August 1st 2013 , Swiss National Day
NEW: Management Thinking Mistakes iPhone App The creators behind this new iPhone App believe, it is time for better decisions and this app will add a little part to do so. BREAKING NEWS Harvard University will use this App for their upcoming course "Modern Dilemmas in the Corporation of the 21st century" from September 2013* (more Information on this breaking news story at the end of this communication here below)
DOWNLOAD is free for the first 99 hours. Access iTunes App store WHY? There are many great websites, articles, even books out there covering those errors and thinking traps. But there is not yet a tool, which can be used right before a meeting or before taking an important decision, which will be at your hand and prepare you to avoid those thinking traps.
URL is https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/management-thinking-mistakes/id666288108?l=de&ls=1&mt=8
Or search for : “Management Thinking Mistakes� from within the App Store on your iPhone / iPad
3 EASY STEPS: Select objective of decision to take >> show thinking traps >> how to avoid? 3 STEP CHECK IF YOU NEED THIS APP If you can say NO to all those 3 thinking traps listed here below, you can stop reading..
August 1st 2013 , Swiss National Day
Did one of those situations happen to you? Before starting a new business idea, we normally engage a lot of time into the research and analysis of similar stories and ideas. We logically concentrate here more on success stories and not so much on what has failed. This leads then to the logical conclusion that success is easy to be achieved. >>WRONG! You have been fallen victim to the Survivership Bias Decision takers believe there is a risk in offering something (advertising, consultancy, service etc) that's different from successful competitors. >> THIS HAS A NAME.. von Restorff Effect To assume that decision makers of the past viewed events from the same perspective and had the same information as those subsequently analyzing a decision today. >> WRONG! You have fallen victim to the Historian's fallacy This app covers thinking mistakes in currently 3 categories (fallacies, biases and effects) linked to 15 situations decision taking and 30 business tools, which can help to avoid them.. And all this is constantly growing together with the app community.
MORE USEFUL LINKS •
Landing Page for the App www.managementthinkingmistakes.ch
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Experience a movie on how this apps works direct link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2NkYNy3KRg
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See Screenshots from the App screen http://pinterest.com/wibsolutionsch/management-thinking-mistake-app-screens/
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background information from the App Blog at Tumblr http://best-management-app.tumblr.com/
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Pinterest with 50+ free business cartoons on thinking traps http://pinterest.com/wibsolutionsch/management-thinking-mistakes-businesscartoons/followers/
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Student worksheet to bring management topics into the classroom
http://issuu.com/wib.solutions.switzerland/docs/wibi_nirvana_classroom_exercise
August 1st 2013 , Swiss National Day
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Discussion Forum about the app and management mistakes topics http://forum.wibtools.ch/
Management Thinking Mistakes App Thinking mistakes are defects in our thinking process that weaken our aim to find the best solutions. By learning to recognize common fallacies, biases and effects, we can avoid these mistakes in the context of meetings or decision making. At the same time we can also learn to recognize the thinking mistakes when used by others. The goal of this app is to provide you with a reliable tool, always on hand whenever and wherever needed, to avoid all those thinking traps and make you stronger in your decisions and prepared for your next meetings. What to expect from this app? CROWDSOURCED AND GROWING LIST OF MOST COMMON THINKING MISTAKES A steadily growing list with visuals of the most common thinking mistakes, fallacies, biases and effects, combined with definitions, origin, links, samples and special tips. Users can become part of the app themselves by submitting their own “favorite” mistakes within the app. Once added those users will be credited within the app for their contribution. INNOVATIVE SEARCH TOOL PROVIDES TIMELY, CONTEXT-SPECIFIC SUPPORT An innovative search tool can be applied right before your next meeting. Just turn the wheel and select the kind of meeting you will join (open up, new ideas, criticize, finalize a project) and the app will list the most common thinking mistakes you may be facing. THE FACTS AND STORY BEHIND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT THINKING MISTAKES APP Computer power, when combined with huge amounts of data, transformed the “Art of Management,” to that of a “Science of Management.” To make the right decision is more difficult than ever As we have all painfully experienced in the last few years, models thought to ensure stability in various business sectors did not completely work. Finance, insurance, and economic endeavors failed in spite of sophisticated decision-making models and huge quantities of calculated data. As the recession and failures spread, this experience may have given an impression that all those highly sophisticated models failed. But as always with extremes, it would similarly be wrong to advise all managers to do a 180 degree turn around and make decisions only on the basis of gut instinct. Sometimes we are all trapped by thinking mistakes What we believe is that most of those tools have their place and are useful, but they must be embedded in more realistic modes of human behavior. We are all humans after all, and we sometimes fall into logical fallacies - but to avoid them in our own arguments, and defend ourselves from such fallacies when they are used against us, it is first necessary to recognize them. Companies will continue to seek ways to exploit the increasing amounts of data and computing power available, but managers in every industry must take responsibility for looking inside the black boxes that advanced quantitative tools often represent and understanding their functioning, assumptions, and limitations. This App helps to avoid thinking mistakes before they occur We believe this App helps every decision maker do just that – avoid making mistakes in the first place. It provides you with a mobile collection of commonly known and more recently identified fallacies, biases, and effects and explains them with examples, catchy visuals, and references allowing for deeper research. You can filter results by searching for thinking errors by situation and
August 1st 2013 , Swiss National Day objective, and can build your own shortlist with your “favorites.” And for each of these thinking mistakes, the Apps will suggest management tools which will support you in avoiding those thinking errors.
