Whether you’ve explicitly thought about it before or not, you’ve been “reading” people almost all your life by watching their actions and interpreting what you see, or by trying to predict what people might do under different conditions. This casual approach to reading others can often lead to erroneous predictions, but using a systematic approach can improve your accuracy.

Underlying the systematic approach in this text is the belief that behavior is not random. Rather, we can identify fundamental consistencies underlying the behavior of all individuals and modify them to reflect individual differences. These fundamental consistencies are very important because they allow predictability. Behavior is generally predictable, and the systematic study of behavior is a way to make reasonably accurate predictions.

When we use the term systematic study, we mean looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and basing our conclusions on scientific evidence. Evidence-based management (EBM) complements systematic study by basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence. A manager might pose a question, search for the best available evidence, and apply the relevant information to the question or case at hand. Most manager decisions are not made this way.

Systematic study and EBM add to intuition, or those “gut feelings” about what makes others tick. Of course, the things you have come to believe in an unsystematic way are not necessarily incorrect. Relying on intuition is made worse because we tend to overestimate the accuracy of what we think we know.