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Why Corporate Functions Stumble
Kunisch, Sven; Muller-Stewens, Gunter; Campbell, AndrewArticle HBS-R1412H-ELeadership and People ManagementA survey of 761 of the largest corporations in North America and Europe showed that the number of corporate functions had increased at about a third from 2007 to 2010. Leaders at three out of four companies believed that their functions' influence had grown. At the same time, complaints about the performance of those functions were increasing. The authors combined their survey data with insights from structured interviews at large European mult...Starting at €8.20
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Misleading Experiences: How to Spot This Common Cause of Flawed Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3609BC-EComplex decisions involving interpretation and judgment are difficult to get right. Especially considering the fact that our brains have developed decision making processes that rely heavily on our past experience. Misleading experiences are a common source of error in decision making that occur when the brain erroneously connects memories that seem similar to the situation we are currently assessing. But how do we know when an experience is misl...Starting at €8.20
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Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions
Campbell, Andrew; Whitehead, Jo; Finkelstein, SydneyArticle HBS-R0902D-ELeadership and People ManagementDecision making lies at the heart of our personal and professional lives. Yet the daunting reality is that enormously important decisions made by intelligent, responsible people with the best information and intentions are nevertheless hopelessly flawed at times. In part, that's due to the way our brains work. Modern neuroscience teaches us that two hardwired processes in the brain - pattern recognition and emotional tagging - are critical to d...Starting at €8.20
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Inappropriate Self-Interest: A Beguiling and Unconscious Influence on Decision Making
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3611BC-EThe demise of Enron stands out as an iconic story of self-interest and its corrosive effect on decision making. This story of corruption, however, is extreme, and we might be tempted to think that self-interest is a rare influence on decision making, limited to a few dishonest or misguided people. Not true. In fact, the impact of self-interest is much more pervasive. It can affect the decisions of the most thoughtful and upstanding leaders. It ca...Starting at €8.20
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Inappropriate Attachments: How to Avoid Letting Personal Attachments Lead Decision Making Astray
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3612BC-EPersonal attachments surround us and can have a major role in any decision, sometimes to our extreme detriment. Attachments are very important to consider. They bring meaning and joy to our lives--they include attachments to our friends and families, to communities, to places, and even to objects that have taken on significance for us. It would be virtually impossible not to be affected by these attachments as we make decisions, but, under certai...Starting at €8.20
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Pattern Recognition: How Our Mental Processes Increase the Likelihood of Making Flawed Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3606BC-EPattern recognition is a great friend to decision makers. It allows us to make (mostly) good judgments, filling in gaps in information based on our past experience. This process is not foolproof, however, and can cause failures in judgment if we're not careful, especially when we think we have sufficient relevant experience in situations when we do not. As the authors explain in this chapter, we need to identify when erroneous pattern recognition...Starting at €8.20
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Misleading Prejudgments: How to Spot This Common Cause of Flawed Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3610BC-EPrejudgments influence decisions because of the way we tag our thoughts with emotions. In decision making, it is the emotional tags that help us sort through the many possible interpretations we could make of a given situation and the many possible courses of action we could take. If the new situation is different from previous situations, prejudgments can inappropriately anchor our thinking, disrupt our objectivity, and make it hard for us to th...Starting at €8.20
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Selecting Safeguards: Tailoring the Decision Process to Guard against Bad Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3614BC-EThe best way to reduce the risk of making a flawed decision is to identify safeguards that will help you avoid the effects of distorted thinking. Safeguards might expand the experience or information available to the decision maker; they might ensure that the logic of the decision is challenged and debated; they might have the power to reject proposals; or, they might make it easier to change the decision if the early outcomes are unfavorable. Bu...Starting at €8.20
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Emotional Tagging: How Our Mental Processes Increase the Likelihood of Making Flawed Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3607BC-EWhen someone makes a bad decision, it is often said that that person let his emotions get in the way of clear judgment. According to the authors, it is true that the brain's decision making processes rely heavily on emotions. When the brain stores a memory of an event or action, it also stores an associated emotion with it. This is called "emotional tagging," an unconscious process that helps us assess a situation and identify a suitable action p...Starting at €8.20
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One Plan at a Time: How Our Mental Processes Increase the Likelihood of Making Flawed Decisions
Finkelstein, Sydney; Whitehead, Jo; Campbell, AndrewBook Chapter HBS-3608BC-EIf our brains naturally questioned and challenged our assessments and judgments or compared multiple solutions to a problem, we would be much better at spotting errors in our thinking and correcting them. But we do not. We have evolved a brain that assesses the situation, comes up with a plan of action, and then evaluates that plan. We do not consider alternative unless we imagine that our first plan won't work. The authors describe this process ...Starting at €8.20