#32 James Taylor: Why Your Decisions (Not Your Data) Are the Problem

Make better business decisions with data and AI—subscribe to The Decision Intelligence Lab Newsletter at ⁠⁠https://decisionintelligencelab.substack.com/⁠⁠. What if the biggest mistake organizations make isn't in their data or their AI, but in never actually defining the decision they're trying to make? In this episode of the Decision Intelligence Lab, hosts Vijay Mehrotra and Michael Watson sit down with James Taylor, the author of Digital Decisioning, and Executive Partner at Blue Polaris. James traces the idea back 25+ years to a simple observation in financial services: fraud, origination, and collections systems all ran on the same technology stack yet were treated as entirely separate things. Naming that pattern changed how a whole industry approaches automation. The conversation digs into why decisions should be isolated as their own unit of work, why you should aim to automate everything to discover the parts that truly need people, and how a disability-claims team once saved 15 months of work simply by understanding the decision before building the model. James also shares where decisioning is going next, why he partners so closely with IBM, and his three durable principles for anyone trying to improve how their organization decides. Chapters 0:00 - Preview & Introduction 1:00 - Meet James Taylor & the origins of "decision management" 3:20 - Economies of scale and cross-team learning 5:25 - Task automation vs. true decisioning 11:35 - Decision maps and who successfully adopts them 13:25 - What to do when companies say "our data is no good" 18:26 - Why data science teams get undermined presenting without business input 19:35 - Automating decisions with uncertainty and multiple objectives 23:05 - The case for "automate first" as a default mindset 28:30 - Beyond financial services: healthcare payers and personalized care plans 32:45 - The Blue Polaris business story 38:15 - 3 principles for aspiring decision leaders Follow the show Apple: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-decision-intelligence-lab/id1811085064⁠ Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0lFoAVKqJHTYSZNpeN61ou?si=0ae973aab0174b3b⁠ Connect with James Email: [james@bluepolaris.com](james@bluepolaris.com) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamestaylor/ Website: https://bluepolaris.com/ James's Book: https://www.amazon.de/stores/James-Taylor/author/B001IOH7UI Connect with hosts Prof. Vijay Mehrotra (University of San Francisco): ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-mehrotra-ba9498/⁠ Prof. Michael Watson (Northwestern University): ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-watson-07600a1⁠ About the podcast The Decision Intelligence Lab podcast delivers real-world insights for data professionals, business leaders, and anyone seeking to leverage data & AI for smarter decision-making & successful business outcomes. For business inquiries, email at ⁠[decisionintelligencepodcast@gmail.com⁠](decisionintelligencepodcast@gmail.com)