The Decision-Making Studio Podcast

This is Part 2 of 2 of our conversation with Sarah Davis, the first woman to have paddled the Nile from its source in Rwanda to the sea off the coast of Egypt, a 6,500+ km journey that took six months. If you have not done so, we encourage you to listen to Part 1 first, which you can find here or wherever you get your podcasts. In Part 2, Sarah covers the second half of her journey which includes traveling through Sudan and Egypt. She also shares a number of wonderful lessons that are applicable to any ambitious endeavour. Show notes: Paddle the Nile Sarah’s website Sarah on LinkedIn Danielle Laporte – what will you do to feel the way you want to feel? Annie Duke on decision-making Viktor Frankl Sir Ranulph Fiennes - Explorer Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

We have a fabulous conversation here in two parts – this is Part One. Our guest is Sarah Davis, the first woman to have paddled the Nile from its source in Rwanda to the sea off the coast of Egypt, a 6,500+ km journey that took six months. During this time, Sarah dealt with angry hippos, the threat of kidnap, white water rapids, and parasites, and she and her team even got arrested at one point. Who is Sarah? She is a British-born Australian with a love of travel, sport, and adventure. You might think that – in order to pull of this Nile expedition – Sarah started adventuring from a very young age. That isn’t exactly true and this is one of the reasons why this adventure is so interesting. Sarah spent most of her adult life in risk and project management in the banking sector. She decided that she wanted more fulfillment and purpose in her life which is partly how the Nile expedition came about. In so doing, she shares a number of valuable lessons that you will hear about – from the importance of purpose to planning, crisis management, to decision-making. This is an absolutely wonderful conversation. Part One covers the origins of the expedition, planning and the first half of the journey. Part Two covers the second half and a number of lessons Sarah shares. Show notes: Paddle the Nile Sarah’s website Sarah on LinkedIn Danielle Laporte – what will you do to feel the way you want to feel? Annie Duke on decision-making Viktor Frankl Sir Ranulph Fiennes - Explorer Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Today’s conversation is with someone you may have come across via a term she coined. That term is ‘gray rhino’ and that person is Michele Wucker. Michele is a strategic advisor and a best-selling author. The term ‘gray rhino’ is one she came up with to take a fresh look at how we respond to the obvious, probable and most impactful risks we face. Her book, THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore became a bestseller. Michele has written a sequel entitled YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World. This is a book whose theme is right at the heart of many of the things we love to talk about on this show. It’s about how we as individuals can better navigate uncertainty by better understanding how our experiences and perceptions shape the way we view it. We get into that in the conversation, including terms such as ‘risk empathy’ and ‘risk fingerprint’, and so much more. Show notes: Michele’s company, Gray Rhino and Company THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World. Michele on LinkedIn Ipos’ Perils of Perception studies Lloyd’s Register World risk poll The Risk Type Compass Mark Pollock and Simone George’s TED talk – “A love letter to realism in a time of grief” Termination Shock by Neil Stephenson Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

This episode is about something with which our society has a very unhealthy relationship: quitting. The advice of the legendarily successful is often boiled down to this: stick to things, don’t quit. But that advice is very wrong. Annie Duke makes her third appearance on the podcast to tell us that quitting is far from a vice. Contrary to popular belief, winners quit a lot. That’s how they win. If you are unfamiliar with Annie, she is a best-selling author, decision scientist, and a former professional poker champion. Her latest book is called Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. In it, she draws on a wealth of findings in behavioural science, real-life examples, and thoughtful analysis to make the case for quitting. She joins to talk about that, why quitting is such an important skill, and how to get better at it. Show notes: Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away Annie’s website How to Decide Thinking in Bets Michael Mauboussin Daniel Kahneman Amos Tversky Richard Thaler Pete Carroll Expected Value Loss Aversion Status Quo bias Survivorship bias Escalation of commitment John List’s piece on quitting Ep 157 of All Things Risk with Annie Ep 90 of All Things Risk with Annie _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

