From GLG’s video series, Anatomy of a Decision: How Some of the World’s Smartest People Make Tough Decisions, Ken Mehlman, Head of Public Affairs at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), and former Republican National Committee Chairman, talks confirmation bias, the 2004 presidential election, and his current role with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
In conversation with GLG Head of Public Affairs Richard Socarides, Mehlman explains the importance of overcoming confirmation bias in making effective decisions. “I think ultimately all of us are biased toward how we want the world to be,” says Mehlman. “What often forces us to overcome those biases and come to the right decision are our mistakes and our humility in asking, ‘What can I learn about the future?’”
As an example from his own career of learning from setbacks, Mehlman cites his experience as campaign manager for George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. Following the 2000 campaign, which President Bush only narrowly won, Mehlman directed his team to draw on lessons learned from mistakes made — and to measure their benchmarks on a regular basis, aggressively seek out diversity in voters, and test new outreach methods. “Every single campaign that occurred had an experiment in it,” he says, “of a better way to reach voters.” The results of these experiments, collectively, proved pivotal to Mehlman’s team’s winning strategy in 2004.
These lessons on effective learning and decision-making also inform Mehlman’s approach to one of his most recent endeavors — heading the policy advisory board for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, leaders of the initiative, have defined their philanthropic goals earlier than most, Mehlman says, giving them a head start on making an impact. “If you combine a 60-year focus, with an engineering mindset, and a willingness to take experiments, fail, and learn from them, you can do a whole lot of good.”
