Introscript


 * Harvard Introduction Session**
 * Date** September 18
 * Time** 120 min
 * Tool** blackboard pushing a prezi presentation

Good evening for some of you, good morning even, for some of you and for me hello midnight. But I am still very glad to have the chance to meet you and work with you for some 120 minutes online. Many thanks goes here as well to my dear colleague and friend Professor Mark Esposito who kindly gave me his trust to be an invited speaker in his class.
 * CONTENT**

Since we will be collaborating on some project work as well, I would hope it makes sense to spend some time introducing myself and explaining you my own motivation about this course topic and my contribution to it.

During the last years we used to believe that there is no __more__ creative setup than a group meeting, and we called it brainstorming. We expected out of the box thinking right away and new solutions to old problems almost instantly.
 * But before doing it some storytelling**

But now, be honest to yourself; how many times have you been in such a meeting and shut your mouth. Even, when of a sudden you had this absolute genius idea or critical question on the tip of your tongue.

Or even worse, all your colleagues agree on an idea, suggested by one of the seniors It seems that only you have this feeling of something being wrong, worse even you may not be able to tell to the group why you disagree It just feels wrong All the others seem to be unanimous and all are far from stupid So you keep your mouth better shut.

When everyone thinks and acts like this, **groupthink** is at work. This is where a group of smart people sometimes make reckless decisions because everyone aligns their opinion with the supposed consensus.

There is a famous business case from Switzerland where groupthink was involved. You may have heard about the collapse of Switzerland’s airline **Swissair.**

//Watch the whole documentary with english subtitles on the Swissair grounding from here//

Swissair was understood to be financially 100% stable, actually so much, that people referred to it as the “Flying Bank.” Poor decision-making processes eventually led to its collapse. Highly paid consultants rallied around the former CEO and, bolstered by the euphoria of past successes, developed a high-risk expansion strategy. The management team build up such a strong consensus, that even rational reservations were supressed, leading to the airline’s collapse in 2001.

Until the last second there was this understanding that the group is invulnerable.

It is actually quite easy to ‚prevent‘ this mistake, all you and your group must apply those 2 points:
 * If ever you find yourself in a tight, unanimous group, you must always speak your mind, even if you team does not like it.
 * Question assumptions even if you risk expulsion from the warm nest

I guess the moment I say this you all already know that __it sure won’t work like this__
 * Nobody** wants to expose yourself and as easy it might be to see a bad decision looking back, it is not at all easy to see it clearly at the moment when it is taken


 * Therefore what can be done?**
 * First yes we must be aware of it, we must expect it to happen at the next decision taking process, the next meeting
 * And then we must find ways to avoid it or at least to soften down the danger of it
 * Appoint an external devils avocat or the spoiler
 * Introduce an anonymous voting
 * Split the whole group in several groups and let them discuss a solution
 * Or a more difficult and radical one, exclude the decision makers and leaders to express their ideas at all

And do all the above using some of the **great management tools** which exist since long and will be accepted by your boss and the group Such as (in this case) Ansoff Matrix



Or the 6-3-5 Brainwriting



Or even good old SixThinking Hats will help to soften the danger of Groupthink



Staring the Prezi at []


 * 1**

My name is Lukas Ritzel, originally I am from Basel, Switzerland but lived and worked in many places, 10 years alone in Bangkok, Thailand

When asked about my most recent highpoints of my life I would suggest the following:
 * The greatest adventure and challenge of all is certainly my daughter Kira which is currently 5 years of age, therefore she is a digital native and will never undestand how was life without online training, wikipedia and no smartphone.
 * In 2010 I was invited to talk at a TEDx event, I may never make it to Long Beach, California but having been at any TED event was certainly one of my dreams come true. If you will ever make it as a TED speaker, please don't miss to invite me with you.
 * Being invited to visit the headquarters of Google Switzerland was another one
 * And most recently I received the famous minutes of fame which Andy Warhol talked about when becoming part of a Hollywood movie (FIFA2014) at the side of French actor Gerard Depardieu and Hollywood shooting star Jemima West who currently is in the big theatres with 'City of Bones'. But I must add on I am in a non-speaking role and probably in the picture for some seconds only and this may as well not be the start of a movie career.

