The Secret Life of Decisions: How Unconscious Bias Subverts Your Judgement

  • 3h 28m
  • Meena Thuraisingham, Wolfgang Lemacher
  • Ashgate Publishing
  • 2013

Making decisions is a critical part of every executive's job. However we know so little about the often subliminal processes that shape the decisions we make. The Secret Life of Decisions exposes the unchallenged myths and distortions that impact our reasoning ability, raising our awareness of the many traps we can fall into. The authors have drawn from decades of work with leaders showing that even the most talented leaders and teams can end up making sub-optimal decisions. This is rarely because they had poor critical thinking faculties but rather because they did not pay enough attention to the often invisible traps hardwired into our thinking processes, letting through only information that conforms with our current beliefs, mental models and expectations. This leaves many leaders and businesses exposed. Rather than being the rational output of our reasoning abilities, the authors show decision making to be a highly imprecise process. As decision makers we come to the table armed with our own perspectives, preferences, filters, heuristics and biases, influenced by a broad range of social influences many operating subliminally. The Secret Life of Decisions is an essential read for developing and seasoned executives who have to work through increasingly complex and high stakes decisions. It treats choosing wisely and the thinking involved as a skill, which as with many other skills, can be improved with the guided practice and supporting tools provided here. The journey however starts with awareness that comes from outing the 'secret' forces that can sabotage the quality of our decisions.

About the Authors

Meena Thuraisingham is an organisational psychologist and runs a niche consulting practice, TalentInvest. She has a career that spans 30 years working and consulting with global companies in organisational effectiveness and leadership development. She is also an accredited executive coach and works with top teams and individual executives to improve board and top team effectiveness. She has authored several papers and bestselling books.

Wolfgang Lehmacher is Partner at the global strategy boutique CVA. He has over 20 years of experience in senior management and was President and CEO of GeoPost Intercontinental and member of the Board of GeoPost, the parcel holding of French La Poste. He is currently involved in several start-ups in Europe and Asia and has spoken at the World Economic Forum.

In this Book

  • The Secret Life of Decisions—How Unconscious Bias Subverts Your Judgement
  • Introduction
  • Thinking About Our Thinking
  • The Costs of Biased Thinking
  • Memories Can Deceive
  • Experience Can Trap
  • Optimism Can Cloud
  • Fear Can Do More Harm
  • Ambition Can Blind
  • Attachment Can Lead Astray
  • Values Can Mislead
  • Power Can Corrupt
  • Best Practice Decision Behaviour
  • The Future of Decision Making
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