Types of personal bias during discussions for decision making

Decision making is made difficult by common, often unconscious, obstacles that frequently inhibit a decision maker's ability to determine the optimal choice. Such obstacles include individual biases and unproductive group dynamics. While it is almost impossible to eliminate these obstacles, recognizing them in yourself and in the members of your group will help you make more objective decisions.
Here are some common examples of biases—distortions or preconceived notions—that people encounter when making decisions.

• Bias toward the familiar and toward past successes. We tend to base our decisions on events and information that are familiar to us.
  For example, a manager remembers her launch of a new product in Spain three years ago; it was her first big marketing success. She also vaguely remembers that a similar launch strategy was unsuccessful in a number of other countries. Because her memories of the successful Spanish launch are so vivid, she emphasizes this experience and discounts the evidence of unsuccessful launches elsewhere. When she tries to extend a new brand into Portugal, her efforts fail. While the strategy used for the Spanish launch may have been a good starting point, her reliance on a prior success led to incorrect assumptions about the Portuguese market.
• Bias toward accepting assumptions at face value. We are generally overconfident in our assumptions and therefore generate too few alternatives.
  For example, a manager purchases a software package offered by the largest vendor without collecting competitive bids. He assumes that because the package works for other users in the same industry, it will work for him. He fails to investigate other software packages that might better meet his needs.
• Bias toward the status quo. We have a tendency to resist major deviations from the status quo.
  For example, people at a company may be familiar with how to use a particular computer program and resist using an alternative, even though their program is outdated. Their resistance may be driven more by their reluctance to learn something new than by the quality of the system itself.
• Bias toward confirming our opinion. Once we form an opinion, we typically seek out information that supports our viewpoint and ignore facts that may challenge it.
  For example, a manager searches the Internet to find data supporting her preference for focus groups in market research, but does not stop to read information that supports other approaches