Getting Good Information Part 2 2nd try

The Information is not in a form we can Use

There are many decisions I have to make that I just cannot figure out the information. For example, I have to buy a big screen TV. There is plasma, LCD, 3D, and all sorts of other stuff that I just do not understand enough to make a good decision.

It’s not uncommon to get information that we just are not trained to understand. Our auto mechanic tells us about double overhead cams. Our doctor tells us about a sarcoma. Our computer geek tells us about registry errors.

There are two ways around this obstacle. First, you might want to enlist a “translator.” In this case a translator would translate the information that is in a form you cannot use into a form you can use. Or, the second way would be to learn to translate the information yourself. Which one of the two you use would depend on any number of things. For example, is this a onetime event? If it is a onetime event then a translator might be the best solution. However, if it is a recurring event than perhaps you should learn the translate it yourself, so you do not have to rely on a translator every time you get into the situation where the information you need is not in the form you can use.

Personally, I always try to learn it myself first because I love learning. But, I get so busy I often make the decision that learning to translate the information will not be the best use of my limited available time. In that case I simply hire a translator.

Here is the perfect example. Take a look at the x-ray below.

There is information there for sure. But it is in a form I cannot understand. Now, I could go to medical school and learn to read x-rays. Or I could hire a doctor to translate that information for me. Personally I find hiring a doctor is the most effective use of my time.

Now, this is very important. Let’s go back to the point about the source of the information being wrong. There is a great likelihood that the doctor translating this x-ray for me could be wrong. It happens all the time. So, using the “trust, but verify” approach, I might want to get a second opinion. Or I might want to do my own research.

When a decision is critical and I have to rely on the translator, I will often assume that the translator could make a mistake (either intentionally or unintentionally) and so I will check, double check, and triple check the translation. I’ve had situations where the translator is insulted that I would not trust them, but, I tell them I’m sorry, getting the best information is more important than hurting someone’s feelings. And, frankly, I will avoid translators that don’t want me to check their work because if they are any good, they know they are right and are not worried about anyone checking them.

The information is either too early or too late

It’s said, “timing is everything.” So to with information. Getting the information when we need it is critical. There is not much you can do for information that is too late. But we can store information that is too early.

The problem, of course, with storing information for later use is being able to retrieve it when you actually need it. Fortunately, context sensitive databases and digital libraries have greatly improved our ability to retrieve stored information.

I would love to go into a lot more detail on this subject, but I think you get the point and think we should move on.

Biological Obstacles to Getting Good Information

We have some major biological obstacles standing in our way of getting good information. Our senses are limited and, more importantly, our brain plays major tricks on us.

There are three sayings that apply here:

• “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”[57]
• Measure twice – cut once
• Trust but Verify[58]

What these sayings tell me is that people have long recognized that we can easily be wrong in our efforts to get information and that a key skill to make sure we are not wrong is to check, verify, confirm, double check, and authenticate everything.[59]

I heard of a guy that was getting a hip replacement. He wrote on his good hip in big letters, “WRONG HIP.” He did this because he heard of cases of doctors making mistakes and replacing the wrong hip on someone.

Here is another example. In 1999 there was a Mars explorer that crashed because one rocket scientist used feet and another rocket scientist used meters. As a result wrong calculations were entered into the guidance system. Rocket scientists often double, triple, quadruple check their calculations when programming a rocket. The risk is just too great. But they still make mistakes.[60]

Clearly mistakes happen. Often times we can just laugh at our mistakes and move on. But sometimes, depending on the situation, an information mistake could have devastating results.

Perception and Selective Perception

We receive huge amounts of information as we move through the world.[61] And as I described earlier, our brain cannot possibly handle all that information effectively. So it combines, filters, and modifies the stimulus it receives into broad generalizations, stereotypes, frames of reference, and assumptions.

We are wired to match our perceptions to patterns we’ve previously established in our brains.[62] Apparently, evolution has come to the conclusion that this is the best way to successfully move through our daily life. Apparently, among our cave dwelling ancestors, the ones that were best able to quickly match current threats and opportunities with previous experiences survived to reproduce better than those that didn’t. Apparently, it is better to think there was a tiger in the bushes and run away when there was no tiger, then to not run away when there was in fact a tiger. In other words, evolution has taught us to err on the side of caution.

