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Left Brain, Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions Hardcover – January 7, 2014

by Phil Rosenzweig (Author)

4.3 63 ratings

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Left Brain, Right Stuff takes up where other books about decision making leave off. 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 Phil Rosenzweig shows, for many of the most important, more complex situations we face -- in business, sports, politics, and more -- 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 -- left brain -- as well as the willingness to push boundaries and take bold action -- right stuff. Of course leaders need to understand the dynamics of competition, to anticipate rival moves, to draw on the power of statistical analysis, and to be aware of common decision errors -- all features of left brain thinking. But to achieve the unprecedented in real-world situations, much more is needed. Leaders also need the right stuff. In business, they have to devise plans and inspire followers for successful execution; in politics, they must mobilize popular support for a chosen program; in the military, commanders need to commit to a battle strategy and lead their troops; and in start-ups, entrepreneurs must manage risk when success is uncertain. In every case, success calls for action as well as analysis, and for courage as well as calculation.

Always entertaining, often surprising, and immensely practical, Left Brain, Right Stuff draws on a wealth of examples in order to propose a new paradigm for decision making in synch with the way we have to operate in the real world. Rosenzweig's smart and perceptive analysis of research provides fresh, and often surprising, insights on topics such as confidence and overconfidence, the uses and limits of decision models, the illusion of control, expert performance and deliberate practice, competitive bidding and new venture management, and the true nature of leadership.

Editorial Reviews

Review

With compelling accounts and research results, Phil Rosenzweig takes us through the world of big, strategic decisions. They are thorny, complex, and risky, and he shows that they require analytic thinking, intuitive judgment, and personal confidence without certitude. Left Brain, Right Stuff delivers an invaluable framework for making good and timely decisions by all who sit in a leadership chair.” Michael Useem, director of the Wharton Leadership Center, University of Pennsylvania, and co-author of Boards That Lead

No one thinks as clearlyand writes as clearlyas Phil Rosenzweig does about the diagnostic challenges of assessing the quality of business judgment and about the prescriptive challenges of improving it.” Philip E. Tetlock, Annenberg University Professor, University of Pennsylvania, author of Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?

Left Brain, Right Stuff intrigued me on a number of levels. By parsing strategic situations, Rosenzweig convinces us that we control more than we think we do. When we believe in ourselves, we increase the probability of a great outcome. Then add in an understanding of winner take all' competition and the need to assess relative performance (not absolute performance), and my eyes were opened wide.” Joanna Barsh, director emeritus, McKinsey and Co.

Rosenzweig challenges the reader to contemplate the context of real-world decisions [his] storytelling is fascinating.” Huffington Post

[This] reads like a call to action for social-science researchers, imploring them to expand their scope and refine their methodology so that their conclusions will be more pertinent to the thorny choices faced by corporate leaders. Surely Mr. Rosenzweig is onto something here: Researchers need to venture outside the lab and observe the real-world expression of the phenomena they are dissecting.” Wall Street Journal

Rosenzweig offers a different slant on how successful businessmen and other leaders assess risk A provocative reconsideration of the power of positive thinking.” Kirkus Reviews

Rosenzweig's advice is sound and his prose is highly readable.” Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Phil Rosenzweig is professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he works with leading companies on questions of strategy and organization. He is a native of Northern California, where he worked for Hewlett-Packard. Prior to IMD, he was an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. Rosenzweig's PhD is from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the author of numerous articles in journals including Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Management Science, and Strategic Management Journal. His 2007 book, The Halo Effect...and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers, was described by the Wall Street Journal as "a trenchant view of business and business advice" and lauded by Nassim Nicholas Taleb as "one of the most important management books of all time."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs (January 7, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610393074
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610393072
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.63 x 1.13 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,927,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,884 in Business Decision Making
- #6,183 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- #6,277 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 63 ratings

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Phil Rosenzweig

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Phil Rosenzweig is professor of business administration at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he has used 12 ANGRY MEN for many years to teach executives about interpersonal behavior and group dynamics. He is author of THE HALO EFFECT (2007) an award-winning book translated into fourteen languages, called "one of the most important management books of all time" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Phil is a native of Northern California. He received his PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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4.3 out of 5

63 global ratings

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J. Mckeough

Phil Rosenzweig has written another outstanding business strategy book - that's also a must read for investors.

