Decision Science as a Competitive Edge: NYL Ventures’ Innovative Approach to Talent Acquisition and Growth

Sean Madgett, a distinguished member of the Alliance’s Decision Education Workforce Council, brings a wealth of experience to the intersection of decision science and corporate strategy. As Vice President at NYL Ventures, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of New York Life, Madgett has more than 15 years of experience pioneering innovative approaches to talent acquisition and development. His forward-thinking leadership has not only enhanced NYL Ventures’ competitive edge but has also positioned him as a thought leader in applying decision science principles to workforce management.

In the following Q&A, Sean offers his unique perspective on how Decision Education can drive success in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

Q: How does NYL Ventures incorporate decision science principles into its hiring process? Can you give us some specific examples?

Madgett: We are a relatively small team and, while our frequency of hiring is relatively low, we incorporate decision science principles into our process:

• Diversity
  We are very intentional about bringing on new teammates whose backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences are unique and will complement other members of the team.

• Wisdom of Crowds
  In business school, I heard a memorable lecture on the power of using the wisdom of crowds to make better decisions. Essentially, the idea is that under the right conditions, groups of people can make better decisions than experts. When hiring, we incorporate steps in our process to gather input from varying perspectives and harness the wisdom of crowds. For example, as candidates progress through our process, they are invited to a project round that includes a presentation and Q&A with stakeholders from multiple teams.

• Behavior-Based Interview Questions
  We recognize the importance of updating beliefs in response to new information—a key principle of decision science. Our interview process reflects this by focusing on a candidate’s ability to adapt and grow. We ask questions designed to understand a candidate’s curiosities, motivations, teamwork skills, and how they exhibit a growth mindset. A prime example is a question I pose to all candidates: “What’s something that you’ve changed your mind about?” This query helps us gauge how well a candidate can reassess their views, integrate new data, and adjust their beliefs—essential skills in our dynamic work environment.

Q: In your experience, how do employees with strong decision-making skills perform compared to those without such training? Have you noticed any trends?

A: Decision-making skills are unquestionably becoming increasingly important in today’s rapidly evolving business and technology environment. Personally, I’ve learned that these skills are critical when dealing with nuanced and ambiguous situations. I frequently rely on decision-making tools such as premortems, thinking probabilistically, decision trees, using values to create options, and base rates. Understanding cognitive biases such as the anchoring effect, loss aversion, group-think, and sunk-cost fallacy (among others) has been invaluable to my personal and professional development.

I’m committed to sharing these learnings with my colleagues, as I believe these skills will help us to think more clearly, lead more effectively, and drive more impact. As data and AI becomes ubiquitous, I believe that these skill sets will only grow in importance.

Q: What initiatives has NYL Ventures undertaken to promote decision science and Decision Education within the organization and beyond?

A: We’ve tried hard to lead by example and have worked to apply decision-making tools to some of our key processes. For example, we have adopted premortems which we facilitate prior to kicking off pilot partnerships with startups. We also apply option value frameworks when thinking about how to best structure commercial agreements with startups.

The nature of our work is very cross-functional, and our partners in different parts of the organization often participate in premortem exercises. This provides employees who are unfamiliar with these tools with the opportunity to learn through real scenarios. I’ve probably shared the Gary Klein, Paul Sonkin, and Paul Johnson white paper on premortems with a few hundred employees at this stage.

As part of a recent leadership development program, NYL Ventures served as a project sponsor to a talented team of leaders from different parts of NYL that explored how we can empower decision-making at the company. Their work and recommendations are currently being put into practice with the development of a new Decision Education program by our HR team.

Q: How do you see the role of decision science evolving in the corporate world over the next 5-10 years, particularly in talent acquisition and development?

A: I anticipate that decision science will become a core part of learning and development curriculums over the next ten years. These are non-expiring skills that can be applied to all industries and functional roles. These skills are growing in importance as the rate of technological and societal change accelerates.

Q: For companies looking to integrate decision science into their practices, what would be your top piece of advice to get started?

A: Don’t overthink it. The best way to get started is to get started. Identify your early adopters who can be champions and advocates for the role of Decision Education within your organization. Provide individuals with simple tools that can be easily applied and ritualized within your company.