But, all that filtering, stereotyping, and generalizing is a huge double edge sword. On one hand it’s great for quickly coming to conclusions. But on the other hand it’s a barrier to evaluating new situations. And, as I talked about earlier, in reality, every situation is a new situation.

Perception

I really want to talk about “Selective Perception” but before I talk about “selective” perception, I want to I want to briefly remind you of the discussion on perception we had in the last Chapter on Communication.

Encarta defines perception as, “the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment and situation.” Remember when I talked about the senses and how the brain processes information. One of the key points I made was the senses and the brain use an electrochemical process that is subject to all kinds of errors, both intentional – as in when we put still images together to see a movie – and unintentional – as in an optical illusion.

Perception is a two-step process; reception and interruption.

• Step one, the reception step, is pretty straight forward. Our perceptual organs are stimulated by some event – light wave, sound waves, touch, taste, or smell. They then generate an electrochemical signal that is sent to the brain.[63]
• Step two, the interpretation step, is the most intricate step. This is the brain interrupting the signals from our senses and either using those signals right away, as in a reflex movement, or storing them for future use, as you are doing reading this.

Not to sound like a broken record but this is important. Because perception relies on the electrochemical process, it is subject to the variations inherent in our biology and environment. Things like being tired, what you are eating or drinking, or smoking can all influence the specific mix of neurotransmitters. And the mix of neurotransmitters will greatly influence both the reception of stimulus but more importantly the way the brain interrupts the signals sent it.

The result of this is that no two people will perceive in the same way. And it is very likely that you will not perceive in the same way one moment to the next.[64]

Selective Perception

Of the two steps, the interpretation step is most likely to get in the way of getting good information.[65] And this is where “Selective Perception” fits in.

If I may, let me reference back to Admiral Stockdale, where he talked about confronting the brutal facts of your current reality. Well, here is the first brutal fact you need to understand; everyone, including you, uses “Selective Perception.” [66]

We use Selective perception as a survival technique. Without selective perception, we would be completely overwhelmed with stimulus. Selective Perception allows us to filter out information we don’t need. However, selective perception is also quite insidious, because we will ignore things that are incongruent with our existing values and beliefs. This then prevents us from making the best decisions. Selective Perception is an obstacle because it prevents us from seeing reality. We see what we want to see, not what we should see.

We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we want them to be.

It is impossible to pay attention to everything. Our mind has figured out that if it only selects the things that important we will have a better chance of surviving. So in order to make sense of the world we categorize and filter the stimulus that we perceive. Selective Perception describes how we categorize and filter.

Now, I want you to reference back to the discussion I had in Chapter 1 about Drew Weston and his research. Remember that Weston found a biochemical cause for a resistance to change. Remember he used fMRI to study the brains of people making decisions and found that we actually get a chemical “rush” from ignoring information that’s contrary to their point of view. This process is broadly called selective perception, but it is known by other names, my favorite being, “Confirmation Bias.”

I’ll talk more about biases a bit later, but for now, the key difference between Selective Perception and other forms of bias that I want you to pay attention to, is that Selective Perception is unconscious. It happens without you even knowing about it. And, because it’s unconscious it is very difficult to overcome.

There is an old saying in business; “An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.” This is based on the belief that perceptions are more important than the reality.

Let me offer an example I saw the other night. It was a taste test. Testers were given salads from a fast food restaurant. They were told it was from a fast food restaurant. They judged the salads as poor in quality and high in fat. Then other testers were given the same salad, but told it was from a health food store. They rated the salad high in quality and low in fat.

Another good example of Selective Perception is the game of “telephone” where one person tells a story to another and they then tell it to another and so on. It’s great fun to compare the original story with the one at the end.

There are three main ways we apply Selective Perception:

• Selective attention – Paying attention to specific stimulus
• Selective distortion – Remembering things differently than how they occurred
• Selective Recall – Only remembering the things that confirm our existing beliefs

The key is to remember that we all use Selective Perception; so don’t assume what you see is really what is.

Biased Thinking

Biased thinking is a bit different from selective perception. The concept of selective perception is it happens unconsciously, whereas the concept of biased thinking is it happens consciously.

The point here is that while it’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to prevent yourself from selective perception – you do it, I do it, everyone does it – it’s much easier to prevent yourself from biased thinking.

There are many types of bias thinking that I could go over. However, of all of them Confirmation Bias is the worst.