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2014

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Most business strategy books are nearly useless when you try to apply their lessons to investing. They’re overflowing with post-hoc sophistry, flow charts, org charts and pithy acronyms. They explain success by focusing almost exclusively on successful companies, despite the fact that failure, or at least muddle-through mediocrity, is the norm. Meanwhile, investors have learned the hard way that nothing recedes like success. Phil Rosenzweig's 'Halo Effect' was a notable exception and now his latest book, Left Brain, Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions, is equally effective in tearing down more mythology in management theory. This book is another must-read if you want to improve your analysis of strategic decision-making. By analyzing how decisions are made in the real world, rather than in controlled experiments or hindsight storytelling, Rosenzweig once again challenges conventional wisdom. As an investor, there are few business books that can improve both our analytical skills and mental models for thinking. Phil Rosenzweig’s books meet this very high standard.

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J Prince

Good read and good applications!

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2015

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Great concepts and easily mapped improvements t your own challenges!

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David Siegel

He goes to great lengths to try to undo some of the more ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2014

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Another important book from Phil Rosenzweig. He goes to great lengths to try to undo some of the more quantitative approaches and helps us strike a balance between rational decisionmaking for planning and enthusiastic (irrational) execution. If you have read any of the evidence-based business books, this one is next. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Ninos Youkhana

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2016

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Read in Feb 2016. Good Book. I like Phil Rosenzweig from his first book. The Halo Effect. When I saw he published his second book. I had to read it. I learn about Phil's book was mentioned in the Black Swan Book by Nassim Talib.

v/r
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James Ch

Well intended but falls short where it matters.

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2014

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On the right track differentiating decisions and outcomes that you can influence. And that's it. The book could finish the main points in probably 10 pages.

One person found this helpful

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Jamie Gianna

Understanding Effective Leadership

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2014

Left Brain, Right Stuff fills the void that other books of this type missed. In everyday activities we make good decisions just by simply avoiding common errors. Here lies the rub - Successful leaders must possess the ability to shape opinions, inspire followers, manage risk, and outmaneuver and outperform rivals yet combining skill sets (left brain - analysis and calculation) with (right stuff - go beyond boundaries and do bold action) enable effective decision-making and leadership. Trust me; take the time to reflect on this while reading the book.

There are wealth of examples which highlight effective decision making that works in everyday life. Rosenzwieg draws from insightful and perceptive analysis of research which provides fresh ideas on topics ranging from confidence, decision models, illusion of control, performance and the true nature of leadership. In each case the element of success is hinged on action, analysis, courage and calculation.

Overall it was a worthy read which was illuminating and very practical for anyone in a leadership position.

One person found this helpful

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Robert Morris

Why understanding the decision making process as well as the roles of action and analysis "can improve the odds of success"

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2014

As I began to read this book, I was again reminded of passages in two others in which their authors address the same question that Phil Rosenzweig does: How to make better decisions? In Judgment (2009), Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis assert that what really matters "is not how many calls a leader gets right, or even what percentage of calls a leader gets right. Rather it is important how many of the important ones he or she gets right." They go on to suggest that effective leaders "not only make better calls, but they are able to discern the really important ones and get a higher percentage of them right. They are better at a whole process that runs from seeing the need for a call, to framing issues, to figuring out what is critical, to mobilizing and energizing the troops."

More recently, in Judgment Calls (2012), Tom Davenport and Brook Manville explain how and why decisions made by a Great Organization tend to be much better than those made by a Great Leader. Why? While conducting rigorous and extensive research over a period of many years, they discovered -- as Laurence Prusak notes in the Foreword -- "that no one was looking into the workings of what we term [begin italics] organizational judgment [end italics] -- the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader's direct control."

