Illuminating What Organizations Overlook
Three decades of research on hidden assumptions, invisible patterns, and organizational blind spots
What are we not seeing and how is that shaping what we do?
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For nearly three decades, I've studied what people and organizations systematically overlook: hidden assumptions that drive decisions, invisible patterns in bias and risk, latent dangers that normalize into disasters, and the shadow side of organizational culture.
My work reveals that what we suppress and ignore: failure, vulnerability, dissent and difference quietly governs outcomes. Making these shadows visible is the first step toward better leadership, smarter risk management, and more equitable organizations.
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Making the hidden visible isn't just better science. It's better leadership.
Where Shadows Hide
Each area reveals a different organizational blind spot and offers a path to making the hidden visible.
The Organizational Shadow
Risk & Near-Misses
Gender & Bias
Culture & Conflict
Positions
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Raffini Professor of Management Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
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Senior Policy Scholar Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy
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Academic Advisor Kate Spade & Co. Social Impact Council
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3× National Academy of Sciences Committee Member Intelligence Analysis | Military Culture | Military Environments (Vice-Chair)
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3× World Economic Forum Speaker Davos panels on confidence, leadership, and failure
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$3M+ in Research Funding NASA | NSF | Department of Homeland Security | Department of Defense
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Latest Research
Featured Work 1:
Title: Base Rate Neglect as a Source of Inaccurate Statistical Discrimination
Journal: Management Science (2025)
Co-authors: David Hagmann, Gwendolyn Sajons
Even well-intentioned evaluators systematically misinterpret aggregate data in ways that disadvantage women while appearing neutral and rational. This research reveals a new mechanism through which inequality persists: not bias in preferences, but bias in statistical reasoning.
Featured Work 2:
Title: Personal Narratives Build Trust Across Ideological Divides
Journal: Journal of Applied Psychology (2024)
Co-authors: David Hagmann, Julia Minson
Sharing lived experience, often discounted in professional settings, corrects false assumptions of closed-mindedness and builds trust even when disagreement persists.
Featured Work 3:
Title: How controlling failure perceptions affects performance: Evidence from a field experiment .
Journal: The Accounting Review (2021)
Co-authors: Matthew Cronin, David Erkens, Jason Schloetzer
When leaders encourage workers to think about their failures as necessary learning experiences and one step on the road to future success, workers motivation and performance improve.
Publications & Impact Stats
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75+ Peer-reviewed academic publications
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100+ Practioner oriented interviews, articles, and op-eds
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Link to Google Scholar profile:
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Top outlets: Management Science | Academy of Management Review | Journal of Applied Psychology | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes | Harvard Business Review | New York Times | The Washington Post | The Wall Street Journal
