During an evaluation, I had the pleasure of receiving feedback which included comment that I viewed as disconcerting and indicative of intellectual weakness. After hearing about what a great job I was doing managing the worst tour of the three shifts, he transitionEd to the individual rating suggesting preconceived impressions and obstacles to a superior rating. This along with the usual "it's very competitive" as if he matriculated through such was insulting. At this point, I began to provide some introspective about his statements by giving him a foolish look when he said "you know, perception is reality!" Oh yeah, when? And with whom? We are not in high school, instead we are running a multinational corporation,idiot!
The idea that business and leadership decisions are made based on perception and not analytics leads to many questions about efficiency and effectiveness. How are we evaluating performance? Are there enough checks and balances within large organizations? Are investors getting the best discount rate for the associated risks? If they only knew that risk assessment is absent in over 95% of decisions. That most leaders in large corporations have no concept of this valuable tool and most rely on a "hunch!" In business very many decisions are made without formal analysis where managers are empowered to use their perceptive powers. This is fine for some decisions, not for most and more appropriate for a very small business. What ever happened to deploying skill to reduce error and mitigate risk for improve efficiency in an effort to reduce cost? How much would you entrust to someone who may be unskilled in evaluating business performance? Vision beyond one functional tasks is an exceptional quality to have, a skill that is not often taught on the job!
So, when I hear folks expect or "perceive" that business is about getting the most for the investment (ROI), I laugh because most business decisions are made without any concept of ROI and proper analytical skills.
No comments:
Post a Comment