‘Seeing’ Roundtable #2 – The Hidden Threads of Strategy: Seeing Beyond the PiecesBias, Belief & Better Decisions
Our second ‘Seeing’ roundtable, held at the end of November near York, brought together leaders from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and experience gained in numerous national and international organisations. We explored how people understand, influence, and make decisions.
Dr Rob Wray and Chris Lees opened the session with a thought-provoking canter through human and machine reasoning and bias, setting the tone for an afternoon of reflection on human behaviour, organisational dynamics, and decision-making in an age increasingly shaped by technology.
Understanding Bias and Influence
The discussion continued by considering filters – how is the information we rely on to make decisions filtered? Who designs or operates these filters – from journalists and social media algorithms to our colleagues and systems?
Rob led an exercise on confirmation bias, inviting participants to reflect on their own tendencies and then group dynamic. The results – perhaps unsurprisingly -indicated that the group generally exhibits low levels of confirmation bias, a reassuring sign for a community committed to critical thinking and self-awareness.
Much of the discussion centred on the many ways individuals influence (and are influenced by) others when making decisions. Participants compared experiences across charitable organisations, where the aim is often to deploy surplus to maximise outcomes, and commercial organisations, where decision-making is focused on growth, revenue, and profit. Despite these structural differences, similar behavioural patterns and leadership challenges were recognised on both sides.
Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
A recurring theme was the reality that decisions are frequently made with incomplete or ambiguous information. This sparked exploration of the importance of trust, both in relationships and in the processes that support decision-making. Participants discussed techniques for building influence – including non-verbal communication – and the difficulty of shifting entrenched status quos.
The group also reflected on the tension between needing to address immediate operational pressures (“the fire at our feet”) while still creating the protected time and space required for deep, meaningful thinking.
Many decisions are made using our instinctual, “fast-thinking”, gut-reaction to a situation, rather than – as many might assume – our rational minds.
The Role of AI in Influence and Judgement
Inevitably, the conversation turned to artificial intelligence. Attendees considered AI’s potential to both enhance and distort human decision-making – its ability to process information at scale, as well as the risks of amplifying bias or eroding trust.
We explored the emotional landscape of influence from both sides:
- the persuader or presenter, and
- the decision-maker
These roles were reframed by one participant as the decision-maker being a “perpetrator”, characterizing those persuading or presenting proposals that were adequately evidenced but nonetheless declined as “victims”.
A key insight was that everyone alternates between these roles, often within the same organisational context.
Clarity of goals, outcomes or deliverables can help the move towards rational decision making but still require. With guard-rails in place, artificial intelligence would make a significant contribution, although it was noted that the rise in Agentic AI presents a new set of risks and challenges, particularly with respect to the effectiveness of guard-rails.
Shared Experience Across Diverse Organisations
Despite coming from varied sectors and specialisms, participants noted that many of their organisational challenges share common underlying themes – leadership expectations, communication dynamics, cultural inertia, and the constant pressure to balance strategy with day-to-day realities.
Looking Ahead
The group closed the afternoon with clear enthusiasm for continuing the conversation. We agreed to meet again in March (London) and June (Edinburgh) 2026. One focus for the next session will be exploring real-world examples of building trust or cultural change successes – what works, why, and how these lessons might translate across different organisational contexts.
The day concluded with a warm and lively evening in York, where participants continued the conversation over dinner and a few drinks.
