3 Posts found for Keyword: decision

Accenture ran a workshop on how to improve decision-making for the CEO of a global manufacturing company and 10 of his direct reports. At the very beginning of the session, attendees were asked, “What do you do that no one else in the company has the responsibility to do?” After 30 minutes of vigorous debate failed to produce any consensus, the CEO intervened and gave … [ Read more ]

Author: Joshua Bellin | Source: Leadership Ensembles: Orchestrating the Global Company | Original Publication: Accenture | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

A technique for avoiding decision bias is to request that managers show more of their cards: some companies, for instance, demand that investment recommendations include alternatives, or “next-best” ideas. This approach is useful not only to calibrate the level of a manager’s risk aversion but also to spot opportunities that a manager might otherwise consider insufficiently safe to present to senior management.

Author: Dan P. Lovallo | Source: Distortions and deceptions in strategic decisions | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

The premortem technique is a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil’s advocate thinking without encountering resistance. If a project goes poorly, there will be a lessons-learned session that looks at what went wrong and why the project failed—like a medical postmortem. Why don’t we do that up front? Before a project starts, we should say, “We’re looking in a crystal ball, and … [ Read more ]

Author: Gary Klein | Source: Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut? | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management