Lesson Learned #32
After a successful project at a large regional hospital, the Carpedia team went out to celebrate at a local restaurant. As we sat down for dinner, one of the partners left to answer a phone call and missed the drinks order. A Heineken was ordered for him in his absence. When he returned to the table, the server asked him if the Heineken would be OK. The partner replied that if it wasn’t any trouble he’d prefer a Stella. The server said, “No problem,” and left. This started a fairly heated debate about whether or not there was a taste difference between a Heineken and a Stella, and even if so would someone be able to tell which was which? Most of the team thought they could.The discussion zeroed in on whether perceptions can overpower facts. Unable to leave this unsolved enigma alone, a blind taste test was determined to be the only reasonable course of action.
Five beers were selected for their relative similarity: Heineken, Stella Artois, Alexander Keith’s, Moosehead and Beck’s. All five were poured into small unmarked glasses. Three people volunteered to take the taste test and were asked to list their beer choices in order from favorite to least favorite and to identify the brand of each unmarked beer. The results were surprising. Out of five possible correct selections, the first participant identified none correctly; the second participant one:, and the third participant none. In total there was only one correct answer in 15 attempts. Of particular note: the partner who sent back the Heineken for the Stella scored zero for five in matching the beer to the brand, and ironically chose Heineken as his favorite beer.
The lesson learned was that it’s easy to make decisions, or draw conclusions, based on our perceptions. This is generally OK, because the accuracy of the answer may not be that important. However, in many business situations the right answer is important. Faulty assumptions or perceptions can stop you from identifying the true facts of a situation. It’s more difficult to create solutions based on actual facts and observations. And despite the facts, it’s also very hard to get people to change their behavior. To this day, our partner chooses Stella over Heineken.
