Sidetracked, and Moral Tribes

• Author: Stephen R. Goldberg,David M. Cannon
• Date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22022
• Published date: 01 January 2015

69

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22022

S idetracked, and Moral Tribes

David M. Cannon

and Stephen R. Goldberg

BOOKS REVIEWED

Gino, Francesca, 2013. Side-

tracked: Why Our Decisions

Get Derailed, and How We Can

Stick to the Plan (Boston, MA:

Harvard Business Review Press)

Greene, Joshua, 2013. Moral

Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and

the Gap Between Us and Them

(New York, NY: Penguin Press)

The books selected for review

address how we actually make

business and ethical decisions and

how we might improve decision

making. In Sidetracked , Gino

discusses biases that sidetrack our

decisions and makes suggestions

to mitigate these biases. In Moral

Tribes, Greene suggests that

modern moral problems are dif-

ferent from problems our brains

evolved to solve. He then suggests

how different kinds of thinking

are suited to solving different

kinds of problems.

SIDETRACKED

Decisions that we expect

to make based on carefully

developed plans are often dif-

ferent from our actual behavior.

Gino discusses why we get side-

tracked and how to avoid being

sidetracked. Getting sidetracked

can lead to unethical behavior,

poor analyses of existing infor-

mation, inaccurate decisions,

biased evaluations of others, and

low motivation. We try to act

consistent with our self-image as

capable, competent, honest, and

helpful persons. Even so, when

we have spent time developing

our plans with the best of inten-

tions, we often veer off course

with our decisions in unexpected

ways. The author has observed

that experienced managers plan

carefully for negotiations but

end up with very different deals

from those they had planned

because they were caught up in

the heat of the moment. Gino

provides extensive real-world

stories including companies with

which she has worked as well as

experimental research support-

ing the points she makes.

Francesca Gino is an associ-

ate professor of business admin-

istration in the Negotiation,

Organizations, & Market Unit at

Harvard Business School. Her

research focuses on judgment

and decision making. Side-

tracked discusses the results of

10 years of research.

Three groups of forces

influence our decisions in ways

we fail to anticipate: (1) forces

within ourselves, (2) forces from

our relationship with others,

and (3) forces from the outside

world. The book is divided into

three parts corresponding with

these forces. Each part consists

of three chapters. Each chapter

concludes with a description of

a principle to be considered to

avoid getting sidetracked.

Forces from within (Part I)

reside in both our hearts and

minds and exist because we

are human. The first chapter

addresses the accuracy or lack

thereof of our beliefs about our

competences and abilities. The

majority of us tend toward posi-

tive self-views and confidence

in our own information and

opinions. The first principle to

avoid getting sidetracked is to

“raise your awareness” about

this common tendency to help

us challenge assumptions and

take a more balanced view of

information available to us at the

time of decision. Don’t wave off