The British Museum Reading Room. A panorama of 2x5 segments. By Diliff. CC BY SA 3.0.

How You Talk About Deciding Affects Who Thinks You’re an Idiot

Forrest ChristianCareers, Decision-making, Warren Kinston 2 Comments

How you talk about work affects who will hire you or work with you. I was reminded of this recently. I have been talking with some senior executives at work about how to build the structure for writing complex text responses for some of our forms. They reached out because I’m an expert in the responses’ topic and I’ve worked …

What Kind of World Am I Entering. From comics splash page

What To Do With Turkeys In The Company

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“He was turkey farmed, and there wasn’t anything to do but ride it out to retirement.” We were talking about his old colleague. The guy had run afoul of his commander at the base for his insistence on following some environmental policy or other. The commander had “promoted” him to a special project with a special office. Each day, he …

africa arid barren bush

How CEOs are Different Than Risk Pros

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Hersh Shefrin, long-time Santa Clara prof and father of Behavioral Finance, points out that Lopes’s SP/A theory explains why CEOs and risk professionals have so many “what are you talking about?” moments: … my research indicates that CEOs are the most hopeful of all groups, the most apt to set specified goals, and the most likely to try to achieve …

africa arid barren bush

Note: Was Jesus Poor or not? (further)

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Although Monday’s note argues that Jesus’ father was a respected craftsman, and that James, Jesus’ brother, was likely either himself a Pharisee or respected by them, there is some evidence that Jesus was bereft of personal resources when he died. The Gospel accounts have many accounts of Jesus being hosted by others, or being supported by them. His disciples are …

SP/A Theory and Operational Risk

Forrest ChristianOverachievers 1 Comment

Lopes developed the SP/A Theory framework about why people make certain choices when faced with risk. These are developed through empirical studies of undergraduates, including running commentary on why they are choosing one alternative vs another. It led to one of the key insights into why we take the chances we do, and why one person may have a thoroughly …

Christ Pantocrator

Note: Jesus Wasn’t Raised Poor

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The ancient texts are always interesting, in part because you often discover that you’ve been reading them wrong. … Luke attests that “every year [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover” (24:1)….. They were obviously a devout, Jewish family with the financial means to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, something few could afford. Bütz, Jeffery …

abdicate word in a dictionary. abdicate concept. DepositPhotos. Licensed.

Does Risk Management Encourage the Abdication of Accountability by Managers?

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“Managers should never be allowed to abdicate their management accountabilities and authorities by having HR do what is their job!” I learned this from management guru and past president of Forrest & Company, Nick Forrest (no relation) several years ago when I had the good fortune to work with him briefly. Why mention HR when in a discussion about Risk …