My professional pathway cruises between consulting and academics where I have been crossing paths with your professor Mark Esposito many times. I do have my own consulting firm in Bangkok (Prasena), I lecture at various universities like Grenoble Graduate School of Business and now finally I made it as well to Harvard and have the honor to spend some time with you. But I hope that our paths will cross many more times and therefore will be happy to connect with you through LinkedIn (some students already did)

Currently I am as well part-time involved with WiB Solutions a Swiss consulting company which is working with its high profile Swiss clients on topics like Identity & Access Management solutions, Business Process Management and Quality Management. I collaborate with them since many years and the apps we will talk about today results from a project in collaboration with WiB Solutions.
 * 2**

On a more personal note, what to day about me
 * 3**
 * Through ICT moving more and more into Internet related technologies
 * Finally I am able to share my passion for gadgets with somebody (no, not my wife, but my 5j old daughter Kira)
 * I am too old to be a digital native but certainly an active digital immigrant
 * And I am a Wikipedia expert on topics like LOTR (the books, all 20 of them), Metallica and the world of Marvel superheroes

The best way to know more about me, is to Google my name,
 * 4**

Coming originally from Information technologies over the last years I moved more and more away from networks and routers to Web and eMarketing related topics triggered through the new channels enabled by the Internet And just recently, I moved more and more into the fascinating world of **Neuro-marketing**
 * 5 **

Without getting too much into the details, what the experts of the human brain tell you is very convincing and it goes like this:
 * 6**


 * if you can get to the __reptile part__ of the customers brain you don’t need any more strategies and theories

There are 2 movies on your Prezi which you may want to watch by your own, if interested about this topic and of course there are as well many great books out there (Patrick Renvoise [] as well as HG Häusel []) This was as well for me a new world of marketing and certainly it was there, when I started to think more about this app which we will talk about later.

As much as some stimulations can provoke a strong reaction in our brains reaching out to the reptile within us all, __other parts__ of our brains are responsible for many mis-judgements and bad decision making in our everyday's life.
 * 7**

Those are mainly caused by logical thinking mistakes which we may have heard about, read about and experienced almost during every decision making process like meetings **BUT** still fail to really overcome or even better, to totally erase from our next meeting.

__Out there__ are those logic fallacies, effects and biases, which make it so very difficult to make right undistorted decisions and lead to strange stories where cats over-perform financial experts in stock picking challenges
 * 8**

They have strange names like ‘the Red Herring’ which refers to a type of logical fallacy in which a clue is intentionally or unintentionally misleading or distracting from the actual issue .. or // The US pro Gun lobby likes to bring up Switzerland as a good sample where similar laws do work, forgetting that we talk two very different countries in many aspects // // We will watch a movie later from a political debate which will demonstrate this fallacy well //
 * 9**

The Nirvana Fallacy which hits in when people dismiss something in the real world because they compare it to an unrealistic, flawless alternative, by which it pales in comparison. If people would comply to this logic, nothing ever would be done. … or strange named ones like // Sample: Think about all those companies who wait for the perfect moment to apply change… // The Hedonic Tredmill which simply means that People pursue pleasurable things because they believe it will make them happy but it won’t last long // Look at Maslows hierarchy of needs and make it part of your own and the companies mission //
 * 10**
 * 11**

And even my favorite 70 Rockband Pink Floyd has its own logical mistake which goes like this: The ability to free yourself enough, to be able to experience the reality of life as it goes on, before you, and with you, and as you go on as a part of it or not? .. // as you may have expected this to be more on a psychedelic level //
 * 12**

