Super Deciders

CLAUDIO FESER, a senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Company, serves on multiple company boards, including as chairperson. He teaches innovation and leadership at the University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
 
DANIELLA LAUREIRO-MARTINEZ is a Senior Scientist in the Technology and Innovation Management Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she leads the COLAB, a research group focused on cognition, learning and adaptive behavior.
 
KAROLIN FRANKENBERGER is Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation and the Dean of the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
 
STEFANO BRUSONI is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management and Vice-Rector for Continuing Education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Dramatically improve the decisions you make every day using insights from the latest neuroscience
 
We make hundreds of decisions daily, from small ones - such as what to wear today and how to drive to work - to big ones - such as the company strategy and whether to launch a restructuring program that may impact thousands of people. In business, studies suggest that company executives spend 40% of their time making decisions and that the effectiveness of their decisions largely drives the results of the companies that they lead.
 
In Super Deciders: The Science and Practice of Making Decisions in Dynamic and Uncertain Times, a team of renown researchers and business advisors deliver an application of the latest advances in neuroscience to effectively making the most difficult decisions, those we make in dynamic environments, in situations of uncertainty when we need to predict outcomes, we're missing relevant information, time is scarce, and the environment is constantly changing.
 
The book is written in three parts. In the first part, the book offers a practical framework for making effective decisions under uncertainty. In the second part, the book discusses approaches to effectively implement those decisions, thus managing change at every level, from the individual to the organizational. Finally, the book develops suggestions on how leaders can diagnose and improve - in themselves and in the people they lead - the cognitive abilities relevant to decision-making.
 
You'll also find:
* An enlightening business narrative detailing the journey of a fictional leader of an international travel operator named Inuk.
* Six cases that put you into real-life situations of making difficult decisions and that help you assess your decision-making effectiveness.
* An accessible and fun introduction to the neuroscience of decision-making.
 
Ideal for managers, executives, directors, and other business leaders, Super Deciders is a can't-miss decision-making playbook that you've been waiting for.

Foreword by Mario Greco xiii
 
Introduction xix
 
Prologue xxvii
 
Part One: Understanding Decisions Under Uncertainty
 
Chapter 1: Making Great Predictions 3
 
Chapter 2: Case 1: Making People Decisions 19
 
Chapter 3: Developing Options to Approximate the Right Decision 29
 
Part Two: Making Decisions Under Uncertainty
 
Chapter 4: Case 2: Making Strategic Decisions 57
 
Chapter 5: Identifying Assumptions and Testing Them 69
 
Chapter 6: Case 3: Making Decisions About Company Growth 95
 
Chapter 7: Developing Better Options 107
 
Part Three: Managing the Tensions Created by Decisions Under Uncertainty
 
Chapter 8: Case 4: Implementing Decisions 129
 
Chapter 9: Managing Change 135
 
Part Four: Becoming Super Deciders
 
Chapter 10: Case 5: Making Work- Life Balance Decisions 157
 
Chapter 11: Becoming Better at Making Decisions 165
 
Chapter 12: Case 6: Making "Tough" Decisions 185
 
Chapter 13: Preparing to Be Wrong 195
 
Part Five: Conclusions
 
Chapter 14: Epilogue 211
 
Chapter 15: Conclusions 215
 
Notes 225
 
Appendixes 227
 
References 249
 
About the Authors 267
 
Index 271