Business people need to be scientific in how look at their companies, their markets and how they make decisions. If they don't, they may be lucky and thrive for a while, but they will ultimately and inevitably end up in ruin.
I want to be clear what I mean by the term “science” here. I don’t mean biology, chemistry, physics or any other examples from the school curriculum that restrict our thinking and, if I'm honest, put us off the subject. What I mean by science (in as unpretentious a way as possible) is a method and mindset of trying to find the truth of a situation or issue or problem; and caring first and foremost about finding the truth, irrespective of what that truth turns out to be.
It’s not about making an argument or proving a point. As soon as you start looking to defend a position or prove a point, then you're not a scientist, no matter what your qualifications or credentials. Mr Dawkins, looking to prove that God doesn't exist, isn’t a scientist. His antagonists, creationists trying to find evidence that He does exist, aren’t scientists either. Neither is anyone who selects information to justify themselves, rather than seeking information and testing the quality of their thinking to challenge themselves.
Therefore, you see true science exhibited more often in arenas where people need to get results, regardless of rationale or excuses, such as sport or gardening or medicine or the judge in the court room; and you see it less often where people need to be right, such as politics, interest groups, sales or the barrister in the courtroom.
Science, and the scientific method, is partly a thinking skill. It involves breaking down a problem into clear discrete component parts with an analytical knife; using crystal clear thinking to hang those parts together; making your assumptions and gaps in your knowledge explicit; using facts to test those assumptions and your draft conclusion; changing the conclusion according to what the facts say; and then challenging that new one in turn. You repeat this in a relentless process until you've got an answer with which you're satisfied. But the method isn’t something I want to go into any more here, because for most people the method isn’t the main issue.
The main issue is mindset. This mindset is about deliberately challenging your knowledge in the search for the truth of a situation and, crucially, being happy to change your view as the balance of facts dictates. It is not about collecting facts to make an argument or prove a point. This latter path is an aspect of rhetoric, which is a noble art, but it isn’t science. And unfortunately this point-proving seems to be a stronger instinct in the way our minds work than the discomfort of challenging our thinking and conclusions.
I'll give you an example of how easy it is to slip into the rhetor's mindset. I run training sessions for management consultants in the principles and practice of the consulting method, which is basically the scientific method. Everyone typically learns the scientific techniques to get to the heart of problems and crack difficult issues in a rigorous, objective and credible way. That is until I split the learners into teams and ask them, as an exercise, to give me the case for retaining or abolishing the royalty. I give the teams names: "Royalists" and "Republicans". As soon as they're given those positions my students turn from objective scientists into aggressive rhetors, searching for evidence that backs up their position. One team searches for the massive cost to the taxpayer of the royal family, while the other searches equally hard for the vital tourism income they bring to the country. They can't help themselves in this one-sided self-justifying behaviour. And I see this same behavior in myself and others every day.
Now let me come around to what all this means for business. First of all, of course there's a time for rhetoric and making an argument: whenever you're persuading someone in a sale, raising finance, or recruiting a super-star graduate. But if you want to know the truth about an issue, and make the best decision for yourself and your own business, you need the scientist’s mindset. You need to be humble about your pre-conceived notions, be open to challenge, and be prepared for the discomfort of receiving and doing the challenging. As soon as you stop doing that, and start building a fortress of facts to support your rhetoric, you're on the road to ruin, with self-justification, post-rationalisation and excuses all the way down.
So I'll leave you with a couple of questions to ask yourself about whatever issue you're facing. Are you being a scientist and trying to find the truth about whatever issue that concerns you, or are you selecting facts to make yourself feel better and prove a point? Are you trying to make the patient healthier, or are you trying to sell yourself some snake oil?
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