Survivor-ship bias in today’s corporate world

I would like to start by referencing a very interesting article on Wikipedia that describes in simple terms the survivor-ship bias concept:

“The damaged portions of returning planes show locations where they can sustain damage and still return home; those hit in other places do not survive.”

Throughout my existence, I have been guilty of applying the opposite of this theory. I have many times tried to patch the holes instead thinking with a clear had and working on what really needed attention. I had an entire range of excuses out of which I will list my top 2:

• “It’s the volume of work” — this is the most common excuse I have placed and the most common excuse I have encountered. It does not mean it is not true but take that with a grain of salt. Start by accepting as a daily reality that all teams are undersized and if this is a shocker to you then read this. After you’ve accepted this axiom now add business context on it: why is this so? Then answer is simple — because you do not need to finish everything, you just need to firstly sort out what needs to be done and leave behind what is not mandatory and what may simply be useless by the time it’s done. I admit this may be hard to achieve with a junior team but this is what your manager is there.
• “It’s because X manager requested it” — this is my second “favourite”. If someone requested it, then it must be done. We live in the world of useful projects and pet projects. Some are business driven some are people driven but this should not limit our desire to challenge the status quo. Again, talk to your manager in order get the context and always remember to place all concerns and ideas in a positive manner.

Going back to the topic at hand, the above excuses do not shield you from doing your job that is most of the times well anchored in SMART objectives. As such, before accepting a task and it’s deadline consider how this task plays into your signed objectives as they are the grounds for your assessment.

This does not mean you should never take any tasks that do not directly “serve you” but rather you should, out how respect for the person that needs help, point out:

• What you can do to help and by when.
• If what you can help with will indeed solve the issue fully or if you see potential loose ends (this does not mean solve the loose ends but signalling them out for assessment).

The last point I want to make is remember this title before embarking on any endless or useless journeys. When something takes too long make sure it will still be relevant when you are done working on it. How to achieve this:

• Periodically check the business buy-in and establish success criteria — by doing this you do not endlessly work on a task.
• Tie the results of your task to the objective of your department — you are doing this to help improve this objective of your department that is tied upstream to an operational/tactical/strategic company objective.
• Make sure that the objective it ties into represents a priority and not a “nice to have” — in this manner your work will remain relevant funding for your activity assured.
• Constantly challenge your way of working — the fact that it’s been done like this forever is not a valid argument.

From pure theory to practice it’s only a short step and I invite you to make a leap of faith and try to apply this theory more into every day encounters.

Feedback welcomed.

PS: Special thanks to a former colleague that pointed out the concept a while back.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.