0:00:00.560,0:00:03.056 Over the[br]years when you sit when teaching decision 0:00:03.056,0:00:06.825 making processes to students[br]and executives at MIT and elsewhere, 0:00:07.200,0:00:11.604 I often set up group exercises[br]that let students practice 0:00:11.880,0:00:16.257 this sort of debate[br]and constructive conflict in teams, 0:00:16.640,0:00:19.779 and it gives them firsthand experience[br]on how 0:00:19.840,0:00:23.202 these processes reliably 0:00:23.202,0:00:26.256 deliver higher quality decisions 0:00:26.480,0:00:30.066 than decisions that didn't have[br]this kind of design process. 0:00:30.160,0:00:31.925 And so that's what I've talked about here. 0:00:31.925,0:00:35.640 I also, in what I teach[br]students and executives 0:00:35.640,0:00:37.645 as well, will oftentimes watch 0:00:39.480,0:00:42.944 clips of a movie,[br]the motion picture called 13 Days, 0:00:43.120,0:00:46.630 which depicted the decision making process[br]that President 0:00:46.630,0:00:50.389 Kennedy used during what was what's now[br]called the Cuban Missile Crisis. 0:00:50.680,0:00:53.575 This is probably[br]one of the most consequential decisions 0:00:53.920,0:00:56.620 that any president[br]has ever made in history, 0:00:56.620,0:01:00.734 because this is the closest time[br]that the U.S. 0:01:00.734,0:01:04.795 and Russia came[br]to launching nuclear warheads on one 0:01:04.795,0:01:08.908 another, essentially starting World[br]War three, which would have undoubtedly 0:01:08.908,0:01:12.611 killed millions of people[br]probably pretty quickly as well. 0:01:13.640,0:01:14.714 Historians have also 0:01:14.714,0:01:18.685 watched the movie and given it their[br]blessing that the way the dynamics 0:01:18.685,0:01:22.127 are played out in[br]the movie are mostly correct and accurate. 0:01:22.127,0:01:24.062 So this is one of the reasons[br]that I recommend it 0:01:24.062,0:01:26.520 and I recommend it to you as well. 0:01:26.520,0:01:29.621 Here are some of my own highlights[br]that play out in the movie. 0:01:29.621,0:01:34.397 And as you'll see,[br]many of these are kind of core activities 0:01:34.397,0:01:38.659 that Kennedy used in making this decision[br]align with the four principles 0:01:38.659,0:01:40.412 that I'm suggesting in our program. 0:01:40.412,0:01:43.968 Number one,[br]he was very clear about his goal, 0:01:44.280,0:01:47.299 and his goal was to avoid nuclear war. 0:01:47.760,0:01:53.616 Now, this is different than what tradition[br]would have had suggested for a U.S. 0:01:53.616,0:01:55.316 president. And tradition would say. 0:01:55.670,0:01:59.546 The challenge[br]or the goal is to overcome 0:01:59.546,0:02:02.668 your adversary,[br]to beat your adversary or to win. 0:02:03.080,0:02:05.543 That's what traditional policy[br]would have recommended. 0:02:05.543,0:02:07.298 But he didn't take that route. 0:02:07.560,0:02:11.351 The route that he took is[br]he wants to avoid nuclear war. 0:02:13.320,0:02:15.711 And as as you see in the movie,[br]he had a lot of pressures 0:02:16.080,0:02:19.680 to make to follow sort[br]of a more traditional decision process 0:02:19.920,0:02:21.302 as commander in chief. 0:02:21.302,0:02:25.526 So this is my first principle[br]is to be very clear about the problem 0:02:25.920,0:02:27.322 or the decision 0:02:27.322,0:02:30.923 or the goal that you're trying to achieve[br]with this decision process. 0:02:31.480,0:02:33.943 The second is that you'll see 0:02:34.280,0:02:36.923 that he actually owned[br]the decision process 0:02:37.360,0:02:40.028 from the very beginning[br]as commander in chief. 0:02:40.320,0:02:43.445 Now, he sought out[br]lots of different perspectives 0:02:43.720,0:02:48.253 that he knew and his advisers knew were[br]important to the decision making process. 0:02:48.600,0:02:52.019 And as you'll see,[br]he sought perspective from people 0:02:52.019,0:02:55.625 who disliked him and even distrusted him. 0:02:56.000,0:02:59.240 But he knew those people had valuable[br]expertise 0:02:59.240,0:03:02.658 that could inform[br]his understanding of the problem. 