Rounding up the latest in sales research and innovation.
March 16, 2022
By Rachel Smith
It’s time for the Maestro Sales News Roundup, where we give you an unbiased look at the latest stories and research from around the web.
March is Women’s History Month, and March 8th was International Women’s Day. This year the theme was #BreakTheBias. Much of the focus this month tends to be on women who have made contributions in male-dominated fields, or on organizations working to get more girls and women interested in majority-male areas of study. While equal representation is unquestionably critical, a recent Harvard Business Review study shows that it’s not enough.
Most gender-bias research looks at fields in which men dominate. Many assume that once more women are in a field, a decrease in gender bias will follow. HBR researchers looked specifically at fields in which women make up the majority and found that the “add women and stir” approach does not eliminate bias.
Just as increasing minority representation in an organization doesn’t eradicate racial bias, adding women does not eliminate gender bias. Why? Because simply adding women does not change the organizational structures themselves which were built to benefit men more than women.
Removing bias demands both equal representation and creating gender-equitable practices and environments. Steps like implementing equitable reward structures and defining success using goals and not time spent need to be part of the solutions to remove bias. Take a look at the HBR report to learn other steps toward true gender equity.
The term groupthink might sound positive, even inclusive, but don’t be fooled. Groupthink describes the tendency for groups of people, when trying to reach a consensus, to quickly agree on status-quo solutions without much discussion. It tends to kill innovative ideas. Another HBR study looked at which groups were able to avoid the curse of groupthink, and identified what actions led them to success.
There is another group-decision strategy that sounds great but often ends badly due to bias—managers asking their employees for input. When managers specifically ask for this feedback, they tend to take credit for the ideas generated since they were the ones who created the environment that prompted their employees to speak up. Does this mean leaders shouldn’t ask their team for ideas? Of course not. But it does mean that as a leader, you need to be aware of the biases that impact your interactions with others a be sure to give credit where it’s due.
Our previous blog explored the anchoring bias—our tendency to give more weight to the first piece of information we learn about something. Taha Yasseri, Associate Professor at the Geary Institute for Public Policy in Dublin, explains why this bias wreaked havoc during the pandemic, and why it’s not surprising that the public didn’t easily accept new information.
As more research was conducted on COVID-19, data was constantly being updated. The information that tended to stick with people, however, was what they heard first. For example, it was initially thought that herd immunity would be achieved once 60–70 percent of the population had been exposed or vaccinated. Later research showed that it would actually take between 90 and 95 percent of people vaccinated or exposed to attain herd immunity, but the initial estimate was already stuck in people’s brains.
Not only are cognitive biases to blame for people not accepting the latest data on COVID-19, they are also likely responsible for the world being unprepared for and surprised by the pandemic in the first place. George Mason University Professor of Economics Tyler Cowen shares that the recency bias, which causes us to disproportionately weigh events from the recent past when planning for the future, blinded many people to the likelihood of a large pandemic occurring.
If you zoom out beyond the recent past and look at hundreds of years of human history, pandemics have occurred throughout. Cowen thinks the recency bias is also to blame for people assuming that anti-Semitism would continue to decline. While it had declined in the recent past, it has been a troubling yet consistent feature of Western history. Its recent reemergence would not have been surprising if not for the recency bias.
Cowen also believes the recency bias is coloring our view of nuclear weapons. While they haven’t been used for a long time, history tells us that available weapons eventually get used. One thing is for sure—Tyler Cowen sounds like a barrel of fun. A guy who warns people that pandemics, anti-Semitism, and nuclear proliferation should of course be expected? I bet he’s fun at a party.
You may have just gotten Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z straight in your head, but the next generation is already here—Generation Alpha. It includes everyone who has been or will be born between 2010 and 2025, and by 2025 will include 2.5 billion individuals. Alphas are positioned to have the greatest spending power in history and are already wielding that power through their parents. (The article actually says “their millennial parents” which I found extremely rude.)
Are you and your sales team looking to get ahead in 2022? HubSpot has a thoughtful piece on this year’s top sales challenges and priorities. You might also want to check out the HBR research on the three practices that set resilient teams apart. Finally, Gong.io shares eight sales strategy examples that can put you ahead of your competitors.
Looking for even more ways to learn and excel this year? Reach out to us at mastery@maestrogroup.co for information on our expanded workshop menu.
Get the Maestro Mastery Blog, straight to your inbox.
