece of paper that the company seemed little ambitious and, in the end, I saw they were just the opposite? This was so much more about me and my lenses than about them.
2) While we process information, we are happy to confirm our biases – and this is so dangerous !
After simply comparing expectations with evaluations, I started paying attention to my brain processing the information I was receiving during the pitch.
I could see my mind looking for evidences that would confirm my initial suspects. When the founder mentioned something that not matched my initial judgment, I just considered it of minor relevance. But, when expectations were confirmed, bingo! I knew it!
3) Bias may influence our judgement, but we have more to rely on
The more I play this game, the more I learn about my own inclinations. This makes me focus more on facts, even if they don’t fit in my expectations. This is one of the ways to reduce misjudgement. It also helps me in formulating questions. So, instead of simply jumping to conclusions, I started making questions to confirm what I was thinking.
4) If you don’t want to miss opportunities, you need to know where to find your biases
Misjudging always bring consequences. In the case of a start-up, if I approve it and I regret later on, it is a problem because we both have lost our times (me and the entrepreneur). But this is the worst that can happen, because there will be other opportunities to talk and check the first impression before the deal is closed.
But if I lose a good one because I misevaluated the person or the business, it is a different problem. Chances of having a second opportunity for both of us (for the entrepreneur to be funded and for myself to invest in the business) are little.
So, worse than the false positives, are the false negatives.
This can happen all the time. With business opportunities, recruiting, partnerships, friends. What am I missing because of my biases?
Now it is time for you to have fun with yours. We come to the end of the article and you can check your expectations with reality.
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