How can you help clients recognize the impact of the availability heuristic on their decision making?

Let's begin with making sure everyone knows what heuristic is. My clients don't need to know the tools and ways i support them , you don't go to the garage as to which spanner they use. Availability heuristic is our mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person’s mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. I liken it to grabbing the most visible book from a shelf without checking if it’s the one that best answers your question

Para promover la heurística en la toma de decisiones es necesario promover la objetividad, la visión global del impacto de la posible decisión, no temar la decisión si existe duda y profundizar el detalle. Por último, indagar al quien sabe o haya tenido experiencia en el tema es vital.

Availability Heuristic may sound like something you have never experienced or even heard about, but that is because it is not often talked about. Let me explain this concept using our everyday life: Imagine you are planning to go on a vacation and want to decide on the place. What comes to your mind first? The pictures your friends posted on their social media, the location that was in the news for good reasons. Now, because those pictures are so vivid and easily accessible in your memory, you might automatically think that going to that place would be a good idea. That is the availability heuristic. Instead of checking our budget, the time frame we have, family preferences, etc.

It’s like thinking rain is more common than it actually is just because you got soaked last week. This heuristic can skew our judgment, making us overly influenced by recent news, personal experiences, or media coverage, rather than all the relevant data.

1. It gives more weightage to what's recent instead of what is important. 2. Is easily influential. 3. Kills innovation and risk-taking. It's more of a play-safe zone you are operating from.

the availability heuristic lead to decisions based on easily recalled events, not facts. Imagine a team overemphasizes a recent client loss because it's vivid. We can miss the bigger picture by forgetting past successes or underestimating new risks. To counter this, I encourage gathering data and considering past experiences to make well-rounded choices. Always depend on real data and experiences rather than assumptions or inferences.

I guide clients to identify instances where their decisions were based more on recency or vividness of memories than on hard data. It’s akin to realising you’re wearing sunglasses at night and wondering why it’s darker than it should be!! We have all doe it !

This can be done by asking some questions like: 1. What information did you consider before coming to this decision? 2. What is the source of this information? 3. Any recent content or covnersation that might be influencing your decision-making process?

To counteract this bias, I encourage diversifying sources of information and seeking out data over anecdotes. It's like consulting both the map and the locals when navigating new terrain, ensuring a more balanced view

The very first step is to identify and accept that their decision-making is influenced by the availability heuristic. Now, what is the impact of this on their business and themselves? Then give them a tool (I have a well-structured Google sheet for this) to record the decisions and the points they considered while making those decisions. Once sufficient data is collected, you can then have a reflecting session with them.

We assess decisions made before and after recognizing this heuristic, noting changes in outcomes and satisfaction levels. It’s similar to checking the weather forecast accuracy by comparing predictions with actual weather, to gauge reliability.

While it may be challenging to directly measure the impact of the availability heuristic, you can observe patterns in decision making and assess whether clients tend to rely heavily on readily available information or examples. You can also conduct retrospective analyses of past decisions to identify instances where the availability heuristic may have played a role.

There are multiple ways to measure impact, like: 1. Interviewing the impacted parties. 2. Experimental studies like what if. 3. Cause & Effect analysis.

Remind clients that while the availability heuristic can be a useful cognitive shortcut in certain situations, it's essential to be aware of its potential limitations and biases. Encourage ongoing reflection and self-awareness in decision making to mitigate the influence of the availability heuristic and make more informed choices. Additionally, provide ongoing support and guidance to help clients develop and strengthen their decision-making skills over time.

To help clients recognize the impact of the availability heuristic on their decision-making, it's essential to highlight how this mental shortcut influences their perceptions. Explain that the availability heuristic is the tendency to rely on readily available information when making judgments, often leading to skewed assessments. By providing concrete examples and illustrating how easily accessible or vivid information can overshadow less accessible but equally relevant data, clients can better understand how their decisions might be influenced. Encouraging them to consider alternative perspectives and actively seek out additional information can help mitigate the availability heuristic bias in their decision-making process.

Beyond recognition and mitigation, fostering an environment where clients feel comfortable challenging their assumptions and beliefs is crucial. Encouraging them to ask 'Why do I think this?' acts as a mental pause button, prompting deeper analysis