❓❓ Do You Know Your Dangerous Judgment Errors?

Greetings decision maker,

In order for you to be a wise decision maker and avoid decision disasters, it’s critical for you to know your own dangerous judgment errors (what scholars in behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience call cognitive biases).

This edition of the Wise Decision Maker Guide empowers you to do so with a tool I developed for and use extensively with my consulting and coaching clients, the Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace, which you can download below.

But First, a Warning Based on My Personal Experience

Before you take the assessment, please consider a warning from my personal experience assessing my own mental blindspots.

When I first learned about how screwed up my mind actually was, I felt pretty down. I didn’t want to admit the truth. Namely, many of what I thought of as my personal quirks and foibles, as my natural and authentic personality and self, represented serious threats to my work, relationships, and health, both mental and physical.

It was only with the help of my mentor that I was able to overcome my defensive response and face the fears about who I really was. Only after facing the truth could I begin to take the steps needed to overcome my cognitive biases. After all, the first step in addressing any problem is acknowledging that it exists.

Most people feel a similar defensive response, so don’t worry if you do as well. It takes real courage to face down the fears and deal with this defensive feeling.

Take the assessment right after downloading it, if possible. It will take you 10-15 minutes for the assessment and another 10-15 minutes for scoring, impact evaluation, and planning next steps.

If you can’t take it right this moment, schedule half an hour today or tomorrow to take it. Don’t wait longer than that! I’ve seen many with the good intention to take the assessment later than tomorrow, and then keep delaying it and delaying it. That delay is caused by dangerous judgment errors such as the planning fallacy and others. It would be ironic - and sad - if these cognitive biases prevented you from overcoming cognitive biases.

Then, encourage your team and others in your organization to complete the assessment. They will all benefit from protecting themselves from these dangerous judgment errors. Just do me a favor and don’t share it outside your organization, okay? The assessment is available for download only to those who are registered for the Wise Decision Maker Guide and the organizations where they work, others can buy it here.

What’s Up With Me

As you might know, I’ve been hard at work preparing for the release of my forthcoming book, Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters. The book will be released on November 1 of this year, but you can already preorder it in paper, digital, or audiobook format.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been focusing on finalizing the list of endorsements. Hard to believe how many aspects of the book need to be managed!

I’m excited that the publisher finalized the front cover. My gratitude to all of you who gave feedback on the cover design. Your wisdom is appreciated!

Book Endorsement

Speaking of endorsements for my forthcoming book, I’ll be featuring them here, one endorsement per email. Below is the first.

As an experienced healthcare CEO, I have seen too many leaders make poor decisions by following their gut reactions. Tsipursky’s book clearly shows the dangers of leaders trusting their intuitions, as all of us are susceptible to subtle decision-making errors called cognitive biases. More importantly, the book provides simple yet effective strategies that any leader can use to improve their decisions and those of their followers. These techniques draw on a combination of the author’s extensive experience as a management consultant and on cutting-edge research in behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience. They are described in a readable and engaging way through pragmatic case studies that makes the book fun to read and the techniques easy to incorporate into day-to-day professional activities. If you want to protect yourself and others in your organization from dangerous judgment errors, make sure to get this groundbreaking book!

Randy Oostra, PhD, President and CEO at ProMedica Health System, listed as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and one of Becker’s Healthcare 100 Great Leaders in Healthcare

Next Time in the Wise Decision Maker Guide

Next time in the Wise Decision Maker Guide I’ll share about the "Wise Decision Maker Movement Manifesto." Stay tuned for it on the third Tuesday, August 20!

Help Me Understand You

Finally, please help me understand what makes you care about avoiding dangerous judgment errors and being a wise decision maker.

A sentence or two is fine, and so is a paragraph or two. Knowing this information will help me understand how to help you better and address your needs most effectively with the content I write and the resources I develop in the future. Helping you reach your goals is why I do this work, and you’re the only one who knows what you need!

Oh, and update me about how the assessment goes for you once you take it today or tomorrow. It’s on your calendar, right?

Let me know by emailing me if you’re uncomfortable sharing publicly, but ideally you’d share in comments on the assessment blog for everyone to get the benefit of your experience and to respond to you. I personally love reading what others think and responding to the most powerful comments.

Look forward to providing you with value and helping you avoid disasters by making the best decisions in the future!

Decisively Yours,

Gleb