Confirmation Bias

“Confirmation Bias” refers to the situation where you focus on information that “confirms” you existing beliefs and filter information that would challenge your beliefs.

Let’s say you think BMW is the best car ever made, you would tend to see only the reports that say BMW is the best care ever made. And if you saw a report that said Lexus was the best car ever made, you would either ignore it or find reasons to discredit it.

If our beliefs are based on verifiable facts and valid experiments, like the fact that water is made up of 2 parts of Hydrogen and one part water (H₂O) and this is proven by an electrolis experiment, then the tendency to pay more attention to data that fits that model will not lead us too far off course. However, you need to understand that even this might be a risk. Many commonly held beliefs, based on the best information of the time, were in fact wrong. Beliefs like the earth is flat or horses always have at least one foot on the ground when they run were widely held beliefs until new information proved them wrong.

The point is that you need to make sure you understand that there is a bright line between reasonableness and closed mindedness.

But don’t just take my word for this. There have been numerous studies to confirm this.[67] What I’m saying is that it’s a biological fact that we all tend to give more attention and credence to information that supports our beliefs. We all do it. We all do it all the time. You do it. I do it. Everyone does it. In essence we are “addicted” to our own beliefs in the same way a heroin addict is addicted to heroin.[68]

Confirmation Bias is not the only form of biases we use. Here is a short list I found of some other biases[69].

• Anchoring – Giving disproportionate weight to the first information you receive.
• Status quo – Favoring alternatives that perpetuate the existing situation
• Sunk Costs – Making choices in a way that justifies past, flawed choices
• Confirming evidence – Seeking information that supports your existing point of view
• Framing – Structuring the situation in ways that favor one solution over another
• Estimating and forecasting – Being overly influenced by vivid memories when estimating
• Overconfidence – Not being honest about our abilities
• Over Cautiousness – Too much prudence or too much fear of failure
• Recallability – The risk of being influenced by what is top of mind or what is easily recalled.

What is actionable here is that you need to understand that in order to get good information you need to overcome the obstacle of only looking at information that confirms your existing beliefs, because your existing beliefs can be wrong.

Skills Required to Overcome the Obstacles to Getting Good Information

What I present here is intended to be simply an overview of some of the key skills required. I am preparing another book with more in-depth explanations and exercises that will help you hone these skills.

Skill #1 – Measure Twice – Cut Once. Check, verify, recheck, confirm.

There is an old saying in carpentry; Measure twice – Cut once. When making any decision your first step is to gather information. But, gathering information is only half the battle. The other half is to gather useful and accurate information.

When you’re in bed in the morning and your decision to get up is in front of you, your first step is to gather information. You need to look at a clock and see what time it is. You need to think about what you have to do for the day. When deciding what to wear you need to gather information like what you plan to do today & what you have that’s clean.[70]

Often times gathering information is very easy. If Iwanted to go to a movie I would either, drive by the theater to see the times, check the Internet, or look in the paper. Let’s say I wanted to know how much money I had to spend on food. I’d probably look in my check book, or go online to check my bank account, or I’d just know how much you have because I just balanced my checkbook.

Let’s say I want to decide what to order at a restaurant. Gathering information is easy, I’d simply look at the menu. Menus are designed to provide all the information I might need to choose something. But, perhaps I still have some question so I’d ask the waiter. I might want to know if the fish is fresh or if I could substitute the sweet potato for the baked potato. In all those cases, gathering information was easy.

Unfortunately, there are many times when gathering the best information is not easy. And, also unfortunately, though fairly understandably, often, the times that gathering the best information is not easy are also the times you need it the most. Let’s say you hear a rattle in the car. You need to know what’s causing the rattle, how much will it cost to fix, and where’s the best place to get it fixed. All those questions are hard to answer. You might not know what the rattle is. And even if you did, you need to find a mechanic you can trust.

There are two broad ways to you gather information; you personally gather all of it yourself or someone else gathers some of it and gives it to you. Clearly you have much more control over the information you personally gather. But in our complex world you will rarely find a situation where you can gather all the information you need to make a decision. In today’s world we almost always rely on others to provide some, if not all, the information we need.

There is some information we get from others that we take for granted is accurate, like the time a plane, train, or bus is scheduled to leave and arrive. Or the ingredients in a product. Or a price of a stock listed in the paper. That’s not to say that any of these things are always right and are never wrong. It’s up to you to determine what is the consequence of them being wrong. If the consequence is significant, then it is imperative that you get second and third opinions.

