Action in Uncertainty

Jean-Charles Pomerol is a specialist in decision support systems and a pioneer in the teaching of artificial intelligence. He headed the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC), France, for several years and has since been president of several foundations and of AGORANOV, the most renowned incubator in Paris.

• Chapter 1 Born to Act 11.1 It’s hard not to act 11.2 What is the result of the action taken? 31.3 To act or not to act 41.4 Synopsis 6Chapter 2 Two Kinds of Actions: Immediate or with Reasoning 72.1 To depend on us or to not depend on us 72.2 Action triggered by recognition 92.3 Human decision-making 122.4 Reasoning before action 172.5 Between recognition and reasoning, learning 222.6 Conclusion 25Chapter 3 Anticipation and Planning 273.1 A more desirable state of the world 273.2 Anticipations 283.3 Individual planning 373.4 Organizational planning 403.5 Conclusion 44Chapter 4 Act Anyway! 454.1 Rationality of the action 464.2 Dying of hunger or dying of thirst? 544.3 Individual obstacles 594.4 Organizational barriers to change and action 684.5 Speed of action, heuristics and probabilities 794.6 Conclusion 90Chapter 5 The Conduct of Action and Leadership 935.1 On the implementation of decisions 935.2 Teaming up 965.3 The leader and leadership 1055.4 Conclusion 111Chapter 6 Intuition, Expertise and Decision-making 1136.1 Intuition and “natural decision-making” 1136.2 Expertise, experts and decision-making 1236.3 Expertise, environment and uncertainty 1296.4 Conclusion 137Conclusion 139Index of Proper Names 147Index of Terms 151