We are ready to see problems and fix them, but sometimes we forget to see what is going well.
Take this example: I watched Janeen propose a new work process to a team of marketing leaders. I was impressed by his clarity, persuasiveness, and the way he showed importance. His proposal was unanimously accepted. Afterwards, I asked him how he thought it was going. “I didn’t have enough ROI data on the addition of the technology stack.”
What? Despite his good performance and good result, this MOps star is focused on one criticism. Instead of being happy, he was swept away by discrimination.
Our brains are wired so accidents, losses, criticism, and bad news influence us more than similar gains or good news. This may have an evolutionary origin: When our ancestors heard rustling in the jungle, it was better to assume it was a tiger than risk being eaten. It can also cause us to be biased toward indifference.
Early in my management career, I was told that it takes nine “good jobs”! to argue another “oh, no!” I don’t know if that 9:1 ratio is really correct, but it’s a colorful way to remember the impact of our brain’s negative tilt.
Common sense helps. Optimistic people skip precautions, fail to make contingency plans, produce erroneous forecasts, and take unnecessary risks. However, pessimism is common, especially in times of uncertainty. A negative bias can make us feel that our anger is justified and reasonable. But is it so?
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4 tips for great balance and realism
The penalty for being too careless is less happiness and fewer opportunities. In order to check that our pessimism is reasonable and rationalize our views, we need to think logically.
1. Start with awareness
The first step in combating the worst is to understand its impact.
| A real good feature | The effect of unfavorable bias | Examples of behavior |
| People and organizations are kind, capable, helpful and behave as we imagine. | Excessive risk aversion. We miss out on future benefits because short-term problems seem more urgent. | – Additional layers of authorization and risk controls. – Sticking to the status quo instead of investing in new things, testing, or new products and products. – Spending a disproportionate amount of time correcting mistakes. – Too quick to cut the budget in a time of uncertainty. |
| There are more good things happening around us than we realize. | Ignoring or talking about good news and signs while focusing too much on the negative. | – Downgrading good metrics if there is one poor metric. – Being overly concerned with complaints or criticism despite lots of praise. – Scroll of Doom. |
| People and organizations are kind, capable, helpful and behave as we imagine. | Failing to recognize the positive aspects while trying to avoid the negatives. | – Avoiding partners or vendors after one failure. – Writing performance reviews that overemphasize errors. – Rejecting the best option due to minor weaknesses. – Allowing the negative to dominate the view for a long time. |
2. Check the truth systematically
The next step is to use specific, data-driven methods to combat bias. The complexity of marketing now exceeds our individual ability to think. We need tools and processes to assess risks and rewards, opportunities and threats.
Even simple tools can be powerful. In “The Checklist Manifesto,” Atul Gawande shows how professionals from aviation to medicine use checklists to avoid overly optimistic or pessimistic decisions. My team and I used this approach to evaluate complex RFPs, where submitting the request required large resources. We found opportunities using a list of defined criteria. After scoring, there was a little silence — can we win? If so, we have invested a lot. If not, we refuse.
AI enables sophisticated testing. Try to create a structured decision framework with instructions that require a balanced review of the best, worst, and expected outcomes.
3. Different opinions
Social situations increase the potential for bias. Talking to others about gloom and doom in person and on social media reinforces negativity. Information bubbles and the idea of algorithmic skew manipulation.
To counter this, ask for other opinions and encourage healthy debate. The biggest benefit to the RFP process I described came from having a multidisciplinary team. Because sales depended on the trust of experts and technical experts were very cautious, the debate was not always easy, but marketing added balance, and the mix ensured that overconfidence or pessimism did not distort decisions.
Pessimism is prevalent in general company data. For example, customer service logs are inherently biased, and online content favors scary and critical narratives.
AI systems can expand knowledge sources. By scanning and synthesizing large datasets of information such as customer feedback, market signals, and performance metrics, AI counteracts the human tendency to fixate on obvious anecdotes and recent negative input. To ensure fairness in this process, companies should prevent AI systems from being trained on data that over-represents bad information (eg, accident reports, complaints, news articles).
4. Adjust the way you think
A calm and confident mind goes a long way in eliminating negative biases.
- Look for the good. Practice the “three good things” method by ending each day by remembering what went well. Stop and enjoy positive experiences to strengthen your brain’s positive connections.
- Spend less time focusing on the news and less sharing of things that encourage criticism. Limit negative conversations to what is really necessary.
- Reframe conflicting ideas in a constructive, fast, and efficient manner. Customers get biased, too. Combat this by examining and addressing the root causes of complaints.
- Embrace the complexity of the real world. Reflect on how difficulties can be opportunities. Remember that things can get worse now and get better later.
Yes, problems need our attention. But we can improve our ability to contribute to solutions by investing to see the good. Optimists drive progress, encourage perseverance, and turn obstacles into opportunities. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you’re right.”
