Should we listen to “Gurus”?

Posted on March 12, 2014 by AnyaWorkSmart

“Guess correctly three times and they’ll call you an expert” – said a wise man. In the age of Internet and other mass-media guessing has become especially easy, as every correct prediction could be inflated beyond any proportion while small uncomfortable facts (such as the bankruptcy of companies created by famous business consultants) are downplayed to oblivion.

We are surrounded by Gurus of every possible expertise, offering their enlightened opinion on everything we want to know about, but does it make our life easier? Can we trust the majority of Gurus’ opinions? Should we listen to them at all? Continue reading →

“Biases: Where do they come from?” – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on December 10, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following post: Biases: Where do they come from?

“I’ve been interested with cognitive biases and misconceptions for some time already, reading all available material on the subject, including your blog. However, I noticed that just knowing about biases doesn’t really help to get rid of them. Last week I was talking to a friend about politics and was suddenly faced with a sad reality of failing to see through “Halo effect” bias. What happened was that as we were discussing with my friends a politician who recently achieved infamy by openly demonstrating unwanted behaviors in his private life, I made a statement that someone who behaves this way in his social life has no chance of filling his office properly. It seemed logical to me when I said it, but when my friends pointed to a fact that there is no known correlation between someone’s personal and professional life, I immediately understood that my statement was caused by “halo effect”. This situation made me wondering: is there any benefit in learning about biases, if it only helps you to understand what you already did wrong? Continue reading →

“Can a Non-Expert manage Experts?” – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on December 3, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following post : An Eternal Argument: Can a non-Expert manage Experts?

“I read your post carefully and I have to say that I completely disagree. In my experience, any attempt to manage IT developers without also being a technical expert is doomed to failure for several reasons. For one, the developers have no one to talk to if they encounter serious technical problems and need further guidance – non-technical manager cannot provide this guidance by definition. Continue reading →

When it is right to throw money at the problem

Posted on November 19, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

We all are familiar with situations when decision-makers keep throwing money at the problem instead of trying a structural solution that could potentially be much more beneficial to the system. The examples are too many, especially in our austere times.

Naturally, we tend to be critical of such wasteful strategies, but a story told to me last week by an older friend about his time in the Military reminded me that sometimes solving the situation by spending more resources may be more beneficial than attempting a structural decision. Continue reading →

The Other Top Ten posts of AnyaWorkSmart

Posted on October 1, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

After the warm reception that my previous Top Ten post received, I decided to add another one, but this time a little different. As most people do not have the patience to look through archives of the blog for posts that do not contain the easily recognizable keywords for topics of interest, I thought to remind my readers of several posts I published in the past that to my opinion are very important for everyone to know. Continue reading →

Working patterns: Why do we constantly create new problems by trying to solve the existing ones? Part 2

Posted on September 3, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

This week we continue to discuss the reasons for why do we make our own life harder by creating new problems when solving the existing ones. Here is what you should be aware of: Continue reading →

Working patterns: Why do we constantly create new problems by trying to solve the existing ones? Part 1.

Posted on August 27, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

If you’re reading this blog, it means you’re spending some time on the Internet. It may also mean that while browsing you’ve encountered at least one of the endless variations of the “Doing it wrong” or “You had one job” memes.

If not, these memes make a laugh of exactly what their titles describe – how the simplest tasks performed by others could go completely and ridiculously wrong. Continue reading →

How can I convince my team to try improving decision-making skills?” – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on May 21, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following post on “The need for better decisions – why now?”

“I completely agree with everything you said about the urgency we all should feel in regard to improving the quality of our decisions. But how do I convince the people I’m working with that something should be done about this issue? What can I offer them as an incentive to try improving their decision-making skills? ” Continue reading →

The cost of our mistakes – can we really pay it?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Lately we hear a lot about all kinds of mistakes made by people around us: investment mistakes, foreign policy mistakes, personal relationships mistakes and so on. In many cases we find it very easy to identify ourselves with the heroes of the story because we made similar mistakes or were about to make them. Nevertheless, why did the subject of making mistakes become so popular? Continue reading →

Risk Management to the rescue – control your Biases by proper Risk Responses

Posted on April 9, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

When previously discussing Risk Management I already mentioned that the possibility of being biased while making a critical decision or engaging in important activity is a risk in its own right, that should be managed along with other risks. What are the peculiarities of managing your biases as risks in regard to what we know about the known types of Risk Responses in Management? Continue reading →