Today I am joined by Ben Cattaneo, founder of The Decision-Making Studio, to explore the fascinating world of decision-making under uncertainty. Ben shares a compelling first story about an organization entering the Chinese market, drawn by opportunity but ultimately facing challenges they didn’t foresee. It’s a classic case of a simple narrative—“they didn’t understand the market”—but as we unpack the second story, we explore the deeper factors at play: local rationality, fear of missing out, internal pressures, and incentive structures that drive decisions in complex systems.

Find Ben Here:

Website: The Decision-Making Studio

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-cattaneo/

My "FOCUS" decision-making framework: https://thedecisionmaking.studio/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FOCUS.pdf

Recommended Resources:

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke

Gary Klein's Works on Intuition and Decision-Making

Find Gareth here:

Human in the System

Transforming teams. Unlocking human potential.

Using principles from Human Factors (HF), High-Reliability Organisations (HRO), and Human and Organisational Performance (HOP), we develop and deliver highly immersive and impactful programmes using the High-Velocity Learning LAB (HVLL) concept. We give you the know-how, the tools and the support to make results stick and empower your people to achieve the extraordinary. We help you answer the question "How do we uncover those hidden stories in our organisation?"

Ep.8 - Ben Cattaneo. Why go into that market when it was obvious it would fail?