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November 21, 2011 BIZ BOOKS

Beware 'gut instincts'; instead, get plugged in

“Dangerous Instincts — How Gut Feelings Betray Us” by Mary Ellen O’Toole and Alisa Bowman (Hudson Street Press, $25.95).

O’Toole, a former FBI profiler who worked on the Unabomber, Green River Killer and Elizabeth Smart cases, knows how to read people. Using everyday personal and worklife situations as a backdrop, O’Toole cautions that “trusting your gut” doesn’t lead to informed decision-making.

Chapter 5, Why We Miss the Details That Matter, is of particular importance to business situations. It deals with blind spots that allow us to gloss over the importance of looking deeper. Here are some of her cautions:

The First Impression: We size people up in the first few minutes based upon how they shake hands, smile, talk, dress, etc. Whether the impression is positive or negative, we look for things that reinforce it and filter out what doesn’t. Con men are masters of “impression management.” They build trust while running scams — Bernie Madoff, Dennis Koslowski of Tyco and Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Shilling of Enron appeared to be savvy businessmen, not crooks. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Our personal biases and personalities blind us, too. Discrimination based upon ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation colors our view of others. If you tend to see things black and white, you sort contacts with others that way. If you always look for the good in people, “you might frequently let your guard down (or never put it up in the first place).”

Misinterpreting Details: Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. Yet people look for normal explanations for risk and disruptive behavior. By rationalizing, you “mentally talk your way out of doing something about the very real risk in front of you.” We explain things away “by focusing on details that seem to tell a different story.” People also resort to ignoring facts that don’t support their opinions.

The book heightens awareness of potential risk and provides a process for making smart decisions about people and situations.

• • •

“The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology and Organization to Thrive” by Terri Griffith (Jossey-Bass, $27.95).

Managers have lots of techno-tools in their toolbox, but most don’t fully use them to develop “the new how.” That how integrates technology with people and organizational processes. It also looks outside the organization for information. Griffith advocates a three-pronged approach to update your management style:

1. Stop-Look-Listen. Assess the people, technology and organizational processes in terms of opportunities and challenges. Stop — Consider the options. Think small bites and small victories. Select issues with more upside than risk. Look — Find information and expertise that will help you make your decisions. Use “the cloud” to find out what others have done/are doing. Experiment to validate information and adapt it organizationally. Listen — Perfection seldom happens on the first try; feedback helps you refine and/or redefine. Again, “the cloud” for input — but understand that you must reciprocate.

2. Mixing. You have to blend people, technology and processes much like a recipe. “Stop-Look-Listen assembles the raw ingredients.” Use negotiation as your blender. It’s a give and take proposition because you’re dealing with resource allocation. Griffith sees brainstorming with stakeholders as a way to check what ingredients they have in their cupboards — and what ingredients you have that they might need for their recipes.

3. Sharing. No silos in Griffith’s business world. Using the cooks in the kitchen analogy, she believes too many cooks do not spoil the broth. In a fine-dining establishment, cooks share workload and responsibility, create new flavor combinations and synchronize the preparation and serving of the meal.

Plugged-in management aligns the work and the tools required to do the job right with the talents of the people.

 

 

Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.

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