COMMON SENSE: Should Be More Common

It is the ability to judge and decide based on the available, often limited, data.

It is the quintessential quality for any manager, much more important than any theoretical knowledge, as it also helps to determine what theoretical knowledge might apply to a particular situation.

Two examples demonstrate the need for common sense. The first one is the attitude toward evidence-based approaches. Although we must aim to be rational and base our actions on findings from relevant research, we must understand its limitations in research areas concerning people and their behavior. For instance, in the “Reproducibility Project: Psychology,” the researchers sought to replicate the effects of 100 psychology studies. Though 97% of the original studies produced statistically significant results, only 36% of the replication studies did so. {Check here}

Thus, a manager who tries to enforce something based on “research” might be enforcing something from 64% of non-replicable results with pitiful results.

The second example is worse and likely more frequent—enforcing something from less reliable sources, such as how-to books based on anecdotes. Books and studies on the “best companies” and their practices might be useless to the general audience, even if they are true to the facts.

It is a fact that many organizations worldwide consist of people whose most significant achievement was learning to read and write. Thus, the advice to become successful by applying principles used in some top companies from Silicon Valley might be akin to advising the general population to train 26 hours a week and regularly do 3-minute one-kilometer runs after studying world-class athletes (or pretending to have studied). The absolute majority of us cannot do this. And never could.

Applying the non-applicable principles can be worse than useless—it might destroy budding organizations and rob them of chances to grow.

Common sense advises us not to absolutize anything, to be attentive to our particular context, and to avoid trying to apply something that is not applicable. It also advises us to experiment with anything we want to use and be attentive to the feedback we get.

Yes, and common sense beats any MBA degree and is an absolute must-have for any leader, manager, or entrepreneur.

{FEEDBACK, TRIAL AND ERROR, FAIL FORWARD, ADEQUACY, GIGO, GUESSWORK, PRIORITIZATION, DAILY INCREMENTS}