Managerial Judgement

The brain is a remarkable biological machine, moulded through millions of years of evolutionary pressure. More recent changes in human history have created a gap between the world for which our brains were developed, and the world in which we currently live. This mismatch creates constraints for many aspects of management and leadership. We suffer from strong biases that hinder good decision-making, we are more emotionally sensitive to threat than we need to be, and we often fail to develop realistic perceptions of others and of ourselves. Fortunately, scientists have generated a great deal of knowledge that allows us to identify these deficiencies and to find remedies for them, and there are many applications of these findings that provide opportunities for the improvement of management. This subject is based on state-of-the-art neurobiological research that sheds light on the obstacles we face when making decisions and managing our emotions. By discovering the roots of many of these difficulties we can also learn solutions to the problems created by our biological history.