Left Brain, Right Stuff:How Leaders Make Winning Decisions

For many routine choices, from shopping to investing, we can make good decisions simply by avoiding common errors, such as searching only for confirming information or avoiding the hindsight bias.  But as our summary of Left Brain, Right Stuff by Phil Rosenzweig shows, for many of the most important, more complex situations we face, a different way of thinking is required. 

Leaders must possess the ability to shape opinions, inspire followers, manage risk, and outmaneuver and outperform rivals.  Making winning decisions calls for a combination of skills:  clear analysis and calculation, or left brain; as well as the willingness to push boundaries and take bold action, or the right stuff. 

Rosenzweig is professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he works with leading companies on questions of strategy and organization.  His previous book, The Halo Effect .  .  .  and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers, was lauded by Nassim Nicholas Taleb as “one of the most important management books of all time.”

To achieve the unprecedented in real-world situations, success calls for action as well as analysis, and for courage as well as calculation.  This summary proposes a new paradigm for decision-making in synch with the way we have to operate in the real world.