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Judgment Calls
Your guide to making better decisions
Despite the dizzying amount of data at our disposal today—and an increasing reliance on analytics to make the majority of our decisions—many of our most critical choices still come down to human judgment. This fact is fundamental to organizations whose leaders must often make crucial decisions: to do this they need the best available insights.
In Judgment Calls , authors Tom Davenport and Brook Manville share twelve stories of organizations that have successfully tapped their data assets, diverse perspectives, and deep knowledge to build an organizational decision-making capability—a competence they say can make the difference between success and failure. This book introduces a model that taps the collective judgment of an organization so that the right decisions are made, and the entire organization profits.
Through the stories in Judgment Calls , the authors—both of them seasoned management thinkers and advisers—make the case for the wisdom of organizations and suggest ways to use it to best advantage. Each chapter tells a unique story of one dilemma and its ultimate resolution, bringing into high relief one key to the power of collective judgment. Individually, these stories inspire and instruct; together, they form a model for building an organizational capacity for broadly based, knowledge-intensive decision making.
You’ve read The Wisdom of Crowds and Competing on Analytics . Now read Judgment Calls . You, and your organization, will make better decisions.
Despite the dizzying amount of data at our disposal today—and an increasing reliance on analytics to make the majority of our decisions—many of our most critical choices still come down to human judgment. This fact is fundamental to organizations whose leaders must often make crucial decisions: to do this they need the best available insights.
In Judgment Calls , authors Tom Davenport and Brook Manville share twelve stories of organizations that have successfully tapped their data assets, diverse perspectives, and deep knowledge to build an organizational decision-making capability—a competence they say can make the difference between success and failure. This book introduces a model that taps the collective judgment of an organization so that the right decisions are made, and the entire organization profits.
Through the stories in Judgment Calls , the authors—both of them seasoned management thinkers and advisers—make the case for the wisdom of organizations and suggest ways to use it to best advantage. Each chapter tells a unique story of one dilemma and its ultimate resolution, bringing into high relief one key to the power of collective judgment. Individually, these stories inspire and instruct; together, they form a model for building an organizational capacity for broadly based, knowledge-intensive decision making.
You’ve read The Wisdom of Crowds and Competing on Analytics . Now read Judgment Calls . You, and your organization, will make better decisions.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 13, 2012
17 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Thomas H. Davenport
86 books130 followersTom Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College. His books and articles on business process reengineering, knowledge management, attention management, knowledge worker productivity, and analytical competition helped to establish each of those business ideas. Over many years he's authored or co-authored nine books for Harvard Business Press, most recently Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (2007) and Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results (2010). His byline has also appeared for publications such as Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Financial Times, Information Week, CIO, and many others.
Davenport has an extensive background in research and has led research centers at Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, CSC Index, and the Accenture Institute of Strategic Change. Davenport holds a B.A. in sociology from Trinity University and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. For more from Tom Davenport, visit his website and follow his regular HBR blog.
Davenport has an extensive background in research and has led research centers at Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, CSC Index, and the Accenture Institute of Strategic Change. Davenport holds a B.A. in sociology from Trinity University and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. For more from Tom Davenport, visit his website and follow his regular HBR blog.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 9, 2012
This book is about decision making and particularly about how organisational knowledge can be harnessed and used in a collaborative approach to the big decisions organisations need to make to remain successful.
"Judgment Calls" looks at 12 case studies of organisations which have made successful decisions at critical times and the processes CEOs and senior managers have used to engender a collaborative rather than a top-down leader approach. For me, the most important parts of the book are the Preface (by Laurence Prusak) and the Introduction. It's in these that the writers set out their thinking and findings about decision making.
Davenport and Manville's research of these 12 success stories has led them to postulate four reasons (or principles) for such success:
* Decision making as a participative problem-solving process (with some emphasis of the rise of the social media as one key driver of this)
* The opportunities of new technology and analysis
* The power of culture
* Leaders doing the right thing and establishing the right context
A key tenet of their notion about effective decision-making is to debunk the "Great Man" theory wherein leaders are looked upon as the font of all wisdom. The authors' intent here is quite explicit - "We offer this book as an antidote for, and even the counter to, the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance" I believe the book is a great discussion starter for all business leaders towards achieving this lofty goal.
