In a petrochemical plant study, two promoted workers were run through decision-making exercises: the confident one who impressed everyone actually lacked understanding of critical plant dynamics, while the tentative one who worried colleagues actually had deep causal knowledge; the tentative one was cleared for panel operations while the confident one was sent back for another year of training.

factualpending

Speaker

Gary Klein

Evidence Quote

One of the people was somebody everybody felt good about. He just carried himself with great confidence... The first person didn't really get it. He didn't really understand critical dynamics of the plant. And the second person, for all of his uh caveats, really did get it.

Source

Insights for Making Better Decisions | Gary Klein | Knowledge Project 144The Knowledge Project Podcast
Created: 8/11/2026, 1:47:10 AM

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