The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leaders See

by Max H. Bazerman

A “must-read” (Booklist) from Harvard Business School Professor and Codirector of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public A guide to making better decisions, noticing important information in the world around you, and improving leadership skills.Imagine your advantage in negotiations, decision-making, and leadership if you could teach yourself to see and evaluate information that others overlook. The Power of Noticing provides the blueprint for accomplishing precisely that. Max Bazerman, an expert in the field of applied behavioral psychology, draws on three decades of research and his experience instructing Harvard Business School MBAs and corporate executives to teach you how to notice and act on information that may not be immediately obvious. Drawing on a wealth of real-world examples and using many of the same case studies and thought experiments designed in his executive MBA classes, Bazerman challenges you to explore your cognitive blind spots, identify any salient details you are programmed to miss, and then take steps to ensure it won’t happen again. His book provides a step-by-step guide to breaking bad habits and spotting the hidden details that will change your decision-making and leadership skills for the better, teaching you to pay attention to what didn’t happen, acknowledge self-interest, invent the third choice, and realize that what you see is not all there is. While many bestselling business books have explained how susceptible to manipulation our irrational cognitive blind spots make us, Bazerman helps you avoid the habits that lead to poor decisions and ineffective leadership in the first place. With The Power of Noticing at your side, you can learn how to notice what others miss, make wiser decisions, and lead more successfully.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Management, Self Help, Personal Development

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Max's research focuses on decision making, negotiation, and ethics. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of twenty books and over 200 research articles and chapters. His latest book, The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leader See, is now available from Simon and Schuster.

Reviews

[Omar Delawar · Rating 4 out of 5]

When last did you wonder:

How could that have happened?
Why did I not see that coming?
Why did I not notice the signs that are so clear in retrospect?

Professor Brazerman offers insights into why this happens, how it happens and how to get better at noticing. This book, he promises, “will provide you with the tools you need to open your eyes and truly notice for the first time— and for the rest of your life.”

The type of noticing Brazerman is referring to is not of a trivial type. Consider this example taken from the book:

JPMorgan Chase, the venerable financial institute lead by the brilliant Jamie Dimon failed to notice the bank’s exposure in their London branch. By September 2013, these huge bets failed, creating trading losses in excess of $ 6 billion.

I recall seeing a billboard outside a church that read: “If you love God, hoot. If you want to meet Him, text.” Accidents happen when drivers are focusing on tasks other than driving, such as talking on a cell phone or texting.

Not noticing has many causes, some of which relate to focusing on something else. Chapter 5 has the title: What Do Magicians, Thieves, Advertisers, Politicians, and Negotiators Have in Common? Magicians, Brazerman explains have mastered the skill of “keeping entire groups of people from noticing what should be clearly visible to them.” Magicians distract your attention and then take advantage of the short time when your mind is attending to other information.
Advertisers do the same thing when they compare the specs of one product with another. Their product always has advantages the others do not.

Having a personal interest in not noticing does impair one’s ability to notice. Psychologists refer to this impairment as “motivated blindness.” It stops business people noticing when they are being defrauded by people they have trusted, and parents noticing that their children are on drugs. We are motivated by our emotional relationships not to notice.

In 2012 Barclays paid fines of $ 450 million after admitting to manipulating the calculation of the London InterBank Offered Rate. This manipulation that cost many investors dearly was committed by a number of huge banks and with the knowledge of many members of staff. Journalist Naomi Wolf wrote in the Guardian: “It is very hard… to ignore the possibility that this kind of silence…is simply rewarded by promotion to ever higher positions, ever greater authority.”

There is also “moral blindness,” where people ignore the abuse of others when they could have reported it and stopped it. In many cases, there is an incentive not to notice.
Jamie Dimon commented on the costly error at JPMorgan Chase: “The big lesson I learned: Don’t get complacent despite a successful track record.” Brazerman takes this lesson wider and asserts “successful leadership is defined by vigilance.”

A good place to start is to notice whether there are processes in your company that encourage the wrong behaviour.

