Want to ensure that people in your company make bad decisions? Deliver “the right information to the right people at the right time.” Certainly this phrase has seductive appeal. It seems so sensible that it’s constantly bandied about (“You know what we’re really about? Our company delivers the right information to the right…”) without any real thought as to what it actually implies. But the fact is, the notion masks a deep misunderstanding about how people make decisions—and about how leaders lead.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review.