Again, “trust but verify.”

But this is not to say that just because someone else gathers it, it’s better or worse than if you gather it. In fact, sometimes you can get better information from someone else than you could get yourself. The doctor is a great example. I can take my own blood pressure, but is it probably better when the doctor gathers that information.

In the section on learning I said honesty was critical, well, honesty is critical here too. Honestly evaluating your own skill at gathering information yourself is essential to getting the best information. You need to know when it’s best to gather information yourself and when it’s best to have someone help.

Let me use some examples.

• Example 1 – Medical information. In order to stay healthy we need to gather medical information. When you go to the Doctor she wants to know our blood pressure, temperature, blood chemistry and much more stuff doctors want to know.
• Example 2 – Fixing a rattle in your car. Cars are very completed and require expertise to know what a rattle is and how to fix it.

I see a difference between basic skills, like reading and listening and advanced skills like computer programming and reading an x-ray. Everyone should know how to read and listen. But how well you can read and listen sets apart those that are just good at information gathering and those that are the best at it.

Skill #2 – Apply the learning steps

I described these steps in Chapter 1. (You’ll see that I use this method to do a lot of things because I find that it works well for me.)

Much like a painter draws a rough outline of what they want to paint first then they go back and fill in the detail. This list is just the first step to getting good information. This is just a rough outline of what you need to do. In order to make these steps more actionable, you need to provide a lot more detail.

Skills #3 – Apply A Structured Approach to Information

Let me go back to the assembly line analogy I used earlier. If you remember I said that in decision making, the end product is the decision, the individual parts are the pieces of information, and the conveyer belt is communication. And I said the goal is to get the best information to the right people at the right time. Now I want to put it all together and talk about the skills you need to get the best information to the right people at the right time. I also want to talk the obstacles that might be in your way and how to overcome those obstacles.

Let’s start with listing the 4 important skills you need to pay attention to in order to get the best information:

Information Gathering

Information Storage and Retrieval

Information transmission – Communication

Information Analysis – Putting everything together to come up with what’s actionable

I draw a direct correlation to the assembly line in the following chart.

If you are reading this for yourself you have to do all four yourself. If you are in an organization these skills would usually be performed by different groups. For example, Information Gathering might be done by a Market Research group or a finance group. Obviously, Information Storage and Retrieval would be done by the Information Technology department. And Information Transmission would be the responsibility of the Telecommunications Network folks.

Whether you are reading this to apply to your own personal life or you plan to apply this to your organization, the skills would be the same. So, I want to spend some time on each skill, describe what it is, and offer some tools to overcome some of the common obstacles.

Information Gathering

Skill at gathering information is the first skill you need to master. The better you are at gathering information the better your decision making will be[71]. We gather information from 2 main sources; direct observation and stored data.

Information Gathering Skill #1 – Seeing

We gather a great deal of information from our eyes alone. If we have problems seeing then we do things to help like wear glasses or use magnifying lenses

Information Gathering Skill #2 – Reading

Does this seem to be too simplistic? I’m sorry. But it is a basic skill. However, I assume that since you’re reading this you can read.

Information Gathering Skill #3 – Listening

Listening is a basic skill that many do not do very well. Often times people listen for the singular purpose of figuring out a way to prove the other person wrong. This is not the right skill for gathering good information. The right skill is to listen to determine if the information being considered is actionable.

Information Gathering Skill #4 – Math

Does this also seem to be too simplistic? I’m sorry. But it is a basic Skill. You need to balance your check book and you need to add how much your meal will cost.

Information Gathering Skill #5 –Library/Internet Search

Being able to use a card catalog system or search the Internet for Information is a critical skill. I suggest that it be taught in grade school.

Information Gathering Skill #5 – Media Literacy

We get all kinds of information from the Media. But being able to get the maximum information from the Media is a critical skill. There is an organization, National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) that does a great job of putting together programs to teach media literacy.

Information Gathering Skill #6 – Telecommunications (email, SMS, Phone, Video/Web conferencing)

Use of basic telecommunications systems is fundamental for gathering information. Most people are pretty good at this. However, there may be some of you out there that could use some training on how to maximize these tools.

