The NOSE

Avoiding Management Blunders

Why do we make the mistakes we do make? What leads us to make Whoppers or truly big mistakes? Every organizational leader should read this book: Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions by Zachary Shore. There are plenty of management and motivational books on getting things right or doing things well. What about the converse? How as leaders and managers can we prevent things from going wrong, terribly wrong? (Today's NY Times reports on the latest blunder in the financial sector: "Citigroup Saw No Red Flags Even as it Made Bolder Bets".)

An Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Zachary Shore draws on literature, culture, history and politics to illustrate seven common "cognition traps". You will recognize many of these in your own organization:

Exposure Anxiety: fear of being seen as weak Causefusion: confusing the causes of complex events Flat View: seeing the world in one dimension Cure-Allism: thinking that one-size solutions can solve all problems Infomania: an obsessive relationship to information Mirror Imaging: thinking the other side thinks like you do Static Cling: the refusal to accept that circumstances have changed

Reading Blunder I was drawn to re-reading George Orwell's classic essay "Shooting an Elephant". Exposure anxiety is a "perennial plague upon those in positions of power".  Shore does a fine job of limning the underlying psychology of exposure anxiety by using Orwell's essay among his examples. Instead of pursuing a course of action commensurate with the the problem at hand or simply admitting that we don't know the solution, we fall prey to bravado. Orwell is led inexorably to shooting an elephant in front of hundreds of Burmese because he wants to avoid looking weak or a fool. This despite the fact that he does not want to shoot the elephant and knows exactly what he ought to do.

Dissecting Citigroup's fiasco in the coming months I am sure will reveal many of Shore's cognition traps. The most likely one to emerge in Citigroup's case is what Shore calls "Infomania", an example of which is information avoidance. Citigroup's risk managers failed miserably to follow-up and investigate the bank's vulnerabilities, relying instead solely on the word of a senior executive. According to NY Times reporters Eric Dash and Julie Cresswell, "Normally, a big bank would never allow the word of just one executive to carry so much weight. Instead, it would have its risk managers aggressively look over any shoulder and guard against trading or lending excesses. But many Citigroup insiders say the bank’s risk managers never investigated deeply enough."


I have two minor criticisms of the book. First, blunders are always obvious in retrospect and even more so to someone looking in from the outside. Shore does a good job of classifying blunders but only hints at how to avoid them. But this is not a shortcoming of Shore's fine book. Shore has given us a taxonomy to work with. It's up to us to investigate and to put in place both personal and organizational "checks and balances" to avoid catastrophic decisions. Second, it would be shame if readers avoided the book because of the cutesy category names ("Causefusion", "Cure-Allism"). Blunder is a well written book and its numerous case studies are worth studying.

Higher Education CIO Characteristics: Does 'CIO' Mean 'Career Is Over?'

"Today's and tomorrow's CIO must lead like a CEO, analyze like a CFO and execute like a COO. It's the hardest job in a large organization." --Gartner EXP Vice President Jose Ruggero.

Gartner recently completed a global survey of higher education CIOs and their bosses. The full report  "Higher Education CIO Characteristics: Does 'CIO' Mean 'Career Is Over?' by Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Michael Zastrocky, and Marti Harris is now available to Gartner subscribers (25 January, 2008: ID Number: G0015380).

With a few exceptions most of the key findings are not a surprise. A common misconception, namely that CIOs have a short tenure, is apparently refuted by the study. "Our data (see Figure 1) shows that the great majority, more than 65%, of CIOs have been in their positions for more than five years." The report goes on to note that there is no difference in the CIO's longevity compared with other executive-level positions. "On the contrary, the data even suggests that CIOs seem more senior than their bosses."

The report's key recommendation is that higher education CIOs must continue to strive to expand their role from being a professional technology provider to becoming a full business partner.

 

Model Blog

"I was taught that when you see a pattern do not be afraid to describe it."

Dr. Stanley Feld is setting the standard for writing a topical blog ("Repairing the Healthcare System"). His recent post ("Why I am writing this blog") is a beautiful statement of why those who care and dare to know should write.

Creativity in Education

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) has posted podcasts and vodcasts online from their annual conference.  Sir Ken Robinson's fascinating talk on creativity is worth a watch.

"Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we stripmine the eart for particular commodities. And for the future it won't serve us --- we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children."

Via Tarina

Images of Benjamin Franklin

I am at NYU this week and had the good fortune to check out a wonderful exhibit "Images of Benjamin Franklin" at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. I have been going through several biographies of Benjamin Franklin, including Stacy Shiff's elegant "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America." It's always helpful to make a material connection to a historical figure.  If you are in the Greenwich Village/Washington Square area, I highly recommend the exhibit. NYU's exhibit features over 150 items from the collection of Stuart Karu and includes documents, books, engravings, medallions, artificats, sculptures, and fine art pieces which provide an illuminating window into Franklin the man and the 18th century of enlightenment and convulsion. Here is an interesting quote in a letter by Franklin to his diplomat colleague Arthur Lee: "I hate Disputes, I am old, cannot have long to live, have much to do and no time for Snubbings and Rebukes without Reply to ascribe it to. The Honour and Success of our Mission, which could be hurt by our Quarelling, my Love of Peace, my Respect for your good Qualities, and my Pity for your Sick Mind,...If you do not cure yourself of this Temper, it will end in Insanity...God preserve you from so terrible an Evil." It's a pity that we don't teach more about Franklin and Washington and their leadership qualities.

Benjamin Franklin on Printing House Square    Originally uploaded by Jim in Times Square.