September 6

Inductive Reasoning – The Common Misunderstanding That Becomes a Minefield 

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In our last blog post we discussed the need to transform your culture by treating your employees as a new category of “customers.”  

Here’s a major challenge to doing that. Faulty inductive reasoning

Fundamentally, inductive reasoning is the science and art of developing probabilities based on the results of a sample and attributing those results to a larger population, i.e. what is true for the sample will be true for the whole. The accuracy of inductive reasoning is based on the source and intelligence of your assumptions and the size and appropriateness of your sample.

Inductive reasoning hurts you when you take too small a sample (like one event) and attribute the result to your entire population.

For example, you’re a boomer. You hire a millennial. He spends too much time playing video games. You fire him. You conclude that all millennials are lazy. You will never hire another one. You dramatically shrink the size of your talent pool. 

You’re a millennial, leading a tech company. You hire a boomer for a role in strategy development. He is slow to grasp the tech knowledge needed. You fire him. You conclude that all boomers are dinosaurs. Then, you find yourself disadvantaged because none of your employees have the needed wisdom to develop great strategies. 

That kind of simplistic, inductive behavior is normal for most people, most of the time. It comes into being whenever you don’t want to think more deeply. It becomes the cover story that justifies your unwillingness to act transformationally. You are leading by allowing the situation to define you, rather than you shaping the situation. It is NOT the way great leaders operate.  

What should you do?

In our next blog post we’ll take a deeper dive into how to use inductive reasoning in ways to improve the quality of your decision making while avoiding the minefield of mistakes that explode when you make decisions simplistically.

To explore more in upcoming posts, follow us at Axies Group on LinkedIn.


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The areas of balance required to perform as a top level organization are lifted from the almost unconscious to the very conscious in Mastering Your Balance. As a business and executive coach I see business leaders mostly consumed 95% if the time with near term issues. A perpetual game of Whack-A-Mole.

Perhaps, getting the various elements covered in the book in play and more importantly in balance these leaders would have far less moles to whack, and therefore much more time and energy available execute on their greater purpose.

Shane Willard April 21, 2021

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Bill & Jason get it. Having coached thousands of businesses and business leaders their insight is invaluable. They beautifully weave Vision, Values, Culture, Strategy & Purpose together into actionable steps any leader can implement. As they say, no matter how good one is at these individual elements, without balance greatness will always lie just behind your reach.

The 'what-would-it-take' concept in Chapter 2 makes you peel back the excuses and think creatively. "To achieve the impossible you must first envision the improbable."

At its core, this book serves as a blueprint for each vital element necessary to achieve success and balance organizationally (and personally). It reminds leadership where they need to focus.

Joe Fera April 1, 2021

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What would it take to shatter your limiting beliefs and lead your company to heights only dreamed? Read ‘Mastering Your Balance’. Bill & Jason have demystified the ‘Dark Matter’ of great leadership and great organizations and boiled it down to highly actionable and implementable elements. Aha moments abound!

LR March 31, 2021

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Severin Sorensen March 24, 2021

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As a business coach I'm always looking for books to inspire the human mind, and give direction to business owners seeking to raise their performance in the great game of business. Mastering Your Balance is one of those books. The authors are experienced in the art of giving profound advice to their clients.