It’s a shame so many people – especially entrepreneurs – avoid jury duty. For one thing, if people like you avoid jury duty, who will be on the jury if you get into trouble? For another, jury duty provides a powerful refresher course in the process of judgment. This is really important, because the workplace tests our judgment every day.

My blog editor and sometime co-author Dean Zatkowsky recently spent a day in the jury selection process for a criminal trial. Certainly the exercise was tedious, but also fascinating.  The attorneys repeated the same questions over and over again, focusing on a prerequisite skill for anyone in a position of authority: can you distinguish fact from opinion?

Each prospective juror was asked to describe how he or she resolved conflicts between children or coworkers who presented disparate accounts of events. I think we all cringe at the prospect of having to judge a “he said, she said” type of conflict, but such events are common in the workplace. If all the facts were undisputable and available for consideration, we could use a computer rather than a jury to render a judgment. Judges admonish jurors to consider only the facts, but the issue has gone to trail because the facts are in dispute. Still, the discipline reinforced on jury duty is to start with the facts, such as they are.

Of course, facts are always skewed by perception. Two witnesses will see an event differently based on their own literal and figurative points of view, and one hearing their testimony brings his or her own point of view into the mix. That’s why we need so many people on juries – to compare points of view and come to a consensus about the facts. And that’s why business decision-makers need committees or advisory boards or spousal sounding boards to test our thinking. It’s vital to see things with your own eyes when possible, but also important to try to see through others’ eyes.

Good judgment requires the encouragement of our skepticism and the discouragement of our cynicism. A skeptic questions opinions and looks for factual verification, whereas a cynic assumes self-serving motives behind every action. The cynic forms opinions in advance of the facts. A responsible juror must form an opinion about the facts, but must avoid theorizing in advance of the facts. Dean used to have a bumper sticker that read, “Don’t believe everything you think.” That’s a useful philosophy, because entrepreneurs make decisions every day, and the quality of those decisions will depend to some extent on their ability to question their own opinions. The challenge is to become your own best skeptic without destroying your ability to decide.

Thus, another valuable lesson from jury duty comes with the judge’s discussion of “reasonable doubt.” In criminal cases, the charges must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.  Prospective jurors are frequently reminded of the difference between a “reasonable doubt” and “any doubt.” Anyone who has served on a jury knows that some people never get it. But for an entrepreneur, this distinction can prevent “analysis paralysis.” We cannot eliminate all doubts before we act, so we need a standard for evaluating the reasonableness of our concerns.

Jury duty exercises our ability to distinguish fact from opinion, and makes us consider how we set the bar for overcoming doubt. We also benefit by reflecting on the concept of “duty.” Many of the people who tried to get out of Dean’s jury claimed hardship, but presented mere inconveniences as their excuse. The judge’s exasperation seemed to have no effect on them. Dean found this a bit depressing because he views the justice system as one of our greatest achievements and greatest necessities. An understanding of duty is an understanding of priorities, and priorities determine what gets done and what does not. Moreover, duty is a source of honor.

An entrepreneur takes on a duty to serve customers and coworkers. This sense of duty guides one’s judgment in day-to-day decision-making. So does the discipline to always start with the facts and the ability to disregard unreasonable doubts. A businessperson on jury duty recognizes that one cannot get all the facts, one’s judgment will always be imperfect, but often one must decide anyway. That’s how leaders keep a business moving forward.

A thoughtful participant can get a lot out of jury duty, so next time you receive a summons, don’t look at it as a burden, but rather as a free self-improvement workshop.

Questions:

1.     How do you resolve conflicts when friends or coworkers present conflicting accounts of events?

2.     When analyzing the pros and cons of a new idea, what is your standard for reasonable doubt? Do you assign probabilities to potential outcomes?

3.     What are your duties as a businessperson? As a family member? As a citizen?