Good decisions are not constrained by biases. But breaking them is not easy.
Adam Grant, a professor of psychology at Wharton admitted how wrong he was to pass up on the opportunity to invest in an online start-up selling glasses. Because the company didn’t have a functioning website the day before its launch and because other competitors were already operating in the space, he didn’t invest. He thought their procrastination showed a lack of commitment. But the company, Warby Parker, went on to be recognised as one of the world’s most innovative companies and was subsequently valued at over a billion dollars.
In his later research into original thinkers, Grant found that procrastinators are more creative than planners, and “improvers” (those who enter an existing industry with an improved idea) have a lower failure rate than “first-movers”. The founders of Warby Parker weren’t dragging their feet; they were spending their time thinking about bigger issues, such as how to make people feel comfortable buying glasses online, not how to get online as quickly as possible. It didn’t fit the mould of what Grant thought an enterprising start-up should be at the time, but it worked.
Read more: How Biases Ruin Our Judgment Calls | INSEAD Knowledge