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Industrial/organizational psychology considers how best to provide support within organizational parameters.

We must know how bias and heuristics affect decision-making, how people learn, and what motivates performance.

We must listen in order to develop our families, as much to earn collective buy-in and surface new insights.

“This organization is like a family” is among the most hypocritical statements in the corporate lexicon. Unless, of course, your family lets go of underperformers.

But while an organization is not your family, your family is an organization. So, what can be gleaned from the traditional pillars of the field? Quite a lot, actually.

Industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology teaches that a) structured interviews improve hiring decisions by up to 300 percent by countering bias,1 and b) no one ever does structured interviews, because we prefer relying on gut instincts over a laborious process, regardless of efficacy.

This is driven by biases and heuristics, which exist to save our mental energy. And while they work in some contexts, they consistently fail in others. Like hiring. More than 50 percent of hiring decisions fail.2

Here’s what that means at home. Without a process, decisions make us. And they seek to minimize effort, which usually means accommodating the most difficult family member.

This hits every household decision: activities, friends, meals, routines, rules, media, priorities, and generally, “the way things get done around here” (Deal & Kennedy describing organizational culture).

Like structured interviews, steps can be taken at home to prevent bias from overtaking decision-making. For family activities, rotate decision-making or offer options and vote. If you want your kid to take piano lessons, make sure........

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