The Decision-Making Studio Podcast

Today, we explore the world through phrases. Not just any phrases, but aphorisms – those short sentences with the power to stop us in our tracks, cause us to rethink how we see things, and even make better decisions. I'm joined by James Geary , author of the newly re-released book, The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism . James is a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School. James is al...

The world does not seem to be doing particularly well at the moment. Much needs to change. Most conversations focus on what should change and how . This episode asks a different, and more refreshing, question: 👉 What can we do every day to help make change happen? To explore this, I am joined by Adam Kahane , a leading organiser, designer and facilitator of processes that bring business, governme...

This episode is a fun one – and covers a topic we most certainly have not covered before:    the strategic decision-making of Taylor Swift, the most famous pop singer in the world. Taylor Swift may recognised as a pop star, but as you'll hear, her decision-making is pure punk rock. My guest today is  Kevin Evers , who wrote as a senior editor at The Harvard Business Review and the author of There'...

Today, we tackle some big-picture questions about the role of business in society when it comes to protecting human rights and democracy. And of course, this is very topical. I am honour to welcome Michael Posner to the show. Michael is the director of the Centre for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business . He is a human rights lawyer, and he was Assistant Secr...

Today, we talk about happiness. Is happiness a choice? Is it a skill? Is it a set of practices? Is it all those things? What's the difference between happiness and fulfilment or well-being? I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Mark Fabian to the show. Mark is a professor of public policy at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He was previously a Fulbright

Today, we delve into the world of organizations and what my guest calls a "future-fit" organisational culture. My guest is  Geoff Marlow and he has over three decades of experience around the world helping organisations create these future-fit cultures. That term caught my attention because around here, we're interested in the future and uncertainty. For part of his career, Geoff spent time on the...

What can we learn about business and society from a seasoned sustainability practitioner? Plenty! Meet Isobel O'Connell . Isobel has a couple of decades of experience in areas related to the environment, social issues - particularly local community consultation across the globe,  human rights and related areas. She's now an advisor, and a board member, and was named one of the top global 50 women...

This episode is about thinking differently around climate change, and it will help you think about this topic much more expansively. My guest is John Morrison , who is the CEO of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, which is a global "think and do tank" with consultative status at the United Nations. John serves on a number of boards and advisory councils, and he is the author of a new boo...

Why is it seemingly so difficult to find a human to speak to when having an issue with your bank or mobile phone company? And if you do, why do they sound like robots and/or aren't empowered to make a decision that will solve your problem? More broadly and worryingly, why is it nearly impossible to hold an individual accountable for decisions that led to a major societal or organisational calamity...

Today, I welcome Roger Spitz back to the show. Roger is a futurist, author, and president of Techistential, which is a strategy consultancy. He's also the chair of The Disruptive Futures Institute , which is a global education hub. For the purposes of this episode, however, he is the author of a new book, Disrupt with Impact - Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World , which is all about...

This "inbetweenisode" is based on the latest edition of our newsletter. It's all about uncertainty. After two and a half decades of working with decision-making under uncertainty, I have come to the following conclusion: uncertainty is about emotion . Show notes: Our latest newsletter: https://us19.campaign-archive.com/?u=f19fc74942b40b513cf66af32&id=1e2a6c0ea9 Scenario planning guide: https://www...

For the past few years, I've had Daniel Wagner on the show at about this time of year to give a look ahead at the state of the world from a geopolitical perspective. We do that again as 2024 comes to a close and 2025 is just a few days away. Daniel is my co-author of Decision-Making in the Polycrisis Era . He is the CEO of Country Risk Solutions and knows quite a bit about geopolitics. This is a c...

Today, we're going to hear about something called "the housefly effect", which is all about how little interventions affect our behaviour and how we don't even realize that. My guests are the co-authors of a fascinating book by the same name, The Housefly Effect – How Nudge Psychology Steers Your Everyday Behaviour. They are Dr. Eva van den Broek , and Tim den Heijer , both are based in the Nether...

Today, we talk about one of the most influential people in world history - how he thought and how he made decisions. That person is Charles Darwin, the man who caused the Western World to reassess what it thought    was true. Charles Darwin had a way of thinking and deciding and hear all about that in this episode. We obviously could not get Charles himself. However, we have fabulous conversation...

Today, we talk about the arc of international business in Russia over the past 30-some years. Our guest is Charles Hecker . Charles is a self-professed "Russia geek" who has written a fabulous new book entitled Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia . It largely covers the time starting from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's utterly fascinating on s...

Today, I bring you my conversation with an absolute legend, Gary Klein . Gary is a renowned pioneer in naturalistic decision-making. He has extensively researched how experienced professionals (e.g. experienced physicians, firefighters, police officers, etc.) make decisions in high-pressure environments, relying on their intuition without extensive analysis. This led Gary to develop the "Recogniti...

This episode is a bit different. It's a "Decision Clinic" in which Dr. Melina Moleskis and I offer some views on three "decision dilemmas" submitted to us by wonderful listeners. The format is a bit like an "ask me anything" podcast. Enjoy! Show notes: Sign up for our Decision Navigators course:  https://tdo04pxyq8y.typeform.com/to/Bgn3Qd5K FOCUS framework Weight and rate tool Hot and cold empathy...

This episode is all about how to perform better in a crisis. I am joined today by Dr. Dan Dworkis . He's not only an emergency physician, he's someone who's taken the high pressure experiences of the emergency room and turned them into a framework for performing better under pressure across all kinds of fields from emergency medicine to the boardroom. He's the founder of The Emergency Mind Project...

In this episode, I sit down with Joel Pearson , a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia where he is a Director of the Future Minds Lab and a leader in the science of intuition and decision-making. This conversation will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about intuition. We often hear that intuition should either be suppressed in decision-making or trusted like...

This is Part Two of Two of our conversation with Marischa van Zantvoort and Alasdair Philip. You will probably get more out of it by listening to Part One.   Show notes:   Marischa Alasdair Magnifor Consulting William Gibson Gemba walks Neil Gaiman's commencement speech – "Make Good Art" Sir James Black _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe to The Decision-Making Studio Podcast https://thedecis...

Our latest episode and this is Part One of Two. My guests are Marischa van Zantvoort and Alasdair Philip . Both Marischa and Alasdair are partners in their own consulting firm called Magnifor Consulting . They call themselves business interventionists who co-create solutions. Both are incredibly interesting thinkers and doers. They are both incredibly open-minded, incredibly experienced, and incre...

Today, my guest is Dave Snowden , a leading expert in complexity theory and knowledge management. Dave is the creator of the Cynefin Framework , which is a tool for understanding challenges and helping us make decisions within the right context. His work is international in nature. It covers government and industry, looking at complex issues relating to strategy and organizational decision-making....

Today, we delve into the role of our nervous system in decision-making, and we explore whether the best decision-making is emotional. This one will perhaps make you think differently about that. That does not mean that we ought to decide impulsively or like a toddler, but it does mean that we should integrate our emotional states into our decision-making. And doing that is a skill that involves kn...

Today, our focus is on timing. How much of a success or failure is because of timing? To answer that question, I welcome  Paul Orlando back to the show. Paul is an expert in the world of startups, having built and operated startup accelerators around the world. He teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He is the author of a fascinating new book, Why Now? How Good Timing M...

  We are changing our name. Why? This tongue-in-cheek Inbetweenisode explains