04/12/2010

Making Better Decisions

In How We Decide (Boston: Mariner Books, 2009), Jonah Lehrer explores what we have learned about how people make decisions.  Using neuroscience technology to monitor how the brain works, we have learned that decision-making is a complex interaction of logical and emotional forces.  He shares one example of how we have applied this understanding to help improve decision making:

Despite a long list of aviation reform, the percentage of plane crashes caused by pilot error refused to budge from 1940 to 1990, hovering around 65%.  Then in the 1990s, pilot error declined rapidly as a factor in crashes — to less than 30%.  Two factors resulted in this drastic reduction in pilot error.  The first was the introduction of realistic flight simulators, which enable future pilots to internalize their knowledge.  "Instead of memorizing lessons, a pilot can train the emotional brain, preparing the parts of the cortex that will actually make the decisions when up in the air."

The second critical factor was the implementation of the decision-making factor known as Cockpit Resource Management (CRM).  This developed in response to an NASA study that many cockpit mistakes were attributable in part to the 'god-like certainty' of the pilot in command.  Under CRM, the pilot is no longer the dictator of the plane.  "Instead, flight crews were expected to work together and constantly communicate with one another.  Everyone was responsible for catching errors....  The best decisions emerge when a multiplicity of viewpoints are brought to bear on the situation."

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Learning to Lead: Effective Leadership Skills for Teachers of Young Children, by Debra Sullivan, is written for early childhood teachers at all levels.  It combines accessible leadership theory and practice with important topics and issues such as human development, diversity, anti-bias, work with families, and social change.  Each chapter is built around a combination of theories, examples, and reflection questions — all designed to prompt self-evaluation and personal leadership development.

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