One of my favorite parts of the book discusses indirect affects of decisions and how leaders usually do not think about adverse affects when making decisions. A decision by US department store chain Sears in the 1990s elucidates the need to consider indirect effects:

Sears management set a quota for auto repair employees to book $147 hourly in sales. Although it seemed like a straightforward, profitable idea, the quota essentially encouraged employees to sell customers unnecessary repairs and equipment just to fill their quota. Sears should have more thoroughly considered the problem of motivation with such a quota system. Instead, management thought only of money and didn't consider how the policy might push employees to cheat the system.

I'd recommend this for anyone who wants to improve their decision-making skills especially for people in leadership positions with high-stake outcomes.

Readability: Hard --o-- Easy
Practicality: Low ---o- High
Insights: Few --o-- Many
Length: Long ---o- Short
Overall: Bad ---o- Amazing

[Charlie Ravioli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about how the ability to see things that others don't and use such insight to make decisions is a competitive advantage for leaders. The premise is that the best leaders have an ability to notice additional information that is otherwise invisible to others and thus is essential to their success. There are a few valuable nuggets such as not limiting your options to just the data that is placed in front of you, being mindful of overconfidence and staying vigilant against misdirection. There is also an interesting chapter on how group think can undermine the best decisions when members of a cross-functional team fail to share with the team the very data they were brought in to share: unique information that they alone possess and potentially their most important contribution to the team goes unshared. Also, the idea of seeing missing information (which re-enforces the benefit of seeking out data that isn't otherwise present) is well told using a Sherlock Holmes story, "Silver Blaze," in which a dog's doing nothing (i.e., failing to bark) was the key to solving a crime. Lastly, there are some good tidbits regarding thinking ahead and connecting dots in advance that are indirectly related.

All in all it was an interesting read. Most of the examples used drew heavily from financial frauds (i.e., Enron, 2008 Mortgage crisis, Madoff's ponzi scheme, JPMorgan Chase's London Whale, Barclay's LIBOR scandal, etc.). These made up most of the book in terms of its 191 pages, which I thought was a little too much. I would have liked a little more on how to apply the lessons vs. just showcasing instances that apply by looking backwards at events with 20:20 hindsight.

[Sandy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author made good points but those points could've been made in perhaps a quarter of the book or less. Based on the amount of highlighting I did, the key thoughts made up less than about 20 pages and the rest was stories used to prove the key points, over and over again. There was a fair amount of repetition and although the author took a stab at sounding self-deprecating once in awhile, his references to himself predominantly fell under, "See? I've been right all along." The first 11 chapters lay out the problems. Chapter 12 very quickly reviews, in just 10 pages, a few bullet points on how to improve your own ability to notice. I am disappointed--the points made are interesting and good, but I'd have liked more actual attention to them, and more attention to how these points can be applied in a multitude of settings rather than focusing on Bernie Madoff, the mortgage industry, and ivy league schools.

[Nicolas Levy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but this book was a bit sloppy. In each chapter, the author tends to introduce a vague idea (generally pulled from others' work, rather than a new concept) and details a couple real-world examples that are sometimes interesting, but only superficially linked to the original concept. Then the chapters conclude with passing references to other concepts that are introduced earlier in the book or later on. I learned a lot more in this genre from more focused and comprehensive books like "Thinking Fast and Slow" and "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)".

[Kevin Stecyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Interesting and Informative Book on Noticing

After reading the recently released Negotiation: The Game Has Changed, I wanted to read more negotiation books by Max H. Bazerman. So I picked up The Power of Noticing, without noticing that it was not a negotiation book. Instead, it was more of a general management book on being aware to notice important signposts. Even though it is not a book on negotiation, I still enjoyed and learned from it. And because it was written in 2014, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane when Bazerman discussed businesses that were in the news back then. Even though the book written more than a decade ago, the lesson it contains are timeless and still applicable today.