0:03:03.160,0:03:07.634 This was my second recommendation[br]in designing a decision process 0:03:07.920,0:03:12.824 is to seek out multiple perspectives[br]to understand the problem that you face. 0:03:13.440,0:03:17.434 The third thing I want to point out[br]is he utilized teams of advisors, 0:03:17.434,0:03:21.469 several sets of advisers[br]to come up with creative solutions 0:03:21.760,0:03:25.527 and multiple solutions[br]to this problem that he was facing. 0:03:27.000,0:03:27.960 Those alternative 0:03:27.960,0:03:31.783 solutions that he faced actually led to[br]some of the decisions 0:03:31.783,0:03:36.052 that he actually made, the solutions[br]that he actually put in place. 0:03:36.480,0:03:40.929 And these solutions creatively[br]did avoid these 0:03:40.929,0:03:44.335 two countries[br]going to nuclear war with one another. 0:03:44.760,0:03:49.139 So this was my third suggested[br]principle, is to when you're 0:03:49.320,0:03:54.275 trying to arrive at decisions,[br]especially on high stakes decision, 0:03:54.360,0:03:58.664 generate multiple alternatives[br]or multiple solutions to consider. 0:03:59.240,0:04:01.242 And then finally,[br]the fourth thing I want to point out 0:04:01.600,0:04:04.335 is that President[br]Kennedy made the tough call. 0:04:05.400,0:04:09.270 And everybody sort of got behind him[br]when he made those tough calls. 0:04:09.270,0:04:10.830 And this is my fourth 0:04:10.830,0:04:14.372 principle, is that, you know,[br]when you make tough calls, 0:04:14.372,0:04:15.730 make sure that now you're 0:04:15.730,0:04:20.600 moving from decision making to decision[br]implementation or decision execution. 0:04:20.600,0:04:23.354 So at the end,[br]I think that the movie provides 0:04:23.640,0:04:26.581 an excellent illustration[br]of some of the design principles 0:04:26.581,0:04:29.830 for decision processes[br]that I'm recommending in this program. 0:04:30.560,0:04:34.382 More importantly, what I think the Cuban[br]Missile Crisis shows is that if you have 0:04:34.382,0:04:39.652 a high quality decision process, you're[br]going to produce higher quality decisions. 0:04:40.520,0:04:42.941 So that's the big point of sort of 0:04:43.080,0:04:46.283 when you think of[br]of architecting a decision process, 0:04:46.480,0:04:50.944 you can architect a high quality process[br]and you'll have higher quality decisions. 0:04:51.360,0:04:55.240 Research done by Ohio State[br]Professor Paul Nutt suggests 0:04:55.240,0:04:58.105 that about 50% managers decisions 0:04:58.400,0:05:01.226 fail to achieve their intended outcomes. 0:05:01.440,0:05:04.030 So in general,[br]I think you could rightly say that 0:05:04.360,0:05:08.120 status quo decision processes[br]in organizations earn about an F. 0:05:09.000,0:05:10.738 In terms of a grading scale. 0:05:11.000,0:05:14.428 And he one of the big insights[br]that that came 0:05:14.480,0:05:18.766 from his research of actual decisions[br]and the consequences of those decisions 0:05:19.120,0:05:23.871 is that managers used poor decision[br]processes in making those decisions. 0:05:24.160,0:05:27.204 As transformational leaders, I think[br]you want to take some of the principles 0:05:27.480,0:05:29.888 and some of the processes[br]that we're describing here 0:05:30.960,0:05:33.785 to help you make better decisions[br]as you're 0:05:33.920,0:05:37.392 looking at your organization[br]holistically in terms of change 0:05:37.760,0:05:40.840 and innovation[br]by having a better decision process. 0:05:40.840,0:05:44.538 We hope that you'll have better outcomes[br]and better consequences 0:05:44.800,0:05:46.631 in those decisions that you make. 0:05:46.760,0:05:49.478 Remember that the best decisions can or 0:05:49.520,0:05:53.020 can become an outcome[br]of the best quality processes. 0:05:53.440,0:05:57.167 And now we're going to turn our attention[br]to sort of continue this logic of design 0:05:57.280,0:06:01.832 thinking, but applying it specifically[br]to ways approaches to innovation. 0:06:02.120,0:06:04.933 And we're going to apply it[br]to how to design high performing teams.