There are whole books written about fallacies, bias, effects like the famous one on Black Swans by Nassim Taleb The “black swans” are unexpected events and the problems with statistical models, such as the normal distribution, that don’t allow for these rarities. It’s name is taken from the fact that nobody in Europe ever thought about Swans being black .. __until__ somebody went to Australia Think about the iPhone as a black swan (nobody ever thought that apple would revolutionize the mobile phone market), and think as well Apps, nobody, even some 24 months back, would have believed that apps will become GenY’s most favorite channel to access the Web.
 * 13**

Or more recently in Switzerland in the case of the journalist Rolf Dobelli, whose two books (the art of thinking clearly and the art of acting clearly )still are on the top book selling list.
 * 14**

Here an extract from Dobelli’s book on an effect called the ‘Swimmers Body Illusion” which Dobelli explains on a sample related to Harvard which I want to share with you: “Does Harvard makes you smarter”
 * 15**

"Harvard certainly has the reputation of being a top university. Many highly successful people have studied there. Does this mean that Harvard is a good school? We don’t know. Perhaps the school is terrible, and it simply recruits the brightest students around.. "

Dobelli has not graduated from Harvard but from St. Gallen which has a pretty good reputation too and from this particular school, he was not so impressed. But nevertheless, many of its graduates were indeed successful.. again Dobelli thinks, this is not because of specifically good professors, nor the swiss climate, nor the cafeteria food but rather due to the tough pre-selection before being accepted to study there.

Therefore the question is certainly relevant: why not creating an app
 * 16 **

There are many books to read out there, some of them very good and relevant
 * 17**

There are complete listings out there for example Wikipedia lists over 300 fallacies alone
 * 18**

And of course there are even already apps out there
 * 19**

Therefore again the question, why did we create another one?
 * 20**

To answer this have a look at two massive trends which currently rock the internet See if you can guess it yourself looking at two representing pictures of the first massive Trend // Mobile Zombies //
 * 21**
 * Trend 1**

or as well this one which needs no words Before and After
 * 22**

Today's generation Y are all mobile, are always connected and most of young managers don’t even own a deskop anymore, some not even a notebook but only a smart device like a phone or a pad
 * 23**

We are at a very interesting time right now


 * Mobile Internet traffic surpasses desktop access
 * Apps become the dominant channel to access the Web

Leading to
 * 24**

The phenomenon of people carrying their personal devices such as smartphones and tablets into work, travel or vacation is called __consumerisation__. Personal Technology is finally living up it's name and consumers become increasingly reliant on consumer technology for both work and non-work purposes. Before the Web was @office and @home, now it’s everywhere, anytime

The effect on GenY which is enabled to google anything at anytime at anyplace leads to another phenomena
 * 25**
 * Trend 2**
 * Are you aware of the Google Effect? **

Visionaries like Kjell Anders Nordström (referring to K Nordstroem on decision making of the future ) []) Believe to see clear indications of new Generations to make clear distinctions on what they decide to remember and what rather not. This is called the Google effect and is the tendency to forget information that can be easily found using internet search engines such as Google.
 * 26**

Therefore when those new generations are confronted with new information their brains will filter all out which they believe could be later googled again just when needed. No need to plan ahead anymore, no need to remember, just Google it. (This then leads to another effect which is called the Internet Bubble which will again be potential thinking trap for this new google-ing generations depending only on the Internet, more about this effect is inside the app :-))
 * 27**

Considering those mega trends as well as the simple fact, that we forget, what we read pretty fast even if our brains do not yet adopt the Google effect
 * 28**

Therefore for my colleagues from WiB and myself an app made as a tool to be used from where-ever and just when needed, seemed the most appropriate solution
 * 29 – 30 fast**

The iPhone app was launched August 1, Swiss national day and it's icon is the iconic Swiss Pocketknife which is a daily tool to make ones life a bit easier. Currently we have only a English version out, but are working on a German one The media attention was great, we received over 70 news coverage’s all over the world
 * 31**