[Stan Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Demerits:
It was a very easy read, however, it read more like a piece of pop-science. It constantly harps on how we should notice things that may occur in the future and the consequences of short-termism. However, the book doesn't adequately address criticisms to his theories like a lack of resources, or the existence of hindsight bias. While the editorial aspect could have worked out, the mere references to studies were not enough to make it substantive enough.

[Walter Adamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're not going to come away from reading this book with any new insights. It's a collection of relatively mundane observations, in retrospect, of how some executives apparently made the right choices. If I was the author I would be somewhat embarrassed if this was the depth of my insight. I don't recommend it.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could the housing bubble have been predicted? What about Hurricane Katrina? Other major events for businesses and individuals? "The Power of Noticing" is all about paying attention and taking a step back to pause, reflect, and then selecting the best path forward. The author is a bit self-aggrandizing, but it is worth a read.

[Harish Dharmangadan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting in the first half - moves to a lot more of common Sense in latter part

I liked the first half. Second half was ok - it says common sense things like paying attention to warning signs of some impending disaster though it does not really tell how to do it - just that you should be on the lookout

[Russell Chee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an interesting concept at first, but it's both written in rather too self-adulatory a tone, and also gets a bit repetitive, towards the end. It's also a touch too anecdote-driven - there are 12 chapters, but it isn't always clear what distinct concept each chapter is organised around, because the author is often more interested in telling a story than making an argument.

[Amy Wass · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of this book is a good one and there were valuable nuggets of insight but I think it could have been a much, much shorter book to convey them. I ended up skimming through most of the book.

[Siva · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are looking for instructions, then this is not the book for you. The book is filled with examples of how not noticing has led to disaster.

[Hauisan · Rating 5 out of 5]

覺察力是作者要告訴我們，在我們獲得一個資訊的時候，必須跳脫框架，想想背後隱藏的更多資訊。
個人和組織的領導者其實都要提高覺察力，作者認為尤其領導者更需要負這個責任，因為領導者有義務提��其組織成員不陷於「動機盲點」、「滑坡謬誤」、「遺漏偏誤」和「間接影響」等可能造成道德偏差或對組織有危害的行為，必須時時反省自己，這樣的決策會造成什麼影響，也需要站在別人的角度思考，當別人提出不合理的論述時，到底站在什麼角度。不要過度自信覺得自己算無遺策，這往往是造成錯誤決策最大的原因。

[M. Pierce Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn’t as instructive as I had hoped, very descriptive though.

[hemlet kiai · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting and insightful book on the power of noticing.

[Muhammad Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memorable takeaway: When crisis happens, self-reflect and self-develop by focusing on factors within your control, don't attribute everything to external factors.

[Wan Syaqira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bosan namatey baca buku ni.

[Kevin Demel]

There is some valuable info in this book but a person needs to treat it like a study book. Review each chapter then try to apply it to your life.

[Richfield Branch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up two things to remember:
1. What are my choices (what other choices am I not considering)?
2. What more information do I need? Close the gaps.

[Dmitry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blink. I'm not sure I learned a lot from this. I can easily interprete provided examples in the different way

[Daisy (Natasha) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tbh I was expecting more of Bazerman. Maybe it was because I was expecting (and hoping for) something completely different, I couldn't really get into this.

[Vaibhav Bansal · Rating 5 out of 5]

changes your perspective

[Nicholas Zhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main point of this book is about how leaders should be proactive to collect necessary information when making decisions. The leaders are obliged to seek additional information to assist better their judgment even those are most of the time not provided. Noticing is not just about seeing what is presented in front of you; it should be considered as an active action instead of a passive one. The power of noticing equips leaders the ability to see the big picture and more importantly guide them in the right direction to steer.

Though the general public tends to perceive the definition of 'noticing' to be self-explanatory (at first), it is quite challenging to truly yield such methodology in the real world---apply the techniques in decision makings. The author presented a couple of case studies to showcase how 'noticing more' could prevent the undesirable results from only looking and accepting what is given instead of 'noticing' and seeking more data to further analyse the situation.