Information Gathering Skill #7 – Understanding the way humans process information

I’ve spent a lot of time on this skill throughout the book so far. This is not a necessary skill. However, if you want to move up to the next level it is important.

Information Storage and Retrieval

Gathering information is an ongoing process. Often times we gather information that we will need to use sometime in the future. So we need a way to store the information we gather until we need it. Then we need a way to retrieve the information we’ve stored when we need it.

This is where computers have really helped our decision making ability.

If you don’t mind, let me go back to my analogy of the assembly line as a decision process. In terms of information storage and retrieval think of storing the parts until they’re needed. In the past this was accomplished with huge warehouses adjacent to the assembly line. Recently, a concept of “just in time inventory” was developed to improve the parts storage process. With “just in time inventory” the parts are stored off site from the assembly line and delivered to the appropriate place on the assembly line at “just the right time” it’s needed. The benefit’s that the assembly line can reduce inventory storage space and increase assembly line production space. So to with information, having just in time information is very useful.

This skill includes being able to use a database and being able to back up information.

Information Communication

Once you’ve gathered the information you need to get it to the right people at the right time. I’ll direct you back to Chapter 3 for the skills to ensure that the right information gets to the right people.

Information Analysis

It’s not only the ingredients in the cake that make the cake delicious; it’s how the ingredients are combined. So too with information! It’s not just the pieces of information that determine the value of information; it’s how those pieces are combined.

Let me give you an example. Annette and I are driving to Florida from Atlanta. I notice the gas gauge is indicating that we are low on gas – that is the information gathering function. I know the car we are driving and I figure that we can go another 50 miles before we get gas, I also know that there is a gas station coming up, and I know that Annette wants to stop soon – that is the information analysis function. So I say to Annette, “we are going to need gas soon, where do you want to stop. Annette then says she wants to stop at the next station – that is the decision making function. I did the information gathering and analysis. Annette did the decision making.

It works the same way in business. I would often see a problem that required a decision. I would gather the relevant information, I would prepare a analysis along with a recommended solution,[72] I would present that analysis to my boss, and my boss would make the decision.

In addition to all the biological obstacles to gathering good information, there are physical obstacles that have to be overcome too.

Skill #5 – Understand the Situation

If you want to find the Information Sweet Spot, you need to understand the specific situation you find yourself.

If the goal is to get gas and donuts, then you need to understand about getting gas and donuts. If the goal is to make a sale, then you need to know who is buying, what they want, what you have to sell. If the goal is to do your spring planting then you need to know the weather, how to plant, what plants you need, and what fertilizer you need. Understanding about the calories of donuts may be good information to know, but it will not help you determine when the best time to plant your lawn is.

The more you understand the situation the more likely you can find the Information Sweet Spot.

If the decision is technical, like what kind of computer to buy, then you need technical information. If the decision is financial, like where to invest your money, then you need financial information. If the decision is medical, like how do you lose weight, then you need medical information.

Depending on the situation you may gather all the information yourself or you may rely on experts to help you. In business we call them Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Your doctor and dentist are SMEs. Your Tax accountant is a SME. Your auto mechanic is a SME.

Let me share with you a story that my kids love to tell that make help illuminate this topic. One day my whole family was headed to the Airport for a vacation. It was raining heavily and some of the roads were flooded. At an interchange, I decided to go a different way than normal. This resulted in a huge fight between Annette and me. After awhile, Jillian said, she figured out why were fighting. Jillian astutely observed, “Mom likes a lot of information, and Dad provides only a little information.” In thinking about it, I knew instantly that Jillian was right. So here is how this story relates to this section of understanding the situation. Whenever I deal with Annette I have to remember that she likes a lot of information. For Annette the Information Sweet Spot is greater than for me.

Unfortunately there is a risk is using only experience to understand the situation. I talked about this risk earlier when I talked about our resistance to change and how “ruts” in our thinking can prevent us from finding new solutions. And I’ll talk about this later when I talk about how we try to find information that conforms to our experience. The point is you need to be careful in trying to understand the situation that you view the situation as it is, not as we would like it to be.[73]

Skill #6 –Managing the Differences between; Data, Facts, and Conclusions

As I talked about earlier there is a huge difference between data, facts, and conclusions. As a skill, those that are better at understanding and focusing on the differences can get better information. You need to learn to evaluate the information you are gathering an know which bucket it falls into.