From India
 * 32**

To Switzerland of course
 * 33**

Japan
 * 34**

The US of course where we just recently were interviewed for the launch of a brand new NEWS portal Cruxial CIO [] // The editor in chief Tom Steinert-Threlkeld wrote: // // Don't get sucked into mangement thinking mistakes, simply refer the latest app that gives you solutions and suggestions to optimize your contribution to the company. //
 * 35**

We supported it of course a lot with inbound marketing such as native advertising, social media spread and content marketing // What is NA: Native advertising is a web advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the user's experience. Native ad formats match both the form and the function of the user experience in which it is placed //
 * 36**

And we even got a mentioning on the landing page of the Apple Magazine
 * 37**

// Note, the **38** is the YouTube movie showing you how the app works //

Let’s see how it should be used The way we see as best:
 * 39**
 * Start app – Search –**


 * 40**
 * Usage –**


 * 41**
 * Select objective** – See the suggested logical mistakes (list) – scroll through them and get aware, check on solutions and tools which may help to prevent those mistakes and build the one or other into the meeting planning.

Let us see here a bit more on one sample: Red Herring To repeat since we mentioned it already earlier in this presentation it refers to a logical fallacy in which a clue is intentionally or unintentionally misleading or distracting from the actual issue
 * 42**

ATTENTION VDO message (the separate movie link in YouTube itself would be @http://youtu.be/D6VmYOFGpbM
 * 43**

This was from a recent Q&A session during the presidential debate Obama Romney The lady was asking about the gun law in the US and the two candidates talk about education and family issues. Certainly as well important, certainly worth to be discussed but far off the initial question asked.
 * 44**

Is there a possibility to totally avoid them? __Avoiding **no**__ – soften down and nurture awareness – **yes** First, we should be aware of it and the talkmaster could have intervened immediately (not so easy having presidential candidates in front of you – __agreed__) But how could you prepare for a business meeting to avoid such a situation to happen? It certainly would already help, having prepared a structured meeting note template, where the points are listed down and left with empty boxes for the answers.

Further there are some great management tools out there which could help

Like the Refraiming Matrix which helps to look at the same issue from different viewpoints. If you cannot nail down the presidents on one question, ask the same question again but using a different perspective
 * 45**

On a product level it could then look something like this
 * 46**

All those tools will help to ensure that we keep on the route once taken and make it easier for all participants to get to the point in their own way, supported and guided through templates and questioning techniques.
 * 47**

Summing up on the **WiB SOLUTION** We created a tool which can be used before the next decision making process (team or alone) by selecting a situation ( currently there are: burning, update, informational, deciding, informal, planning, motivate, brainstorming, tactics, research, problem solving, review, knowledge, skill and teambuilding). T he app will then match possible thinking mistakes and suggest the tools which may be applied to soften them down
 * 48**

Simple tricks to change the setup and therefore support the possibility not to be trapped that easy Like why should we bring Hello Kitty to the next Swiss Bank meeting (referring to the interview with International Business Times from Sept 12)
 * IN REALITY**

Try to see on the sample of the black swan how this could look like What usage and which tools to avoid
 * LIFE DISCUSSION**

Is there a difference between those thinking mistakes, dilemmas, bias, effects, illusions and fallacies or is it all the same How much of it is culturally influenced (are those dilemmas the same all over the world?)
 * QUESTIONS 2 ASK**

Research other such dilemmas and cover following aspects and present it to the class : name, alternative names, category (fallacy, bias, effect …), the dilemma short descript, a cartoon or visual, samples out of real business, a more detailed explanation and discussion – touching psychological and cultural issues, the origin of this dilemma, online references with links, which management tools could help to prevent this dilemma, their team tip what can be done to avoid this dilemma based on their experience and discussions
 * PROJECT**