This is the first audiobook I listened, and I found it was not hard to comprehend the narrative the author has been trying to convey which means most of the time the content is quite straightforward. However, as it is relatively too straightforward, most of the context is unable to post a mental hustle, where I think is the missing piece. And honestly, you don't need to waste reading a whole book to learn all the techniques the author mentioned ---a Linkedin article will just do as fine.

[Dave Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are all called upon to make decisions based on imperfect data. We may even think we have all of the required information to make a wise choice, only to find out that missing data caused us to make an error. The premise of "The Power of Noticing: What The Best Leaders See" is that we need to rethink the decision-making process to be open to more data points. Author Max Bazerman writes that his suggestions "will provide you with the tools you need to open your eyes and truly notice for the first time— and the rest of your life."

Among the key takeaways:

"What's in front of you is rarely all there is. Developing the tendency to ask questions like "What do I wish I knew?" and "What additional information would help inform my decision?" can make all the difference. It can make you a far better decision-maker and even save lives."

If we focus on one thing, we are blinded by other details. He cites as an example the Challenger disaster, where the spaceship blew up because not enough attention to paid attention to a problem with a small part and difficult weather conditions. "Terrible things happen when our leaders fail to think about data outside their typical focus."

"The term motivated blindness describes the systematic failure to notice others' unethical behavior when it is not in our best interest to do so. Simply put, if you have an incentive to view someone positively, it will be difficult to accurately assess the ethicality of that person's behavior."

Don't let yourself get misdirected. Don't let a salesperson distract you from what you want in a purchasing situation.

Stay skeptical and see beyond the hype.

Predictable surprises occur when we ignore warning sights that a disaster may occur.

Bazerman also writes about how we need to prioritize threats. "Anticipating and avoiding predictable surprises requires leaders to take three critical steps: recognize the threat, prioritize the threat, and mobilize the resources required to prevent the predictable surprise."

Following the lessons, Bazerman says that when we develop our skills as a 'noticer,' we have a greater chance of being a success and a great leader.

[Shaheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meat at the end : Predictable surprise

3 star : as no steps or guide

[Leslie Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

作者主要想要表達一個重點，剛好跟快思慢想作者提的類似。我們做決策的時候，經常只依賴我們目前所得到的線索(WYSIAT) What you see is all there. 但這樣的決策品質是具有相當大的風險的。對於目前手上的資訊是否能去回答某個問題的這種反思，是一般人所缺乏的。因為我們經常侷限在眼前的選項跟資料中。這讓我想到今天看到的另一句話，我們只有一個選擇時，並不是代表我們真的只有一個選擇，而是代表我們放棄了其他選擇，其實作者無非只是換句話講跳脫框架這個想法。除了拒絕眼前的選項，還必須要注意到框架外的新資訊，才能做出好的決策。

運球與大猩猩的心理學實驗，作者提到了無視盲點，以及有限認知(bounded awareness)，當專注在某個焦點上時，其他資訊有可能被大量忽略。舉例，如某章節所提到的動機盲點，舉賓州大學足球助教性侵男童的故事來說明，明明親眼目睹性侵事件大有人在，但這些人都沒有主動報警，作者分析原因就是動機盲點，因為賓州大學一向以培養正直優秀的運動員為名，一個親眼目睹性侵事件的教職員，若是直接報警舉發，鬧得滿城風雨，等於是為毀壞校譽起頭，這個動機勝過於揭發所會產生的後果，加上這人非首犯，且自己也非唯一知道的人，剛好符合心理學說的旁觀者效應(Bystander effect)，這麼多人都知道了，他們都沒報警，我也乾脆不要報警。人們對於平常看見，聽到的許多雖然不違法但是卻很不道德的行為或言談，往往不會採取行動，大家經常會利用忠誠或信仰來合理化自己的毫無作為（這這想法又讓我想到慈濟....)，但是這種漠視，對不道德與犯罪的袖手旁觀，並不會使人變得更好。

整本書寫得最好的大概就前兩章，後面還是有幾個Insight，包含談判時的誤導，對手提出不明要求時，另一方要確認是否自己忽略某些關鍵資訊。滑坡謬論，做敗德的事情，一次做一點的時候通常不容易被發現，但是等雪球越滾越大時，最後只能付出龐大代價收場。

