Judgement Calls: Twelve stories of big decisions and the teams that got them right by Thomas H. Davenport.
Tom Davenport holds a Master’s degree in Sociology and a PhD in Sociology from Harvard. He is Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College.
He is a Research Fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and a Senior Advisor to Deloitte’s Analytics and AI Practice. As a former visiting Professor at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and the Harvard Business School, Tom was well positioned as Co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics.
In exploring critical decision-making processes within organizations, Tom is presenting twelve case studies. Judgement Calls reveal how teams address complex decisions and how to improve those outcomes. Key components include collaboration, data-driven insights, and effective leadership. Readers will discover those frameworks and methodologies which can improve your organization’s decision-making by embracing a structured processes.
12 lessons on embracing data
The twelve stories focus on an organization’s embracing their data assets which will begin providing diverse perspectives leading to data driven decision-making. This is proving to be the difference between organizational success and failure.
Perhaps the interesting insight for readers is about data. Despite an ever growing amount of data, organizations must move past a well engrained fixed mindset when approaching data. At the end of the day critical decisions remain human judgments. So, by embracing data driven insights, organizations can now make certainly clearer decisions.
Each Judgement Calls case study reveals an organization’s unique story, their culture and how resolutions were made. All twelve case studies include key takeaways and lessons that readers will be able to link to their own organization. In fact by understanding all twelve, readers will begin to understand tipping points that can apply to their own key workflows and thereby revealing the key data decision-making opportunities.
I would highly recommend Tom’s original book Competing on Analytics:
Of course, data analytics is providing hard truths in modern decision-making, even though this was written prior to the pandemic. Ultimately, organizational leadership must make informed decisions based on data rather than legacy, intuition by long serving employees.
Tom is also emphasizing the very important role of organizational leaders. They must certainly foster a new culture that supports data driven decision-making. Yes at times guardrails may be initially necessary, but they must also provide the right environment where teams can then contribute. In fact, teamwork and communication will help make successful decisions.
In conclusion, Judgement Calls is a worthy read regardless of publication date to help guide organizations forward to embrace their own data and apply the correct analysis in order to thrive in today’s complex marketplace.