decision-making Archives

Convenient Lies vs Inconvenient Truths: Why We Choose Fantasy Over Math

Convenient Lies vs Inconvenient Truths: Why We Choose Fantasy Over Math Issue 236, October 30, 2025 As we anticipate the end of a challenging year, we feel compelled to face up to some inconvenient truths that make us uncomfortable. We know that when we look “under the hood,” things don’t always look good. AI is buffering the market and making it look better than it is. Job creation is down, profits are up principally from price increases, and inflation remains…

Kevin Novak

October 29, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

How Human Emotion, Identity, and History Shape Decisions

How Human Emotion, Identity, and History Shape Decisions Issue 224, August 7, 2025 It is human emotion, identity and history that shape our culture and inform our decisions. So, here’s a question that should keep every leader awake at night: In an era where data-driven decision-making and AI-powered analytics lead strategy, why do so many consequential business choices still get made in conference rooms based on gut feelings, unspoken fears, and organizational memories? There appears to be an ongoing debate…

Kevin Novak

August 7, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Costs of Driving Efficiency

The Costs of Driving Efficiency Organizational Transformations We Live Through But Don’t Notice Issue 221, July 17, 2025 What is the cost of driving efficiency? In the process of ensuring the sustainable profitability of an organization, the business model becomes subtly reshaped. It may not be obvious at the time, but short-term financial and structural decisions in the interests of long-term success remold the workforce, the organizational culture, and can trigger larger socio-cultural trends. Rewriting History Historically, organizations seek to…

Kevin Novak

July 17, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Decision-Making: The Revolving Door of Organizational Centralization and Decentralization

Decision-Making: The Revolving Door of Organizational Centralization and Decentralization Issue 202, March 6, 2025 We have been keen observers of an organizational cyclical pattern to solve problems that we call the revolving door of centralization and decentralization. Organizations across many industries experience this recurring pattern, shifting between these two organizational constructs. Counterintuitively, organizations seem to repeat the cycle every few years, often framed as a novel strategic solution to operational challenges. A decentralized approach fails. Centralize. A centralized function becomes…

Kevin Novak

March 6, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Mastering the Art of Decision-Making in Uncertain Times: Part Two: A Practical Guide

Mastering the Art of Decision-Making in Uncertain Times: Part Two: A Practical Guide Issue 197, January 30, 2025 Last week we explored how to understand how we make decisions in uncertain times. We said that uncertainty has become a certainty, challenging leaders to think differently when it comes to managing change and transformation. Today, we are tackling the issue with a practical guide for improving decision-making skills that is relevant to our disruptive personal and professional environment. Our guide is…

Kevin Novak

January 30, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Mastering the Art of Decision-Making: Part One

Mastering the Art of Decision-Making: Part One Issue 196, January 23, 2025 Uncertainty has become a defining characteristic of both our personal and professional lives in today’s rapidly changing unpredictable world. Stated simply, uncertainty is a certainty. From navigating disruptive markets and responding to global crises to contending with career challenges and family issues, decision-making under pressure has become a persistent and constant reality. Consider those impacted by the ongoing wildfires in California who were instantly thrown into uncertainty when…

Kevin Novak

January 20, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Is Critical Thinking at Risk of Extinction?

Is Critical Thinking at Risk of Extinction? Issue 191, December 19, 2024 We are tackling a topic that is a recurring theme in everything we write, including our book, The Truth About Transformation. Critical thinking is becoming an endangered skill along with practical know-how, common sense problem-solving and basic thinking skills. These tools are more important than ever for all of us caught in the crossfire of global geopolitical, geo-economic and cultural asynchronies. We have largely defaulted to thinking on…

Kevin Novak

December 19, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

De-Risking Too Much Choice in Organizational Decision-Making

De-Risking Too Much Choice in Organizational Decision-Making Issue 184, October 31, 2024 You are ready to publish an article in the content section of your website and you go to GPT4 to game the system and fine-tune the title with SEO phrases to attract the most search traffic possible. You cut and paste the article into OpenAI’s tool, enter the prompt and voila! GPT spits out 20 choices. It then asks you if you want it to expand on any…

Kevin Novak

October 31, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

How Talented Are You at Achieving Consensus?

How Talented Are You at Achieving Consensus? Issue 183, October 24, 2024 One of the major sticking points in organizational (even family) decision-making is the pursuit of a shared goal in building consensus while recognizing the diversity of opinions, thoughts and expertise of those involved. But first, for the record, consensus is a general agreement about something, either an idea or opinion that is shared by all the people in a group (Brittanica). And add to that, the result of…

Kevin Novak

October 24, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Why Do We Lie? The Sequel

Why Do We Lie? The Sequel Issue 180, October 3, 2024 Even the most optimistic among us must admit that we are living in an unprecedented and unpredictable public arena of deliberate misinformation and lies. It has become accepted behavior, and among some, a badge of honor. It is confusing and discouraging that intentional lies have become part of the fabric of our lives. If we don’t know what is true and whom to trust, it can lead to the…

Kevin Novak

October 2, 2024

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