Hidden in plain sight: The subtle biases that shape our projects

When was the last time we paused to think about the invisible forces shaping our project decisions, especially those involving people.

We hold risk workshops; review lessons learnt and agree on control measures. But how often do we consider the subtler influences that shape our discussions and relationships within the team or stakeholders. What might be hidden in plain sight.

Visualise a scene:

The project team is gathered for a risk workshop. Post-it notes at the ready, timelines are tight. Around the table familiar categories surface: cost overruns, supply chain issues, late changes to the requirements, weather delays. Everyone nods. The list grows quickly – it feels thorough.

Yet beneath the efficiency, there is something more human.

Whose voices are shaping the list? Who’s doing most of the talking and whose insight might quietly be missed?

We like to think our discussions are objective; yet even our objectivity has habits. This is what is known as anchoring bias – our tendency to rely on the first or most familiar information that comes to mind. Add to that the groupthink that often develops within teams that work well together and our conversations can reflect comfort of the known rather than curiosity or diversity. We start with what we know and rarely stray far from it.

And these are just two of the almost two hundred cognitive bias identified in human bias decision making. Others play out in our daily interactions. It could be affinity bias, when our go-to person for advice mirrors our own way of thinking. It could be confirmation bias, when we search for data that supports the option we already favour. Or perhaps status bias, when a senior voice is unconsciously given more weight than it deserves.

These patterns are rarely deliberate. They’re human, fast, familiar, efficient. But left unchecked, they can narrow how we engage with others. When a few perspectives dominate, psychological safety shrinks. The result? Projects that overlook key risks, design out certain users, or miss opportunities for innovation because alternative views are rarely heard.

Sometimes it isn’t occurrences at the team workshop that are the problem, but what happens afterward.

Maybe we’re asked to ‘pull something together quickly’ – a risk register, a stakeholder map, a set of option, a spokesperson when there is a project feature deadline. We draw on experience and use what has worked before. Its efficient, yes, but without dialogue and diversity of thought, bias quietly multiplies. The output looks credible yet may be incomplete. When in a bind and under pressure, the already ultra visible person is likely to be selected and the opportunity to shine the light on new talent can be missed.

Projects are delivered by people. Every decision, every process, every spreadsheet or programme commences with human judgement. So bias awareness is not a peripheral skill; its central to project success and people relationships. When teams take time to understand their shared patterns of thinking, who they naturally trust, who they overlook, whose concerns they dismiss as outliers, they build the conditions for better decisions and stronger delivery. As individual professionals we need to also be more reflective on our practices and behaviours.

So next time you’re in that room, of filling in for someone on a tight deadline, lets pause before auto-pilot takes over:

Whose risks are we missing?
Whose voice hasn’t shaped this decision?
Who has been excluded from an opportunity yet again?
And what might be hiding in plain sight that deserves our attention?

Three small shifts or inclusion nudges takeaways:

Pause before autopilot: before defaulting to the familiar, practice perspective talking. Ask how a colleague, stakeholder or end-user might see the issue differently; and what that might reveal.

Invite dialogue and diversity: Bring in an additional perspective, perhaps a less represented voice into your next discussion. Diverse thinking can assists in exposing blind spots early.

Understand your bias landscape: Every team and organisation has characteristic biases. Naming them helps reduce blind spots and builds collective accountability in decision making and safer spaces for delivery.

My new book, the first within the Strategic Inclusion, Purpose and People series, Fundamentals of Diversity and inclusion in Project Management, explores these hidden dynamics, not only in how we plan and deliver projects, but in how we relate with each other and contemplate those impacted by our work. It encourages conversations and reflections that lead to lasting change in our practices, processes and behaviours. Because inclusion, like good project delivery, begins with awareness and is enhanced by dialogue.

Project resilience probably begins with learning to see, and value, what’s been there all along, hidden in plain sight…Where understanding deepens, collaboration strengthens and performance soars.