In feature articles in the September issue of Harvard Business Review, three HBS professors offered useful ideas about leadership and decision-making. In "What You Don't Know about Making Decisions," Professor David Garvin and Assistant Professor Michael Roberto suggested that decision-makers are far more effective and better served when they act as facilitators orchestrating a group search to find the best possible solution to a problem. The effort should be conducted as an inquiry process, rather than as a competition or an exercise in advocacy skills. The authors cited three necessary elements that make this approach successful: fostering constructive, not personal, conflict; giving each viewpoint serious consideration; and knowing when to close deliberations.

In "We Don't Need Another Hero," Professor Joseph Badaracco argued that the outsized attributes of high-profile heroes don't necessarily guarantee effective corporate leadership. Instead, he said, modesty and restraint are largely responsible for creating effective moral leaders. Badaracco listed four rules for making wise decisions and meeting ethical challenges: "Put things off till tomorrow" (let turbulent times quiet down to allow moral instincts to emerge); "Pick your battles" (don't waste political capital on lost causes); "Bend the rules, don't break them" (in order to resolve a complicated dilemma); and "Find a compromise" (view situations as prone to responsible and workable solutions, not as polarizing tests of ethical principles).

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