You can't enlarge the pie : six barriers to effective government

Why do our government leaders continually make decisions and craft policies that everybody knows are foolish? Because they, like the rest of us, remain trapped in foolish and unproductive habits of thinking. "You Can't Enlarge the Pie" analyzes the unspoken assumptions that lead to bad policy, wasted resources, and lost lives, and shows exactly why they're wrong. With fascinating case studies and clear, compelling analysis, it dissects six psychological barriers to ineffective government:1. Do no harm. 2. Their gain is our loss.3. Competition is always good. 4. Support our group. 5. Live for the moment.6. No pain for us, no gain for them. By freeing ourselves from the narrow way we evaluate our government leaders, we can learn to judge their performance more as that of business leaders is judged: by the overall health of their organizations. "But if pragmatic business leaders have adopted such non-adversarial techniques, why has government grown increasingly combative? Why do our government leaders continually make decisions and craft policies that everyone knows are imprudent? It's not because they're ignorant or corrupt, but because our leaders, like the rest of us, are trapped in careless and unproductive habits of thinking. With case studies and clear, compelling analysis based on the latest decision-making and negotiation research findings, Bazerman, Baron and Shonk dissect six flawed ways of thinking that serve as psychological barriers to effective governments."--Jacket "When they learn how to negotiate and solve problems, students in management schools are taught two things. First, they are to look for and recognize any cognitive biases that may be affecting their own decisions about possible solutions. Second, in any disagreement, they are to seek out "wise tradeoffs": resolutions that minimize the costs and maximize the gains for all parties. Current and future executives are trained to craft agreements that create value by enlarging the pie of resources available, and to avoid the pitfalls that reduce organizational effectiveness." SINCE THE EARLY 1960S. MILLIONS OF AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE undergone surgery for silicone breast implants, either as reconstruction after a mastectomy or for the cosmetic enlargement of normal breasts.