但是我要怎麼注意到沒有出現的資訊呢？反過來想，應該就是要去檢視，該發生的事情，為什麼沒發生，這裡以福爾摩斯對賽馬殺人案破案的思維。台灣的出版社竟然用如何像福爾摩斯一樣思考來包裝這本書...結果看了半天才發現他想講的是這個...Orz

最後，再列出一個我看到覺得滿有趣的想法。爛車市場(The market of Lemons)的理論，『他如果真的要賣那台車子，那我要買嗎？』這是由阿洛夫提出的經濟學理論模型。主要結論指出在二手市場的車子都是爛車。假設有人要賣車子，普通人只肯出一般的價格（因為不瞭解車子），因此假設賣家對車子細心保養有加，對於這樣的價格肯定無法接受，因此擁有車況極佳的賣家，因為得不到公平的價格，會寧願將車子留給親朋好友或認識的人。保養好的車子紛紛退出市場，導致市場的舊車品質下降，知道這些情況的人願意支付的價格也降低，導致車況次等的賣家，因為受到影響，也接連退出市場，惡性循環，最後市場剩下的都是爛車。提出這爛車市場的例子，主要是問一個問題，為什麼車主要賣掉？

作者舉例跟爛車理論跟覺察力之間的關係，我是覺得沒有很強烈的關聯，但是對於爛車理論，我自己覺得還滿有趣的。：）

BTW，結果這本書竟然在goodreads上才3.32星！真是枉費我今天花了兩小時。大部份的review給予評論都認為這本書講了一堆故事，佐證他提出覺察力很重要的事實，但是並沒有闡述如何培養及訓練。我自己覺得他有提出要怎麼做，就是要去看那些沒有擺到桌面上的選項，但是要怎麼樣才能夠真的看見這些選項，的確是沒有提...所以事實上是聽了一堆故事，So...只能聳聳肩啦！

[Sean Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

TIL that a great many systems, including the "independent auditing firm", are set up in ways that make them self-defeating, (e.g. incentive of audit firms to rule favourably for clients to ensure rehiring and side-business).

Short, readable with lucid examples.
______________
A key aspect of effective leadership: possessing the knowledge needed to have confidence in the actions of one's subordinates. Errors arose from a fundamental failure to notice that the most relevant information wasn't in front of them.

When someone tells you "this is just the way it's done in our field", it should be a call to ask why it is done that way and whether there is a better way to do it. Accepted practices aren't necessarily correct. And failure to call bullshit makes you complicit in the problem.

In negotiation when the other party makes a demand that doesn't make initial sense, don't assume irrationality. Stop and think what you might not know that could explain their actions - and whether they might be trying to misdirect you.

Group members tend to focus on shared information rather than unique information, which defeats the purpose of cross-functional groups.

Often overlooked are the events that did not happen, even though they might hold key information.

Re-examine bad habits that might be worth changing, if not for inertia.

[Maryna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Почти пустая книга. 98% - истории с повторяющейся моралью и 2% чего-то толкового. Очень скучно.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bazerman does an excellent job of choosing key examples to illustrate how leaders go wrong by not looking beyond what is seen, what is obvious, what has been given to them, what they know. I often teach about several forms of bias leaders need to pay attention to, and this added to the list. While the book's advice is more general than "how to," heightening awareness is key. I'll be adding a few new ideas to my teaching.

Thanks, NetGalley, for an advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Malin Friess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The challenger space shuttle explosion, hurricane Katrina disaster, Berney Madoff, Real Estate Meltdown of 2007--- Bazerman argues that good leaders should have been able to see all of these "predictable surprises."

3 stars. Entertaining..but nothing remarkably new. I did enjoy the explanation of how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear....the viewers were on a stage facing the SoL..they closed the curtains and unbeknownst to the participants...Copperfield and put them on a rotating stage that changed their view 90% and pointed them out to the ocean.