Let’s Be Rational: Understanding Cognitive Bias

to Build Better Systems

Presented By:

Jim Benson

Neuroscience teaches us our cognitive processes are imperfect. Lean teaches us our working processes are imperfect. What’s a Lean knowledge worker to do?

With some effort though, both are coachable and improvable, particularly when they are in the service of the other. In Lean, understanding how people respond to information, plans, power, and each other is key to creating and improving systems. In this workshop participants will gain a solid understanding of how those responses are impacted by cognitive bias, particularly insofar as the decisions we make and the conclusions we draw when creating and improving those systems.

Jim and Tonianne will highlight a few key cognitive biases and work with participants to define ways to spot and either mitigate or leverage them in an effort to optimize both their processes and the people involved.

Learning Objectives

In this session participants will learn to…

  • Understand the role cognitive bias plays in knowledge work
  • Identify cognitive biases that thwart planning, decision making, problem solving, improvement, respect for people, and value creation
  • Learn how to leverage Lean tools and techniques to better surface cognitive bias
  • Implement experiments to mitigate cognitive bias going forward
  • Begin to replace assumptions with fact

Facilitator Bio:

Jim Benson is a pioneer in applying Lean and Kanban to knowledge work, Jim is the creator of Personal Kanban and co-author of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life, winner of the Shingo Research and Publication Award. His other books include Why Plans Fail, Why Limit WIP, and Beyond Agile. He is the CEO of Modus Cooperandi, and co-founder of Modus Institute. For the past two decades Jim has worked at uncovering ways for individuals and groups to communicate, collaborate, and find clarity in unpredictable and amorphous environments.