Diagnostic thinking is critical for entrepreneurs

Please see this interesting video of Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Professor, on the importance of diagnostic thinking. He has given a brilliant example of how doctors can get misled by 'problem symptom' and rush to a 'solution', instead of taking a pause and 'diagnosing' what could be the problem. As entrepreneurs are highly action oriented people, they are also prone to this 'jumping' from problem to solution.

When entrepreneurs jump from problem to solution, they make three mistakes:

1. Do not observe all the 'variables' that are also causing the symptom. For instance, when an employee is not able to 'do the work as per the instruction', we simply assume that 'employee is tardy' or 'non committed' or simply ' avoiding work'. We do not wait and wonder if we gave incomplete instruction, or we forgot that the employee does not understand 'the technical word' which we used while giving the instruction.
2. Use the 'available' evidence, instead of using the 'right evidence' : Daniel Kahneman, the Noble Prize winning psychologist, calls it the effect of Type 1 fast and unconscious mind. For instance, if the employee has made a similar mistake in the past of not following the given instructions, we quickly use the 'available evidence' and label the employee as 'lazy', ignoring the evidence that 'he had been given too many actions to be taken without any guidance of prioritising them'
3. Hasty actions cause more unintended consequences, further confusing the 'problem symptom': Our past actions contribute to today's symptoms. But we forget this variable in the heat of the unfolding events. For instance, because we 'scolded the employee' infront of other employees for his past mistake, the employee felt 'victimised' for the mistake he tried to avoid. So now, he is already thinking, " If my best actions cannot help satisfy my boss, what is the use of putting your best'? You have unknowingly sown the seed of 'carelessness' in the employee and now expect him to 'overcome' the hurdle and do something different for you. 

Here are three ideas to avoid this natural tendency to jump from problem to solution, and instead do a diagnosis before taking up an action:

• Take care of the initial interactions with a new employee, vendor or customer: Because of 'unintended consequences of past events', initial interactions are critical in guiding our actions and solutions. Therefore, in the initial stages of a long relationship, use the pause button a lot more to collect evidence before jumping to any conclusion. This will enable you to avoid the mistakes of 'accumulated past'
• Always take a pause in an interaction where the other person has 'low unequal power': Subordinates, children, ( and even spouse) have low power in any event. In all such interactions, we tend to oversimplify the event, look at the available evidence, and swiftly jump to the conclusion. Push a pause button and do a diagnosis before coming to a solution in such unequal-power interactions.
• Become aware of your heuristics ( our thumb rules) while interacting with people: We all have heuristics like 'Labour wants more money for less work', or 'Customers want everything free', or 'Late employees are not committed' or 'People who cannot do a good job are not willing to take a responsibility' and so on. We use these heuristics to form a quick conclusion and become blind to notice other evidence that is contrary to the heuristics. 

What are you doing to ensure that you do not jump from problem to solution?