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Mark

Defence against self deception

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2013

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If Francesca Gino was a professor at Hogwarts she would surely teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. The dark art she would most warn us of is how we can so easily fool ourselves. I've scored this a 4 star book because I enjoyed it and the advice is useful, evidence based and practical. The ideas are brought to life through novel stories such as the way emotional feedback is used by the Ducati Moto GP team. It's a book worth buying for the 9 key messages alone.

The final star is lost because there was just a little too much overlap with Dan Ariely's excellent `The Honest Truth about Dishonesty' which is no surprise as they worked together on much of the research. I hope that in her future books Francesca will use more of her own story examples.

A quote in the book sums up the key message perfectly:

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." Demosthenes (384- 322 BC),

Sidetracked details this potential for self deception in 3 key areas:

- how our internal world can distract us
- how our social connections impact on us and
- how our external environment can change our behaviour.

This is further broken down into 9 key messages which I've put into my own words below.

Overcoming internal distraction:

- Don't believe your own hype, listen to useful advice from others too
- Check how you feel before making decisions (Emotional Intelligence)
- Step back and see the bigger pattern

Awareness of social influences

- Recognise and value the contribution of others
- Find out how your social network is influencing you
- Question if social comparison is driving your decisions

Maintaining our moral compass

- Look for more evidence to base decisions on
- Ask `why' to understand the context
- Make your values clear and live by them

For me these 9 steps clarify many of the messages in Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow and offer a practical guide to staying out of the traps our mind can so easily fall into. I've already found the 9 steps a practical way to improve my decision making.

11 people found this helpful

Manageris

Une mine d'enseignements pratiques

Reviewed in France on August 19, 2015

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Nous aimons nous voir en être rationnel. Nous imaginons ainsi en général que nous allons prendre nos décisions en accord avec ce que nous avions prévu de faire, avec les critères que nous nous étions fixés, etc. Or, l'expérience montre que nos comportements réels sont souvent bien éloignés de cette vision idéalisée. Francesca Gino nous rappelle à notre condition de mammifère social ! Dans ce livre, elle fait le tour des nombreux facteurs qui nous poussent régulièrement à prendre des décisions éloignées de nos plans initiaux, sans même que nous en ayons conscience. Elle distingue ainsi trois ensembles de forces susceptibles de nous éloigner de nos objectifs :
– les forces propres à nous-même : impact de nos émotions sur nos actions et nos jugements, etc.
– les forces liées à nos relations avec les autres : mimétisme social, mécanismes instinctifs d’éviction des rivaux, etc.
– les forces induites par notre environnement : surcharge d’information, etc.

2 people found this helpful

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H. Scharnberg

Enjoyable, but did the author get sidetracked ?

Reviewed in Germany on April 19, 2013

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This is not what I expected. Well, at least not yet, for I am just at three quarters of the book.
I expected examples and explanations of personal, individual failures to stick to the plan.
Why do I stay up late despite being tired and having a lot of work to do tomorrow?
Why do I want to reduce weight and still eat way to much sweet stuff?
Why do I pledge to my staff to be more "straight talking" and still fall back to friendly political persuasions?

The book does not help me here.

It does, however, give a lot of very well researched information on human decision making. And this is no dry stuff. It is very well written and thoroughly entertaining! I have learnt a great deal about it, about behaviour, individual and team decisions. It is a very helpful book. In a sort of indirect way it may help me to better stick to my plan, by better understanding my behaviour and subconscious distractions.

Anyway: I very much recommend it. Good reading! Well researched, entertaining content.

One person found this helpful

Ian Mann

students were shown one of two movies – a beautiful National Geographic movie and Bodyguard

