260. Leading Decision Factory feat. Max H. Bazerman & Don A. Moore

Mar 17, 2023

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Organizational leaders can use the power of behavioral economics to not only make better decisions themselves, but by leading their employees, their customers, and their stakeholders to make wiser decisions, make the company more effective, and also make society better off as a result.

Max H. Bazerman is Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Don A. Moore is Professor in Leadership and Communication at Berkeley Haas and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Their most recent book “Decision Leadership: Empowering Others to Make Better Choices" deals with how successful leaders can maximize the potential of others by empowering them to make better decisions.

Max and Don are joining Greg to discuss how thinking systematically can help leaders make better decisions and create an environment for more people within their organizations to make more deliberate, smarter, and more ethical decisions.

They are also exchanging ideas about the importance of empowering employees and rewarding wise decision-making within organizations, even when that means taking a risk.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

On helping leaders create better decisions for their organizations

[Max H. Bazerman] 10:50: When we think about leadership, we often think about people moving heavy objects from one side of the factory to the other. That isn't what most of our leaders coming out of Haas and HBS are doing these days. They're guiding an organization to make better decisions. And that's where the decision factory idea comes from, and that's where our motivation comes from—to help leaders create better decisions throughout their organization.

Encouraging decision-makers to have leadership perspective

[Don A. Moore] 12:34: We want to encourage decision-makers to think broadly about their interests and the interests of those who are affected by their decisions. That is the leader's perspective—not just what serves my interests but the long-term interests of the stakeholders, the organization, and others affected by my decisions, those who depend on me, and those I influence.

Everyone has the power to exercise leadership

[Don A.Moore] 50:25: If leadership is about affecting the behavior of those around us, then each and every one of us has some power to exercise leadership. Now, by virtue of their structural location in the organization, some of us have more such influence than others. But it is common for people to make the mistake of underestimating how much influence they have to guide the thinking and behavior of those around them.

On being a good mentor

[Max H. Bazerman] 36:17: One of the things that made me good as a mentor, and probably what I've been best at in my career, is not just telling them what to do but benefiting from what they can do better than I can do and bringing that together in an integrated way.

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Recommended Resources:

Guest Profile:

Max H. Bazerman

Faculty Profile at Harvard Business School
Max H. Bazerman on Twitter

Don A. Moore

Faculty Profile at Berkeley Haas
Professional Profile on Psychology Today
Author’s Profile on HarperCollins Publishers
Don A. Moore on LinkedIn
Don A. Moore on Twitter

Their Work:

Max H. Bazerman Work

Don A. Moore Work

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