1. Many decision-making and attributional biases affect interpersonal and team interactions.

Select the two that you think are having the greatest negative effects on interpersonal and
team functioning in the Aston-Blair case. In your response, be sure to:
a. Define the two biases
b. Give concrete reasons as to why you think that they are affecting the team
c. Give specific examples of how they are negatively affecting the team.
d. Recommend and justify two (no more!) action steps that the people in the case can take
to mitigate the effects of these biases on their ongoing relationships (i.e., do not tell me
what they could have done in the past).
In response to your questions about the midterm, I have a couple of clarifications to make...

On the first question, I am only looking for two action steps total (i.e., not two per bias).
I do not expect you to be writing a research paper but I do want you to cite sources when
justifying your analyses and, in many cases, your action steps
You do not need to go beyond the course readings, class discussions, videos shown in class, class
Powerpoints, or ManageMentor modules when citing sources
o Treat the ManageMentor modules as Blogs for citation purposes
o Treat class discussions as personal communications for citations purposes
o Treat class Powerpoints as Online Lecture Notes or Presentation Slides for citation purposes

Poor sharing of information was also present in the task force as when Bacon called a
meeting before the August 4 meeting to discuss the findings of the task force, Mier was
absent in that meeting and missed an important information (systematic Biases in the
Sales Divisions input into the forecasting) that would have helped Mier a lot.
The team leader should have treated all the members equally while this was not the case
here. As Bacons meetings with Mier were strained and short.
https://agileaustraliablog.com/2014/05/13/5-cognitive-biases-that-breakdown-agile-teams/
http://www.brighthubpm.com/risk-management/128234-project-failures-due-to-systematic-bias/

The team lacked the ability to defend itself. This can be seen when no one stood up to
back up Miers ideas.
The lack of sharing of information with all the members created a sense of distrust and
disloyalty among the key team members. (After the incident when Mier found out about
Bodins report).
The team members should be given the rights to express their thoughts and ideas to solve the
issue
systematic Biases in the Sales Divisions input into the forecasting

This is a bias that essentially leads to expending more project resources on resolving an issue.
For example, throwing more money at a problem believing it will fix the issue, when really what
you may need to do is reexamine the project altogether, or increase a different resource in order
to meet the challenge.
Conservatism: As a project is executed, feedback is received and the project objectives may need
to be revisited or the deliverables may need significant change. However, many project leaders
may continue the project based on the original information, instead of taking the new feedback
into consideration.

Deal directly with conflict

State your underlying interest (NOT your position), how the other persons
behavior appears to block you from achieving it, and then how that makes you
feel
(a) Systematic Biases and Self-serving Bias are having the greatest negative effects on both
interpersonal and team functioning in the Aston-Blair Case. (b) Armed with the same
information, different people reach different conclusion - ones that favor their own interests (MH
Bazerman, G Loewenstein, DA Moore. Pg 1). Bacon concluded that the disagreement on some
issues while working together was due to Meirs jealous and resentful of Bacons Success. This
cascaded events leading to favoring team mates. As a team leader, one should treat all members
equally. While this wasnt the case here, as Bacons meeting with Meir were strained and short.
It was evident from the first team meeting that Bacon was favoring members in the group. Meir
was cut short by one of the team mate, while Robert Holt altogether ignored his inputs and asked
to work by himself on what Meir felt necessary and divided the team leaving Meir to work alone
without any collaborative objective set. Bacon instead of identifying the situation of isolation and
distrust, encouraged that the idea was good. This bias can subtly damage, and ultimately destroy,
the ability for an organization to operate in a collaborative, transparent and agile manner.
Secondly Systematic biases,
systematic Biases in the Sales Divisions input into the forecasting

as Bacons meeting with Meir were strained and short

Efforts to build agile organizational structure can counter this, but still requires business leaders
to maintain vigilance.
limiting the ability of a product owner or other team members to make informed decisions.

tendency of people to favour members of their group or, in the agile case, team. This can be
seen in teams that regularly self-organise with the same people or teams that compete for
common resources (such as access to DBAs or user groups) without consideration for the
project or organisation as a whole. This bias can subtly damage, and ultimately destroy, the
ability for an organisation to operate in a collaborative, transparent and agile manner. Efforts to
build agile organisational structure can counter this, but still requires business leaders to maintain
vigilance.
This is a bias that essentially leads to expending more project resources on resolving an issue, in this
case a new team is created to identify and resolve the issue.