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2017

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In the movie, Defending Your Life (1991), the central character, Daniel Miller, asks his wife to role-play an upcoming salary negotiation with his boss. Daniel wants to be paid $65,000, and as his wife offers less, Daniel rehearses his position – “I cannot take the job for under $65,000!”
In the next scene, the negotiation, his boss offers of $49,000. Before his boss can finish his sentence, Daniel replies: “I’ll take it!”
How is it that we get side-tracked from what we want to do, from what we believe, and even from values we hold?
Psychologist Francesca Gina demonstrates through numerous experiments how subtle influences affect one’s decisions and behaviour. The context triggered Daniel’s anxiety and he accepts what he clearly he does not want.
As Gina demonstrates, there is a plethora of factors that influence one’s behaviour and decisions. If getting advice could improve the outcome of a decision, one will surely ask for the advice, and consider it. Not necessarily. I will depend of what occurred before one had to make the decision.
In an experiment, students were shown one of two movies – a beautiful National Geographic movie and Bodyguard, an emotionally disturbing movie about a bullied schoolboy. The students were then given a challenging task to perform for which they would be paid only for success. 74% of those who saw the Bodyguard rejected the offer of help against only 32% of those who saw the National Geographic movie.
Unconnected, prior emotions influence how we behave in subsequent unrelated situations. Did a driver cut you off on the road to work? Is that why you rejected a staff member’s request to attend a conference?
Ducati, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer is constantly trying to improve their bikes’ performance. They achieve this by having the bikes fitted with sophisticated telemetry and raced around testing tracts. The most expensive sensor on the bike is the rider who also feeds in his riding experience to the information mix. It was noticed that the rider’s input added no improvement at all to the bike’s functioning in too many cases. The rider’s input improved performance only when the researchers factored in the rider’s mood.
The evidence is clear: Our emotions impact our behaviour, thinking and decision even when the two are entirely unrelated. The value of this insight in practice is simply that knowledge creates awareness and so taking one’s emotional temperature before making critical decisions is strongly advised.
Many outstanding businesses were started by friends, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and this is to be expected. Social bonds are an immense asset when they are positive because they enhance one’s effectiveness. Working with conscientious people will heighten your conscientiousness and with enthusiastic people will heighten your enthusiasm.
How strong do bonds have to be to influence behaviour significantly?
Gino tested this in a controlled environment where students were asked to complete as much of a 12 part calculation task as they could in 5 minutes. The whole task could not be completed in that time. On completion they were asked to check their own answers and to take their own pay from an envelope of cash on their desks. They were then to place their answer sheet in the recycle bin. As far as they knew no one would be able to tell if they had cheated.
Based on previous tests the researchers had a fair idea of what percentage of people would cheat in these circumstances by exaggerating the number of answers they had completed correctly.
In one experiment an actor was hired to stand up after a few minutes and ask the researcher what he should do as he had finished. He was informed to count his correct answers and take the appropriate amount from his envelope. He did this then stood up and asked what he should do with the empty envelope, implying that he had finished in an impossible timeframe and had all correct. Clearly, he was cheating. He was told to put both in the recycle bin and leave.
Everyone in the room was aware of this event and as clearly aware he that was cheating and would not be caught. The effect of this incident on the other students’ honesty varied.
In the experiments where the actor wore a neutral coloured t-shirt, cheating amongst the other students increased by only 4%. When actor wore the university’s t-shirt cheating increased by 24%.
We are influenced by subtle cues from others. Is he someone I associate with? Is he one of us? If so, as evidenced by the t-shirt, we are influenced by his behaviour. If he can cheat, and he is one of us, then maybe I can, too.
Social influences need to be taken seriously; they too can sidetrack even the usually honest without one even being aware.
The book is a fascinating collection of insights into behavioural psychology that covers a wide array of issues all of which are part of our everyday experience. You will be fascinated and enriched by reading this book.

Readability Light --+-- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High -+--- Low

Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy

5 people found this helpful

Steven Peterson

Well written but a bit of deja vu all over again

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2013

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This is one of a series of books that explore the peculiarities of human decision making. It is well written and introduces readers to a fascinating literature--including research carried out by the author of this book. At this level, a successful volume.

But there are many other works covering the same territory, and this has a somewhat "deja vu" quality to it. Authors such as Ariely and Klein have written works in this same territory. Daniel Kahneman has authored a recent work, based on a vast literature that he and colleague Amos Tversky sparked.

The focus of this work?Gino begins by noting that (Page 2) "We have a rose-colored view of who we are and what we do, and we aim to behave in ways that are consistent with out self-image as capable, competent, helpful, and honest individuals." However, as she notes (Page 2), ". . .our decisions often veer off course in unexpected ways."

Among reasons for these forces affecting our decision making in unexpected ways are three factors: (1) factors within ourselves, (2) issues related to our interactions with others, and (3) elements from the outside world. On the first, for example, we tend to be much more confident in our understanding of issues and explanations than we should be.

Overall, a nicely written book, using research results nicely. But there is a bit of been there done that when compared with a variety of other works on the subject.

3 people found this helpful

Luis Sabogal

WHY or decisions get sidetracked.

