The Book: The Cure for Corporate Stupidity

Mar 1

Helping Human Resources Play a Strategic Role in Decision-Making

by Larry Bloom and Adam Bloom

It is not what we don’t know that causes problems; it is what we know that just ain’t so.

— Artemus Ward

Companies are Decision-Making Factories

Whether it makes chemicals, financial services, or software, an organization is a factory that also manufactures judgments and decisions. The decision-making process ultimately impact revenues, costs, employee loyalty, and more. To play a strategic role in the C-Suite, HR must help their company improve the quality of decision-making by 1) understanding the problems with the decision-making process and 2) helping executives and key employees avoid these problems.

The Decision-Making Process is Flawed

You see, many problems of businesses today are not the result of software bugs or other factors that occur outside our thinking, but rather they are “self-inflicted” as a result of mind-bugs™—bugs in the critical internal processes that occur in the five inches between our ears. The pervasiveness of mind-bugs in business decision-making is because mind-bugs are a product of human nature—hard-wired and highly resistant to feedback. Mind-bugs cause us to lament after the fact; “What was I thinking when I made that decision?” Read more

Feb 27

Avoiding Flawed Product Management Decisions

by Larry Bloom and Adam Bloom

In 2009, one of Amazon’s product management decisions sent a shiver down the spine of the Internet when it remotely deleted copies of allegedly unauthorized versions of the books “1984″ and “Animal Farm” from users’ Kindles. It invaded devices without permission and removed content which users had (at least to their knowledge) legally bought. CEO Jeff Bezos apologized: “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward.”

Bugs inside Amazon’s Product Management Decisions

It looks as if Amazon had two bugs. One, the “Kindle network” did not effectively control unauthorized versions of books. The second was with Amazon’s product management decisions – there was a bug in their mental software, a flaw in their thinking. Many problems of corporations today are not the result of software bugs or other factors that occur outside our thinking, but rather they are “self-inflicted” as a result of mind-bugs—bugs in the critical internal processes that occur in the five inches between our ears. According to 170+ pieces of research across psychology, neuroleadership, social cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics, and more, our human brains are hard-wired in a way that makes it challenging to formulate wise decisions under pressures faced at work. Seemingly, Amazon had this type of buggy thinking based on Jeff Bezos comment. Read more

Dec 30

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Bad Bosses, Employee Retention, and Mind-Bugs

by Larry Bloom and Adam Bloom

My heart raced and my stress level peaked as my boss opened his mouth to verbally hammer anyone at our group meeting who did not agree with him. As he directed his tirade at me, I felt my anxiety rise. No, this was not the time to give him the truth, and I could only think, “What a jerk!”

Unfortunately, too many of us have felt like this in dealing with bad bosses. I recently read a discussion topic by Christelle M. of the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Official Group where she posed the question: Employees don’t leave their jobs. They leave the Company. What do you think? In reviewing the posts, it is easy to see a few distinct common themes by these HR professionals.

This blog article will explore one of them: What is the impact of supervisors and bad bosses on employee retention?