Time for academics!

Time for academics!

Last September I started working on my thesis, which is about decision making and how especially people in groups commit to and engage with decisions. This is a topic that has always interested me because this is what everyone working witnesses everyday.  I contacted Fingertip for a chance to create my research abouLast September I started working on my thesis, which is about decision making t their decision making application. The most interesting thing for me was that one of Fingertip’s main goals is to make decision making measurable and I wanted this to be the goal of my thesis.

No matter if you’ve read Kahneman’s ‘Thinking, fast & Slows’ or not, you will most likely agree that decisions in groups, be that in organizations, politics or social structures, are not made rationally. After taking an initial look at the data and evaluating different viewpoints, I chose to narrow in on how people behave differently depending on their ‘ownership’ of decisions. My view was that users are better committed to decision they have created versus ones they are invited in.

The data analysis revealed that my hypothesis was wrong. First finding was on how users complete tasks on time. In decision that users had created themselves, their own tasks were more often late and also on average they were delayed more, compared to tasks performed by other users. So we can see the positive side of social pressure, people don’t want to disappoint their colleagues when given tasks.

Second finding was that when people were asked for stance on decision; should the decision go forward or not? Individuals who were engaged in the decision, were actually more punctual with their stances, compared to people who didn’t have an operational role within the decision but were there to give their support. So the more engaged users in the decisions, were also more likely to voice their opinion.

This is one of the social decision making mantras we emphasize in Fingertip. Engage people early on and they will commit to the decision, the decisions quality goes up when you have more input and the implementation comes more efficient when you already have the commitment.

Written by Henri Ripatti