I have been studying how leaders and their teams make complex decisions for the past 25 years. As a professor, I am passionate about teaching students and managers. My published work includes three books, as well as numerous best-selling management case studies. I have served on the faculty at Bryant University in Rhode Island for the past 16 years, and prior to that, I served on the faculty at Harvard Business School for 6 years.
I wrote...
Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer: Managing for Conflict and Consensus
By
Michael A. Roberto
What is my book about?
This book examines how leaders avoid groupthink and the dangers of "yes men” by designing and leading an effective process for making complex, high-stakes decisions. The reader learns how to promote stimulate constructive dissent and debate, test critical assumptions, generate multiple options, and uncover hidden risks. Moreover, the book examines how leaders can build buy-in and commitment to pave the way for successful implementation of crucial decisions.
Roberto introduces a framework for “deciding how to decide.” In short, effective leaders think carefully about creating an environment and process that stimulates critical thinking and constructive debate. Creating the right conditions enables leaders to garner the collective intellect of their teams before having to make the tough calls.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
By
Gary A. Klein
Why this book?
Klein’s book demonstrates the power of intuition drawing on unique studies of firefighters, soldiers, nurses, and others in high-stakes situations. He shows us how intuition actually works and why it can help us make the right call – as well as why our intuition sometimes leads us astray. The book combines rigorous research with compelling stories, making it an insightful and enjoyable read for all.
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Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
By
Chip Heath,
Dan Heath
Why this book?
The Heath brothers have done it again. From the authors of the best-seller, Made to Stick, comes this book about how to make tough decisions. They offer wildly entertaining stories combined with the most important conclusions from social science research. As you read the book, you will come away with a practical framework and useful techniques for improving how you analyze complex situations, evaluate multiple alternatives, and make challenging choices.
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The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
By
Amy C. Edmondson
Why this book?
Amy Edmondson pioneered research on the topic of psychological safety. In this groundbreaking book, she explains why the most effective teams create a climate where people are comfortable speaking up to discuss questions, concerns, dissenting views, and mistakes. Edmondson combines rigorous empirical studies with rich case studies in a wide variety of contexts from the hospital operating room to the halls of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
By
Daniel Kahneman
Why this book?
Author Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on cognitive biases – the mental traps that we all encounter when making choices. In this book, he brings together a lifetime of scholarship to help us understand how our brains approach complex problems and arrive at difficult choices. Kahneman illuminates the cognitive processes that enable us to think critically and clearly – as well as those that lead to flawed reasoning and analysis at times.
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Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time
By
J. Edward Russo,
Paul J.H. Schoemaker
Why this book?
I found Russo & Schoemaker’s book to be a useful, practical, step-by-step guide for refining the way I make decisions. They inspired me to think about why I make flawed choices at times, as well as why the teams on which I work might stumble as well. In my work, I’ve been able to then employ some of the techniques they describe for overcoming various decision-making biases and obstacles. As you read the book, you will find tips that you can use right away in your personal lives and professional work.