I am delighted to welcome Alison Taylor back to the show. Alison works on challenges at the intersection of corporate integrity, risk, and responsibility. She is the Executive Director at Ethical Systems, a collaboration between leading academics working on behavioural science, organisational psychology, and systems thinking. She is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. She has advised companies for many years on integrity, anti-corruption, sustainability, and political risk. On top of that, and for the purposes of this conversation Alison is one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices for 2022. And this is where we get into the topic of focus for this episode. Alison is one of the world’s top voices when discussing the myths and misconceptions of ESG. ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance. It is ostensibly about how investors reward or punish companies for their performance in these areas (and in so doing help make the world a better place). However, as you will hear from Alison, it really isn’t that. And, the fact that it really isn’t is a problem for companies, stakeholders, and indeed, the planet. Alison explains what ESG is, better ways to address some of these challenges, transparency and its limits, and much more. Show notes: Alison on LinkedIn Ethical Systems Alison on Twitter Jonathan Haidt Alison on ESG Larry Fink’s 2022 letter to CEOs Alison on Patagonia Stuart Kirk’s infamous ESG presentation That Milton Friedman piece on the social responsibility of business The Balkanisation of the internet _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Today’s conversation is all about things going badly wrong. We cover this by talking about situations that feature in the plots of action movies. My guest is Mark Harris. Mark is a crisis management and crisis communications expert with decades of experience working at the forefront of these areas. Mark has worked on over 150 incidents of kidnapping, extortion, and hostage-taking around the world. He has also dealt with 19 cases of vessel hijacking, the majority of which were undertaken by Somali pirates. Prior to that, mark served for 14 years in the British Army. And as you will hear, saw service in Germany at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Cyprus as part of the UN Peacekeeping contingent, and as a Military Observer in Cambodia when he and his team were taken hostage by the Khmer Rouge. Mark knows of what he speaks and his experience helping organisations and individuals deal with these types of acute crises offers a number of lessons that are applicable to a range of contexts. We talk about all of that including the dynamics of kidnapping, crisis preparedness, management and communication, and much more. Show notes: Mark on LinkedIn CrisisFit Mark’s blog post “Agile Leadership in a VUCA World” Proof of Life The Weaponisation of Everything by Mark Galeotti Sheena Thomson Consulting _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

