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Title: The Logic of Failure by Dietrich Dorner, Rita Kimber, Robert Kimber ISBN: 0-201-47948-6 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 15 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: What makes people poor problem solvers?
Comment: Dietrich Dörner is an authority on cognitive behavior and a psychology professor at the University of Bamberg, Germany. His research shows that our habits as problem solvers are typically counterproductive.
Probably our main shortcoming is that we like to oversimplify problems. Dörner offers a long list of self-defeating behaviors, but common to all of them is our reluctance to see any problem is part of a whole system of interacting factors. Any problem is much more complex than we like to believe. And failure doesn't have to come from incompetence. The operators of the Chernobyl reactor, as Dörner points out, were "experts." And as experts, they ignored safety standards because they "knew what they were doing."
Dörner identifies four habits of mind and characteristics of thought that account for the frequency of our failures:
1. The slowness of our thinking-We streamline the process of problem solving to save time and energy.
2. Our wish to feel confident and competent in our problem solving abilities-We try to repeat past successes.
3. Our inability to absorb quickly and retain large amounts of information-We prefer unmoving mental models, which cannot capture a dynamic, ever-changing process.
4. Our tendency to focus on immediately pressing problems-We ignore the problems our solutions will create.
Successful problem solving is so complex that there are no hard-and-fast rules that work all the time. The best take-away from the book (and this is my favorite quote): "An individual's reality model can be right or wrong, complete or incomplete. As a rule it will be both incomplete and wrong, and one would do well to keep that probability in mind." The book is 199 easy-to-read pages, and Dörner gives lots of interesting examples from lab tests illustrating people's actual behavior in problem-solving situations.
It's a thought-provoking book for anyone whose job is to tackle complex problems. In one way or another that includes anyone in just about any profession.
Rating: 5
Summary: Perfect for managers
Comment: In the Logic of Failure, Dietrich Dorner lays out the root causes of decision-making failures in a straightforward, easy-to-read, and even entertaining manner. Dorner covers the psychological and emotional failings that occur when individuals are faced with a myriad of complex systems. Anyone who has been bitten by the law of unintended consequences will see a bit of himself in the pages as Dorner helps one envision the inherent inadequacies that prevent people from predicting and preparing for what becomes painfully obvious in hindsight. Although a bit short on what to do in order to permanently correct the problems identified, simply bringing the pitfalls to light will go a long way to alleviate the problem. This is a must read for managers and strategic planners......perhaps even on an annual basis.
Rating: 5
Summary: Oversteer
Comment: A great book; a keystone of my management science bookshelf that continues to influence my day-to-day thinking 4 years after the first read.
This book goes well beyond a mere summary of Dorner's research. His work investigates the fundamental flaw in human behavior that drives us over and over again to make the wrong decisions: oversteer.
If you have only 30 minutes, order this book and read just the chapter on Chernobyl-- the only intelligent analysis of the disaster I have ever encountered. Chilling.
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Title: Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences by Edward Tenner ISBN: 0679747567 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow ISBN: 0691004129 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 27 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology by James R. Chiles ISBN: 0066620821 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Human Error by James Reason ISBN: 0521314194 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: October, 1990 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at Nasa by Diane Vaughan ISBN: 0226851761 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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