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2017

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The book Sidetracked is subtitled: Why our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan however I believe that it doesn’t really get into “how” we can stick to the plan but instead just gives tips on things to think about when you’re making decisions. It is largely left to the reader how to implement the results of the many studies found in the book. The “why” is really where I found the book shines. The book begins with inner forces that cause us to make short sighted decisions. It shows us that sunk costs can lead us to put unnecessary weight on one choice over another or that the belief that we are wearing off-brand sunglasses can lead us to feel inauthentic and often be dishonest when we think no one is looking. The main point of this section is to show us why we sometimes relax our own standards due to external forces, especially ones that should have no bearing on our decisions.
The section I really enjoyed and learned a lot from was the second section that was about forces from our relationships. I learned from the drawing an E on your forehead experiment that I focus more on myself that I do on others. I also really enjoyed learning about the curse of knowledge. I now understand that there is a cognitive bias that happens where people have so much knowledge on a subject they can’t understand how people can struggle with the information because they are experts at it. Additionally, I found it very eye opening how there is an “us” vs “them” mentality that not only changes your perception of things but actually changes your behavior. Gino really does a great job at going in depth of explaining how groups of people can have a bias towards other people and their relationships. I feel like she gave us so many examples that it is hard to deny that we have huge biases for certain social situations.
The final portion of the book focuses on forces from the outside. In this section, it outlines how external information can affect how we analyze data as well as how it affects the decisions that we make. One of the more interesting things discussed was considering the sources of information. An example used was a retail store that changed their guidelines on how employees would achieve their sales bonuses. Once the new policy was enacted productivity increased dramatically. However, upon further inspection it was found out that the week before the deadlines employees would purchase products and then return them after bonuses were paid out. This shows that while initial information might be good, further research needs to be done to verify information is correct. Another area these chapters looked at was the effect of “darkness” and human honesty. It showed examples of how individuals who felt that their actions were unknown would be more likely to commit unethical decisions. These examples were interesting because while people generally think of themselves as good, they can easily convince themselves their otherwise immoral actions were acceptable under different circumstances. These external forces discussed in the book showed that the actions we take can easily be influenced by outside sources.
Overall, I feel like this book makes you aware of the distractions in your life in an easy and understandable way. It is split up into three parts that all apply to my life. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to find out what is holding them back from being their best selves.

4 people found this helpful

Taejun Kim

4 stars, not 5 stars book.

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2019

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Written from a psychological perspective and background, Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan helps provide essential information on how individuals and businesses can understand human interaction and its direct effects on how to stay focused in on the plan.
Francesca Gino organizes the book into three sections, making it easier to use the book to refer back to - similar to how you would use a reference book. You do not necessarily need to read the book in its entirety to benefit from the lessons (although at least one full read through is highly recommended). If you like anecdotal styles of writing, you will enjoy this book as it is filled with examples, experiments, and stories. The examples used in the experiments and stories were relevant and easily understood. I think it helps the reader to make a personal connection with the examples. The author expertly chose this method to illustrate the nine principles for decision making. In fact, I have already used some of the examples and principles from the book in my life at work. In Chapter 7, the author spoke of different biases and to consider the source, which I brought up during a feedback session for recent interviews for a new position we are hiring for.
Furthermore, Gino sheds light on the subtle factors that affect our decisions and that can lead to derailment. The subtle factors consist of emotional and psychological forces that can lead our decisions astray. Gino not only identified the forces that can derail our decisions but also provided solutions and preventative measures to the examples presented. By applying the nine principles and the solutions taught, you will be fully equipped to combat the forces that can derail our decisions and allow you, and your team, to stick to the plan.
While this book does provide various information that we can adapt in our daily life and business, there are no special ingredients in the book. All the concepts and ideas taught are similar to other concepts found in different reads. So, if you’re looking for a “fresh” read with brand new concepts for enlightenment, this book may not be the best for you.
In conclusion, Sidetracked is a great resource for every business and at any level. With a clear, relatable, and professional voice, Gino does an excellent job of using the scientific method blended with a personable writing style to teach concepts that help the reader. While most of the ideas presented aren’t necessarily “new” finds, they are still helpful and can bring good things to your life if applied.

Sam Dowd

Interesting and applicable concepts

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2014

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Prof. Gino does a great job of presenting A LOT of research to make her point. Sometimes however she moves away from her point and seems to just add fluff to get a few more pages in. That said, there is a good amount of humor sprinkled in. Also, there is a great balance of research and personal experience. I definitely found myself questioning the significance of some of the research as it was often generalized to a population even though there was a small sample size. All in all a great book with great advice. Just be careful to take what Gino says as gospel. Critical thinking is critical here.

Hardy Bowen

Good read with that in mind

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

That is the question...why do our decisions (that at times seem to take an insurmountable amount of time to make) seem to go off course? This book is informative and delves into not only the research methods utilized in the studies, but the emotional aspect that frequently impedes decisions. Although this book does pertain to any realm of decision making processes, including personal decisions, it is geared more toward the business professional. That would be the expectation from a Harvard Business Review Press publisher. Good read with that in mind.

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5 star		37%
4 star		25%
3 star		20%
2 star		12%
1 star		6%

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