This episode is all about our ‘built environment’. In other words, infrastructure – our roads, bridges, water system, and digital infrastructure. After listening to this one, it’s more than likely that you will never think about this topic in the same way again. Think about when our roads and bridges were built. Who was in the room (often decades ago) making the decisions? What did they know? How do these decisions impact us today? What does that mean for current infrastructure decisions? A lot. Infrastructure can be viewed as 'institutional relics". Meet today’s guest, Daniel Armanios. Daniel is the BT Professor of Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford’s Säid Business School. His research and teaching integrates civil engineering with organisational sociology to better understand how organisations can coordinate to build, manage, and maintain infrastructure systems. Daniel is a super interesting guy – a Rhodes Scholar with a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, he is an interdisciplinary expert yet a practical thinker. He has amazing insights and this leads to a fascinating conversation.   We cover things like: How infrastructure decisions that are ‘rational’ can sometimes create unequal outcomes; Why it’s important for those designing and building infrastructure to think about who they might be excluded – and how to do that; Infrastructure as an 'institutional relic'; Political turmoil; Risk and uncertainty in infrastructure; Risk-taking as an academic Show notes: Daniel Armanios Daniel on LinkedIn Daniel’s inaugural lecture at the University of Oxford Daniel’s research on bridges Flint Michigan water crisis Jackson Mississippi water crisis Cancer Alley Grenfell Tower Fire Pittsburgh Fern Hollow Bridge and its collapse Social sensing Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt Gerd Gigerenzer on heuristics Kathleen Eisenhardt on simple rules Agile methodology Boeing 737 max case _ _ _ _ _ _ _   Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Nathan and Susannah Furr are the co-authors of a phenomenal book that is firmly in the wheelhouse of our show. It’s called The Upside of Uncertainty – A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown. It’s been described as a “science-backed guide for navigating and thriving through uncertainty,” and it’s a book that is well overdue given the circumstances in which we find ourselves. I am reminded of that lovely Voltaire quote – “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position but certainty is an absurd one.” And it’s appropriate to quote a French philosopher as Nathan and Susannah are Americans based in France. Nathan is an associate professor of strategy at the world-renowned INSEAD in Paris. He teaches innovation and tech strategy and is a recognised expert in these fields having written several books on these topics. Susannah is a designer, art historian with a focus on the Dutch baroque period, and entrepreneur. She founded her own clothing line which was inspired by the intricate embroidery of Dutch women in the baroque. This conversation is fabulous. We not only get into the beauty of uncertainty, but Nathan and Susannah share a number of tools and techniques from their uncertainty ‘first aid cross’ that you will hear about. This is all about how to prime, do, reframe and sustain in the midst of uncertainty. These are all essential skills very few of us are formally taught. Show notes: Nathan and Susannah The Upside of Uncertainty – A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown Nathan and Susannah’s site “The Peace of Wild Things” – poem by Wendell Berry Transilience World Uncertainty Index The ‘uncertainty first aid cross’ John O’Donohue Raymond Poulidor vs Jacques Anquetil on the Puy de Dôme James Carse – Finite and Infinite Games Carol Dweck and a growth mindset _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence  

I am delighted to share today’s conversation with you because not only is it fascinating, but it also deals with one of our favourite topics – decision-making. My guest is Cheryl Einhorn, founder of Decisive, a decision sciences company that trains people and teams in complex problem-solving and decision-making skills using a method that she created. The method, called AREA, is something Cheryl developed during her two decades as an investigative journalist for the likes of the New York Times, Barron’s, and Foreign Policy. If you think about how demanding that job is, it becomes clear that having a way of testing and reinforcing your conclusions is incredibly valuable. We get into that, as well as Cheryl’s background, problem-solving and decision-making as skills, the difference between ambiguity and uncertainty, something Cheryl developed called a ‘Problem Solver Profile,’ regret, the importance of slowing down, and much more. Show notes: Cheryl’s profile AREA method Cheryl’s article on Problem Solver Profiles Find your Problem Solver Profile Cheryl’s TEDx talk Cheryl’s Harvard Business Review articles Investing in Financial Research Problem Solved Problem Solver – Maximising Your Strengths to Make Better Decisions – Cheryl’s forthcoming book Analysis of Competing Hypotheses _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Today’s conversation is another look at inclusion – and more specifically, the gap between what is being said and what is being done. If we think about the amount of time we are hearing about diversity and the proliferation of programmes in this space, we might thing that there is a lot of progress being made. The reality however, is very different – on the whole, diversity efforts are moving at a glacial pace. That is not only a problem, it also presents plenty of risk. Homophobia, racism, transphobia and misogyny are very prevalent. I want you to meet our guest, Suzy Levy. Suzy is the founder and Managing Director of The Red Plate, a non-executive board member of the Department of Education, a Trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust, a member of the Advisory Board at Foundervine, and a member of the Strategic Race Board at the Home Office. Suzy’s book Mind the Inclusion Gap draws on her extensive experience designing and implementing some of the most progressive and recognised diversity and inclusion programmes in the UK. In this episode, Suzy shares a number of great insights, including: Why being kind and having a moral compass isn’t enough; What many organisations get wrong in this space; Why we shouldn’t fear causing offence; How to address some of the failings Show notes: Mind the Inclusion Gap Suzy on socials:             LinkedIn             Twitter             Instagram Suzy’s consultancy Red Plate  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z8jmcbiemLawrHmay65kH  Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence