In an increasingly complex, fast-paced, and information-saturated professional environment, the ability to make high-quality decisions is an essential competence for every leader. Cognitive biases, misleading intuitions, and the pressures of a VUCA context (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) can hinder even the most experienced decision-makers, reducing both the strategic and operational effectiveness of organizations.

In this session, Vicki Morwitz, Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, will provide a clear, dynamic, and evidence-based overview of how decision-making processes work and how to recognize—and overcome—the main cognitive biases that influence our choices.

Specifically, the session will explore:

• how we really decide: the importance of decision quality in leadership, the impact of cognitive load, and the distinction between System 1 and System 2 (with interactive demonstrations)
• intuition vs. analysis: when intuition is helpful and when it can distort judgment
• the main decision-making biases: an overview of the most common heuristics and biases (confirmation bias, sunk cost, anchoring, framing), with a focus on the central role of overconfidence and its three forms—overprecision, overestimation, and overplacement
• biases in corporate contexts: how they influence strategic decisions, investments, HR evaluations, and operational processes.