My own opinion is that this process resembles a crucible of intensive scrutiny by several well-qualified persons. Moreover, the eventual decision is the result of what Roger Martin characterizes, in The Opposable Mind (2009), as "integrative thinking." That is, each of those involved has "the predisposition and the capacity to hold two [or more] diametrically opposed ideas" in mind and then "without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other," helps to "produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea."

Rosenzweig asserts -- and I agree -- that what he calls "winning decisions" combine two very different skills. He calls them left brain and right stuff. "Left brain is shorthand for a deliberate and analytical approach to problems solving," a process that inevitably involves asking the right questions and then answering them correctly. Otherwise, there is the very serious danger to which Peter Drucker referred decades ago: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."

"Great decisions also demand a willingness to take risks, to push boundaries and to go beyond what has been done before. They call for something we call the right stuff." That means "summoning high levels of confidence, even levels that might seem excessive, but that are useful to achieve high performance." Left brain and right stuff may seem like opposites "but they're complementary. For many decisions they're both essential...Great decisions call for a capacity for considered and careful reasoning, and also a willingness to take outsize risks."

These are among the dozens of business subjects and issues of special interest and value to me, also listed to indicate the scope of Rosenzweig's coverage.

o The Key to great decisions: Left Brain, Right Stuff (Pages 15-22)
o Control issues (23-44)
o Performance: Absolute and Relative (45-62)
o Overconfidence in the here and now: Not one thing but three (88-93)
o Barriers of nature or barriers of engineering? (118-121)
o Apollo missions (149-154)
o Authenticity, reconsidered (154-158)
o Decision models (165-190)
o The Texas size shoot-out for AT&T Wireless (206-213)
o Cloud computing/VMware (224-229)
o Managing risks, seeking rewards (229-233)
o Another look at laboratory evidence (234-237)
o Beyond rational and irrational (244-247)

With regard to "Better questions for winning decisions" (247-252), Rosenzweig asserts, "To make great decisions, we need above all to develop the capacity to question, to go beyond the first-order observations and pose incisive second-order questions. An awareness of common errors and cognitive biases is only a start." He poses seven lead questions that have been previously stated or at least implied throughout his lively and eloquent narrative, accompanied by a few others that will also help us to drill down past symptoms, assumptions, biases, etc. so that we can identify root causes. This is a process of both elimination and simplification, one that is much easier to describe than it is to conduct just as questions such as "Are we making a decision about something we cannot control, or are we able to influence outcomes?" are much easier to ask than to answer.

Long ago, Voltaire suggested that we cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it. Phil Rosenzweig is among those who tenaciously seek the truth but seldom (if ever) claim to have found it. With all due respect to recent research in neuroscience, there is still much to be learned about how to make better decisions. In this book, however, the information, insights, and counsel provided increase our understanding of how not to.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Pankaj

avoid errors and mistakes and get better results with less trial & errors with fun

Reviewed in India on December 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

It allows anyone willing to combine two different thinking capabilities which is quite essential or would say minimum requirement in current uncertain, dynamic and changing world. This combination of two different thinking however does not come to us naturally. Initially has to be deliberate attempt to develop such a working on ourselves, consciously and over a time it would be kind of your new thinking style.

Which however will provide unique edge on ability to get higher results, avoid errors and mistakes and get better results with less trial & errors with fun.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very good book on decision making of strategic leaders.

Niraj H Narwilkar

I brought this book after I read the Halo Effect ...

Reviewed in India on June 5, 2015

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I brought this book after I read the Halo Effect by the same author.The author has given case studies about people who make multi million/ billion deals or when decisions are made when stakes are high and situations very ambiguous and very few of us are in position that we make such decisions.This meant I was not able to find the book relevant to me or my situation.Maybe for people in middle level or top level management and people who make high stake decisions this book might be an enjoyable read.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Excellent book

Reviewed in India on December 9, 2021

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Must read

S R SHYAM SUNDER

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH AMAZON.COM

Reviewed in India on April 17, 2015

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Everything was prompt about it, including the service by the courier (who returned back the change including the last paise) and to top it all, I got a hefty discount too.
Very satisfied with my first purchase. Hope it continues like this in my future purchase too.

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