David Brady Helps

View Original

CUDOS - a model.

David Brady

A weekend-warrior magician and sociologist named Robert K. Merton pioneered an idea of an epistemic community around the norm of CUDOS.

Communism (data belongs to the group),

Universalism (apply uniform standards to claims and evidence, regardless of where they come from),

Disinterestedness (vigilance against potential conflicts that can influence the group's evaluation), and

Organized Skepticism (discussion among the group to encourage engagement and dissent).

(Reprinted from "Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts" by Annie Duke (c) 2018 by Anny Duke, p. 154)

I believe that one of the biggest threats to our world, especially the corporate world, is the lack of dissent, skepticism, or a willingness to challenge belief.

I'd love to build a tribe, I think I just might, of people who want to help others make better decisions. Here's how it might look, using the above CUDOS model.

  • Tribal leadership is to bring people together and maintain the rules.

  • An individual presents a recent decision they made, what led to it, what facts they considered when making the decision, and would avoid sharing the results (more on this later) - this data now belongs to the group.

  • Group members proceed to question - "What drove you to consider this fact and not another?" "What would you do differently?" "It appears your bias got the better part of you in this part, would you agree? Why or why not?"

  • Members approach their thoughts from a "facts-only" point-of-view; they do not allow bias to enter the conversation.

  • Each individual, set of facts seen or unseen, and all decisions receive equal, unbiased, impartial, and fair treatment.

The goal is to learn from the decision-making processes of others. Also, the presenter learns from the thoughts of the questioners; a win-win!

I may create a group like that. If you're interested, let me know. There's a possibility it could fail, but there's also a possibility it could become an excellent experience. It's a bet I might be willing to take.