As the book is built around the 12 case studies, some observations about these are in order.
Firstly, I liked the fact that they all display positive outcomes for the organisations - there are too many books around that focus on the negative and as the authors (rightly in my opinion) point out "We chose to tell stories of good decisions because we think the world needs some good examples to emulate".
I also liked the idea that the reader has to search through each case to see how the links to the author's four principles might have been used. Each case study concludes with a short "reflections" section on the decision making aspects in this case. Perhaps a few self-reflective questions may have assisted the reader to get the message here, particularly as the authors explicitly state that they are not providing a checklist.
On the downside, I found the cases rather long and at times complex and therefore hard to follow. I appreciate the balance the author's may have been trying to achieve in providing enough information for the reader to get a real feel and understanding for the organisational context. For me, less would have been better as this detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
All in all, I feel this book may perhaps be another nail in the coffin of the command and control leadership approach that has been all too common in some western societies and organisations. Could this be the start of an "Organisational Spring" movement where leaders engender decision making in a far more collaborative and humble way? One can only hope so.
"Judgment Calls" looks at 12 case studies of organisations which have made successful decisions at critical times and the processes CEOs and senior managers have used to engender a collaborative rather than a top-down leader approach. For me, the most important parts of the book are the Preface (by Laurence Prusak) and the Introduction. It's in these that the writers set out their thinking and findings about decision making.
Davenport and Manville's research of these 12 success stories has led them to postulate four reasons (or principles) for such success:
* Decision making as a participative problem-solving process (with some emphasis of the rise of the social media as one key driver of this)
* The opportunities of new technology and analysis
* The power of culture
* Leaders doing the right thing and establishing the right context
A key tenet of their notion about effective decision-making is to debunk the "Great Man" theory wherein leaders are looked upon as the font of all wisdom. The authors' intent here is quite explicit - "We offer this book as an antidote for, and even the counter to, the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance" I believe the book is a great discussion starter for all business leaders towards achieving this lofty goal.
As the book is built around the 12 case studies, some observations about these are in order.
Firstly, I liked the fact that they all display positive outcomes for the organisations - there are too many books around that focus on the negative and as the authors (rightly in my opinion) point out "We chose to tell stories of good decisions because we think the world needs some good examples to emulate".
I also liked the idea that the reader has to search through each case to see how the links to the author's four principles might have been used. Each case study concludes with a short "reflections" section on the decision making aspects in this case. Perhaps a few self-reflective questions may have assisted the reader to get the message here, particularly as the authors explicitly state that they are not providing a checklist.
On the downside, I found the cases rather long and at times complex and therefore hard to follow. I appreciate the balance the author's may have been trying to achieve in providing enough information for the reader to get a real feel and understanding for the organisational context. For me, less would have been better as this detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
All in all, I feel this book may perhaps be another nail in the coffin of the command and control leadership approach that has been all too common in some western societies and organisations. Could this be the start of an "Organisational Spring" movement where leaders engender decision making in a far more collaborative and humble way? One can only hope so.
September 6, 2020
The idea itself is not new: Decisions should be data-informed and participative.
As a generalist, I like how he pulls cases from different disciplines together to explain the points, how we face unique yet somewhat similar problems in whatever proffession we chosse. There're 12 cases with clear catergories and written-down purposes of each, which saves lots of time choosing the relevant ones to read. The thing that I love most is not the core idea but some interesting practices in cases of healthcare and tech services.
Some parts, however, are a bit wordy for a quick read, especially the background/situation introduction before each case.
As a generalist, I like how he pulls cases from different disciplines together to explain the points, how we face unique yet somewhat similar problems in whatever proffession we chosse. There're 12 cases with clear catergories and written-down purposes of each, which saves lots of time choosing the relevant ones to read. The thing that I love most is not the core idea but some interesting practices in cases of healthcare and tech services.
Some parts, however, are a bit wordy for a quick read, especially the background/situation introduction before each case.
June 25, 2023
I read first two case studies. Stories are interesting, but not insightful or insightful. Then I glanced through all pages reading the chapter titles and section titles. That was enough to grasp the points that authors wanted to convey.
This book maybe useful for those who are afraid to make any decision or no experience of taking leadership whatsoever.
