17th December 2024
I remember, in my MBA days, we used to have case studies, where one group used to present a case & the other group or the rest of the class had to find gaps in their presentation & question their hypotheses.
In recent times, in my work as a wealth manager, our success relies on making great investment decisions on belhalf of clients and avoiding bad ones.
To further refine our process, we have now decided to incorporate an idea called ‘The Blue Team’ into our investment diligence process.
The idea is simple:
A team of 2-3 people are tasked with poking holes in the investment opportunity or portfolio construct.
Their entire goal is to ask the tough questions, uncover the contrary evidence, and pressure test our assumptions.
While the main investment team is working to understand the opportunity and present the case for the investment, the Blue Team works on exposing the gaps in our thinking and force a better ultimate decision.
The Blue Team idea is even more interesting outside the context of professional investing, as a broadly applicable tool for our life:
What if you created a Blue Team to help you navigate life’s most important decisions?
Just as a lot of investment firms use a Blue Team to make better investing decisions, we can use a Blue Team to make better life decisions.
We live your life zoomed in—this means we are often unable to remove ourself from the emotional connection to the decision in front of us.
The Blue Team can force us to zoom out:
What are you missing?
What do you know for sure that just ain’t so?
What assumptions are you making that are fundamentally flawed?
What questions have you failed to ask?
What alternatives are you ignoring?
What information or evidence can you gather or create?
The Blue Team for your life doesn’t need to be formal—it can just be a few people you respect, trust, and admire. Seek them out when you face your most important decisions. Give them the relevant details and ask them to go down the rabbit hole with you.
It may add a bit of time to the decision-making process, but if the quality of your ultimate decision improves even 5%, it will be worth it.
Find your Blue Team—and use it for better life decisions & stay blessed forever.