Management - Leadership

Cognitive biases interfere with decision-making processes. Individuals tend to seek prompt solutions, which limits the ability to evaluate options, predict possibilities, and assess methods for achieving goals.

Experience is often assessed through multiple filters that restrict the ability to view the reality of the situation, and thereby cause individuals to make poor decisions. A positive outcome can lead to the adherence to a questionable strategy, and a negative one can cause one to drop a strategy that may still be useful.

Research into the decision making process accelerated during World War II, focusing on the development of a standard approach to evaluating options with regard to an uncertain future. Decision analysis emerged in the 1960s, combining computer modeling, Bayesian statistics, expected utility, and engineering techniques.

Addressing the critical issue of knowledge transfer within an organization, this book offers practical advice on how to structure the transition of documented information and the even more valuable non-documented knowledge that outgoing staffers have-before it leaves with them.

Employees have proven to be a valuable source for innovative ideas. Which is why more companies are testing crowdsourcing initiatives and other ways to encourage people to innovate. Offering financial incentives has, for a long time, been one way to do this. But the research on whether rewards actually yield more innovation is mixed.

Five questions are used to determine disruptive technology. 1) Does it create a new market? 2) Does it promote asymmetric motivation, or aim for higher performance segments? 3) Can improvements be made without compromising a low-cost structure? 4) Are new value networks created? 5) Are all incumbents disrupted?

Research indicates that wellness programs generate anxiety and guilt in employees. The programs appear to make employees feel insecure about their desirability to their employers, and that by not taking active steps to improve their health put them at risk for losing their jobs.

Four types of advice are identified: discrete advice, or examining options for a sole decision; counsel, or guidance for approaching an unfamiliar or complex situation; coaching, or enhancing self-awareness and skills; and mentoring, or offering opportunities to assist career success.

Communicating good news about one's products and services is an important tool for success. Becoming an effective evangelist means not only promoting the organization, but also being a positive role model for other employees.

Consumer concerns over how personal data is gathered and used have grown in the digital age. Most consumers, however, are not aware of how much information they reveal while they are online, and many firms do not make their data-gathering practices transparent. This erodes trust between companies and consumers.