This book maybe useful for those who are afraid to make any decision or no experience of taking leadership whatsoever.
December 12, 2020
Nearly nothing interesting or original in here. The chapters are too superficial to be insightful and too boring to be provocative.
September 20, 2014
Like a series of business cases on the theme of making the right decisions. I liked that the twelve cases provided a level of detail that you wouldn't get from shorter magazine articles, although these cases were roughly the length of an HBR article or an article in Inc magazine, and an Inc article is what these felt like (albeit a sugarcoated one). But I notice that many of these decisions were evaluated in the short term and we don't always hear about the long term consequences. Also, the stories about large companies seemed to be taken from the top levels of the company, at least in one case. While in this one case I'm thinking of the story was about making the right decisions, those decisions were more obvious that portrayed and had less of an impact on the workers than described. I know because I worked in that company at that time. Otherwise, if you are looking for positive role models, this book provides them.
August 21, 2016
First, I enjoyed the case studies included in the text. However, I challenge the authors' success in accomplishing their stated goal - that is, the show how we have moved away from the "Great Man" theories of leadership. The case studies do show collaborative leadership, joint decision-making at several levels, etc., yet the final section reiterates the importance of the leader.
True, we have moved away from the purest sense of the "Great Man" theories. Yet Davenport and Manville have stumbled upon a modernization the definition of a "Great Man" theory - call it the "Great Leader" theory. Though the responsibility for decision-making is not as frequently vested solely in an organization's leader, decisions are still resultant from the strategic course upon which an organization is set by its leader.
True, we have moved away from the purest sense of the "Great Man" theories. Yet Davenport and Manville have stumbled upon a modernization the definition of a "Great Man" theory - call it the "Great Leader" theory. Though the responsibility for decision-making is not as frequently vested solely in an organization's leader, decisions are still resultant from the strategic course upon which an organization is set by its leader.
August 11, 2015
This book is an anecdotal account of different scenarios which the author believes contain significant acts of judgment. While these scenarios may be helpful for some people, particularly those who can relate to the people in the particular situations, it draws loose conclusions about the nature of judgment itself. As a result, its relevance is likely lacking for the person who wants to know more about judgment itself. In fact, one of the most fruitful conclusions that I took away from the books is that it is nearly impossible to unify acts of judgment within different contexts.
November 23, 2015
I can relate with the McKinsey case study as I have worked for Accenture before, the case scenario is almost the same as Accenture, but the way McKinsey turn around and address the talent issue is interesting. This book doesn't give any model nor framework to the reader for better decision making but it provides case study examples of companies and organizations, it talks about their stories and the initiative that they have taken to come to good decision making. The EMC case study is also very interesting and inspiring.
December 27, 2012
I just couldn't get into this one. Each chapter focused on a different organization and a different decision, but once introduced, I found the discussion tedious and sort of full of obvious points. I was "reading" this one as an audiobook and I have very little patience for boring audiobooks as me nodding off while driving would be a very bad thing. So I gave up on this one.
October 28, 2020
How do organizations make decisions? Or how do they make really good decisions? Researchers and writers have been thinking about, studying and writing about these quandaries for a long time. This book … - See more at: http://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leade...
December 10, 2015
I picked this up from Booksale after scanning it a bit, as I thought it was written rather well. I like the format of the book, in that it doesn't exactly tell you what to do, but only tells success stories that you can relate to and hopefully, learn from. If you're looking for a book with a step-by-step guide on how to pick the right organizational decisions, this isn't it.
October 6, 2016
12 stories, some of which I enjoyed more than others: in particular the one about the ancient Athenians facing the onslaught of Xerxes's Persian army! (is it just because I'm a history buff?) That outlier aside, I enjoyed and took away more from all three stories in the "Culture" subsection than the others.
September 10, 2014
The case studies in this book are practical examples of good decisions made by teams that made them achieve great success henceforth, and is easily applicable by anyone reading the book at their organizations.
April 6, 2015
Thought it was time to get back into some business books but found this very shallow and uninspiring to say the least...
August 8, 2016
Just finished #JudgmentCalls. A good collection of best practices coupled with examples of companies who were able to make the right call in challenging times.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews