Re Seminar No. 7 Readings

(a) How Complex Systems Fail

Did you look at the video presentation by Steven Spear? What is a complex

system? Are large organizations complex systems? What were the key lessons

learnt by the author in his study of Toyota? What are high-velocity organizations?

Can you describe the four capabilities that distinguish the high-velocity

organizations (the rabbits) from the rest (the pack)? What precisely are normal

accidents, as put forward by Charles Perrow? Who or what killed Mrs Grant?

What really caused the Columbia disaster? And what did Steven Spear find when

he studied one of the manufacturing operations of General Motors?

Re Seminar No. 9 Readings

(a) Before You Make That Big Decision

What are the reasons why, in the real world of managerial work, decision makers do not rigorously follow the rational-choice model of decision making? (See PPT notes in reference to the work of Herbert Simon, the other Nobel Prize winner.) What is System One? What is System Two? Why is it difficult for us to recognize our own biases? What is the decision quality checklist all about? How many items are on the checklist? Which four of the twelve questions to be asked are the most important ones for assuring decision quality? Did you look at the video of Atul Gawande? Did you look at the very short video of Peter Voser?

(b)Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions

Did you look at the video of the author, Sydney Finkelstein? What was the methodology used by the authors of the study? How are flawed decisions characterized? Why indeed do good leaders make bad decisions? What are the three red flags conditions? What safeguards against our biases have been recommended by the authors?