How Unconscious Bias Subverts Your Judgement

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 book is an essential read for developing and seasoned executives who have to work through high stakes decisions. It treats choosing wisely and the thinking involved as a skill that 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.

What others have said about the book

Why do leaders often get decisions wrong?  What can you do to make better decisions?  Integrating case examples and business experience with research evidence this book skilfully addresses these two central questions and provides clear frameworks to enable effective decision making

Professor Rob Goffee, Emeritus Professor, Organisational Behaviour, London Business School

No executive gets all decisions right. The secret of business success is increasing the number of good decisions while accepting that some of your decisions will be wrong. The framework in this book will without doubt help you get more decisions right than before

Giam Swiegers, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, Australia

Ever sat back and asked yourself – ‘why did I make the same wrong decision, not once but twice?’ I wish I had read Meena Thuraisingham’s insightful book earlier in my career – perhaps it would have saved me from myself on a number of occasions

Andy Street, Managing Director of John Lewis, UK; Chairman of the Greater Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership, UK

Written with great clarity Meena exposes and analyses the many traps and prejudices that influence the decision making process and hence the outcome. Absolutely essential reading for any student of management and leadership and a great guide for any professional with decision making responsibilities

Marcel Kreis, Chairman, Credit Suisse Private Banking, Asia Pacific

It is sobering to realise how much of our thinking is, as Meena puts it, “hardwired”. In this excellent book Meena explores our decision-making biases and offers a useful framework to help us overcome them and make better decisions

Jane Hemstritch, Non Executive Board Director Lend Lease, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Santos

Drawing from decades of work with leaders, Meena shows that even the most talented leaders can end up making sub-optimal decisions…..essential reading to learn how to optimise your decision making

Stephen Fitzgerald, Non Executive Board Director, Future Fund, former Chairman Goldman Sachs Australia and New Zealand

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