Paralysis in Competitive Intelligence.

[Vivek Raghuvanshi]

Paralysis in Competitive Intelligence.

Paralysis in competitive intelligence happens most of the time because of the inability of a competitive intelligence analyst to interpret signals correctly. Most human beings are affected by sensory perception.

What a competitive intelligence analyst needs to be careful about and take into consideration are the following pitfalls which cloud decision making and thereby affect competitive intelligence.

Insight, a rare commodity, can get clouded by the subtle influences of the following thinking and behavioral flaws which affect a competitive intelligence analyst’s ability:-

http://corporaterisks.info/blog/?p=260

[Vivek Raghuvanshi]

http://corporaterisks.info/blog/?p=260&cpage=1#comment-77

Stephen Cheney wrote:
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A great list. Some errors occur not from faults in the analyst’s mind but are imposed from the wishes or biases, spoken or unspoken, from the analyst’s superiors (who might not be relating experts) who command above. The bias of pleasing the boss, the impact that bosses can have; maybe has a place after number 65, Bosses being a minority group, not a majority group like number 79, bosses are not just members of a group as in number 83, they chair or captain them. Analysts don’t work alone; they do not make judgments in a command vacuum. I don’t think that shared and common bureaucratic danger of a dominating overview is mentioned. An analyst’s judgments and mind are also, in part, the mind of the organisation that employs them.
The negatives can be kept in mind in order to avoid them as much as possible. However, looking at the positive side of analyzing, what methods are the correct ones to follow? Due to so many variables in Reality there are no Perfect methods for analysts to follow so that they can interpret signals ‘correctly’ every time. There will always be a judgment factor, a human element, as an analyst receives information second hand. If there was a perfect formula then a computer program could be written, a computers make judgments and decisions and then human analysts would not be necessary. However, the material that computers may study is mixed. That is, it is physical information and also human, psychological information. Not only physical attributes such as time, location and physical happenings define any event, but also things like human motivation, error, personal abilities, human comprehension of the meaning of messages they receive, and human reactions come into play..................................................................................................................

[Vivek Raghuvanshi]

Yes Chris,

You are right. These pitfalls will lead to mistakes and failures and if we are not careful mental paralysis may set in and thereby we may not develop out of the box thinking.

[Chris Hote]

Thank you Vivek for sharing this very comprehensive list. I am not sure though why behavioral biases would necessarily lead to paralysis. They may lead to mistakes or failures, and possibly lake of creativity although all human beings are subject to biases (your list) although they all make decisions.
Do you refer here to paralysis in terms of inability to think out-of-the-box? Thank you