How the Wise Decide: The Lessons of 21 Extraordinary Leaders
“How the Wise Decideis akin to sitting down for a mentoring session with some of the great leaders of recent years. Its commonsense lessons on decision-making, clear writing, and practical guidelines make it a wise choice for both people just starting their careers as well as those with years of experience under their belt.”—Frank Blake, chairman and CEO, Home Depot“Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski offer a rich collection of insights on how leaders make and implement important decisions, distilled from an impressively wide range of major decision-makers. The discussion of risk, risk mitigation, and incentives is particularly useful. The importance of transparency and its relation to self-selection is very interesting. And the commentary on the no-carryover principle and the pocket veto is just fascinating.—A. Michael Spence, former dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics“What is wisdom? How is it acquired? Can it be codified? Can it be learned? Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski have attacked these questions head-on by focusing on how twenty-one remarkable leaders make decisions. They discern some fascinating patterns, which form the basis for concrete and practical advice. Zeckhauser and Sandoski have done us a great service by picking these people to study and helping us learn from them. Every reader can benefit from readingHow the Wise Decidesince we all can certainly use a dose of wisdom.”—William A. Sahlman, Dimitri V. d’Arbeloff– MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School“How the Wise Decidethoughtfully examines principles that inform effective decision-making and shows how successful leaders have used them to make critical decisions. In a series of interesting and well-researched lessons, Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski offer practical advice and a method that all managers can use to improve their decision-making.”—Roger W. Ferguson Jr., president and CEO, TIAA-CREF“The most difficult dilemma in business is how to make the tough decisions.How the Wise Decideprovides compelling examples from our greatest leaders as to how they source information, deal with risk, and let their long-term vision guide them in making the tough calls. For anyone who wants to be a wise decision-maker, the first choice should be to buy this book.”—Sarah Levy, COO, Nickelodeon