The Power of Noticing, What The Best Leaders See, by Max Bazerman, Simon and Schuster 2014

If you work on a team, or sell consulting or even internal projects, understanding non-verbal cues,scams,  or “tells” can be your dynamic advantage.  In The Power of Noticing, Harvard Business School professor Max Bazerman shows us through examples exactly what these incredible tools are, and what they can do.  It’s a refreshingly powerful book that uncovers techniques and pointers that many of us have never even considered.

Look at my favorite chapter, 5, for instance, “What Do Magicians, Thieves, Advertisers, Politicians, and Negotiators Have in Common?”   Magicians are masters of entertainment, but they use misdirection and visual images – boxes, for instance – to misdirect the audience’s eyes, just like politicians!  Worried about IRS or healthcare scandals?  Well here, let us offer another fascinating diversion, and we’ll just keep chugging along.  Or how about getting the audience unknowingly involved in the trick?

According to Bazerman, David Copperfield made our famous Statue of Liberty appear to dissolve by moving the audience, placing his viewers on a rotating platform and filming at nightfall.   Bazerman offers a more commercial example.  Here, Microsoft clearly outperforms its competition based on dimensions chosen by Microsoft.  The comparison to Firefox and Google Chrome shows Microsoft Explorer overwhelmingly superior, but might there be other dimensions not charted?  Goldman Sachs used a similar approach to create the Hudson Mezzanine Fund, covering the other side of the $2B bet to create another type of market for derivatives.  However, a Senate subcommittee concluded that Goldman was actually creating a new market to play in, within which Goldman would win by betting against its customers.  Hmmm.  Misdirection at a high, brilliant level.

Bazerman fills this entertaining, brilliant book with other examples that will shock readers, but just as uncovering the magician’s well-conceived tricks spoils the fun and makes us cynics, when applied to business and politics, this book will take the shine off some public images.  That is his intent.

Mill Girl Verdict:  fun, shocking, a break from hard-core business cookbooks.