Jul
4
Sound Familiar?
July 4, 2007 |
I’m reading Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability and came across the following passage:
…I read Gary Klein’s book Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions. Klein has spent many years studying naturalistic decision making: how people like firefighters, pilots, chessmasters, and nuclear power plant operators make high-stakes decisions in real settings with time pressure, vague goals, limited information, and changing conditions.
Klein’s team of observers went into their first study (of field commanders at fire scenes) with the generally accepted model of rational decision making: Faced with a problem, a person gathers information, identifies the possible solutions, and chooses the best one. They started with the hypothesis that because of the high stakes and extreme time pressure, fire captains would be able to compare only two options, an assumption they thought was conservative.
As it turned out, the fire commanders didn’t compare any options. They took the first reasonable plan that came to mind and did a quick mental test for problems. If they didn’t find any, they had their plan of action.
So…does this sound like the way projects get initiated to you?
Comments
2 Comments so far
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Hi Kevin,
That’s an interesting quote/finding… I have actually worked closely with fire and law enforcement (as part of search & rescue) and the findings of the study don’t surprise me at all.
In emergency situations quick thinking and decision making is a must! Once a decision has been made (or about to be made) a quick assessment of its potential drawbacks must be done.
Moreover, in an emergency, fire commanders and police officers make hundreds of decisions and they have to be ready to re-asses the situation every time new information is available or as conditions change.
Making quick gut decisions is important in such situations when there is not much time for deliberation. However - these are not blind decisions - most of these commanders have years of experience and training under their belt.
If you haven’t read it already, you might enjoy Blink a book about quick decision making.
As far as the Business Analyst is concerned, there are times when the situation calls for quick/decisive decision making. Emergencies only! If projects were to be run this way - day to day - that would be a disaster.
- Adrian
Hi Kevin
Intersting post. And it releates to much of what I have read (and think) about strategic planning. Doing this is good, but the quality of execution is the real key. For many this means training, and practice.
I agree with Adrian, though. With projects - new, unique, complex and uncertain; analysis and planning is critical.
Craig