WiBi our Mascot
Pink Floyd Fallacy visual
Filter Bubble visual
FUNFACT1: The topic of management thinking mistakes is as well taken serious by Harvard University. Actually one of our supporters Prof. Mark Esposito will lecture a course in September 2013: “I m quite intrigued by the fact that you are working, with this app on dilemmas, decision making, mistakes etc … I am starting at Harvard in the Fall with a course on modern dilemmas in the corporation in the twenty-first century" Link http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses/modern-dilemmas-corporation-twenty-first-century
FUNFACT2: Some thoughts on the Over Cautious Bias by Mark Mitchell, reporter at Deep Capture (http://www.deepcapture.com/ ), internet publication that reports on financial industry, regulatory capture, organized crime, economic warfare. Previous: Time Magazine (Asia), Far Eastern Economic Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe “This is a brilliant idea and it is an application that I plan to use regularly. As a journalist, I encounter bias on a daily basis. The bias is apparent in everything from government documents to the thinking of people whom I interview for stories. And, of course, there is surely bias in my own writing, though it is not at all easy to recognize it. How great it would be to have a service on my Iphone that would warn me when I have gone astray. Conversely, people (like me) who investigate crime for a living tend to be biased towards believing that everything is rigged by criminals, hesitating to make any investment or to trust anyone for fear of being robbed. This is an over-cautious bias. If I were ever to become an entrepreneur, I would be biased towards believing that my company would have no chance against the sophisticated criminals or cartels, though the truth is probably that the company would have at least some chance. As a journalist, I harbor a bias towards believing people are guilty, and it takes some effort to be fair and assume that all people are innocent until proven guilty. More broadly, there seems to be stark divide between "conspiracy theorists" who are biased to think everything is a conspiracy, and "skeptics" who are so biased as to be convinced that there is no such thing as a conspiracy--that conspiracies simply do not occur. The truth is probably somewhere in the
August 1st 2013 , Swiss National Day middle, but human beings, as a rule, do not think in terms of the middle. They gravitate towards either-or, as is also evident in politics (everyone on the left or on the right, but nowhere near the truth, which is somewhere in the middle). Even knowing their bias, it is difficult for people to correct the bias and adopt more even-minded points of view. It would be great to have an iPhone App, that told us what to think!”
Idea and Content by Lukas Ritzel– lritzel@wib.ch / http://www.linkedin.com/in/lukasritzel Marco Fleig & mfleig@wib.ch We are as well happy to answer your questions email, skype or phone www.wib.ch * THIS APP WILL BE USED AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY "As part of its first phase of experimentation, use and feedback, "The Management Thinking Mistakes App" will be used as pedagogical tool at Harvard University, in a course taught by Professor Mark Esposito on "Modern Dilemmas in the Corporation of the 21st century" This course, which is open for enrollment now with limited capacity, is open to Harvard students and anyone who may wish to study a Harvard course through the web-conference technology, attending classes, remotely, once per week during the Fall semester. The course will delve into the power of dilemmas as an effective tool to practically approach bias and fallacy of thought processes and reasoning constraints. A perfect blend between the theoretical construction and the use of smart technology like the app will generate opportunity for a next generation of thinkers, much more reflective in their own ability to create value" Mark Esposito, Professor of Economics and Management, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Harvard University Extension School, Harvard Business School
Further supporters of this App are: Professor Michael Hitchcock (Macau University of Science & Technology), Professor Noel Jones (Stamford International University, World Bank), Professor Denis Kobzev (Leeds Trinity University), Mark Mitchell (Reporter at Deep Capture, Wall Street Journal Europe, Time Magazine Asia), Fulbright Professor BK Passi (UNESCO, UNDP) .. read what they have to say from here. http://pinterest.com/wibsolutionsch/management-thinking-mistakes-app/
The Team behind the App which helps for better decisions, 2013
If you enjoyed reading Swiss author Rolf Dobelli’s bestseller The Art of Thinking Clearly , then you will enjoy this iPhone App