1.4 Bias Affects All People and Projects

Manage prejudice, put experience to work

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes,
that he also believes to be true.”—Demosthenes

“Becoming more familiar with a subject does not significantly 
reduce people’s tendency to exaggerate how much they 
actually know about it.”—Baruch Fishhoff

"We are all ignorant, just on different subjects.”—Mark Twain

Everyone Has One Nature, Motivation, and Direction

Everyone is biased

Bias is the influence of instincts, previous experience, and purpose on the execution of a task. All human beings are biased in some way.

On a business level, people are biased against hostile and unpredictable superiors who may withhold benefits or fire them. 'The same is true with suppliers and vendors who have not performed as prom­ised—be they inferior goods, late deliveries, or changing prices. On a job site level, people may have a preference for a particular brand and model of tools because of superior productivity, less down time, and a comfort level produced by past use.

Bias can be viewed as good if someone is “experienced” or bad if someone is “prejudiced.” Prejudice is experience that fails to recognize that your point of view may have been a little wrong—changed condi­tions now make it a lot more wrong. Prejudice also fails to recognize that although your viewpoint is right for your purpose, a different viewpoint may be equally right for a different purpose.

'The person who claims to be unbiased has not identified or recognized his bias, and therefore cannot manage it. He is either inexperienced, uninformed, or an arrogant fool poised to make the next big mis­take. Your task here is to identify and admit your bias, then manage it—use experience well and control the prejudice.