Ori Brafman introduces his forthcoming book, “Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior” by sharing a very sobering tale which illustrates how even the most trusted professionals (airline pilots) can depart wildly from the rational under certain pressure conditions.

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Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica. These are the conclusions of a study by the British journal Nature which conducted a peer review of 42 scientific entries on both Wikipedia and the well-established Encyclopedia Britannica. To read full Nature Special Report(Dec 14).

I spotted two seemingly trivial comments in the UK Daily Telegraph which when put together indicate the difficulties organizational teams face these days. Staff resent dead wood colleagues reports the results of a YouGov poll of 2,500 employees that 8 out of 10 staff are unhappy about “dead wood” colleagues in their organisations who do not pull their weight but yet nothing is done about them. One CV in four is a work of fiction reports that according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development one in four jobseekers tell, not just one but, three lies on their CVs.

Humankind is the only species that places its trust in a small group of "leaders" to determine the best direction for the whole group. In his follow-up article to Did ants invent the perfect system for communicating via mobile technology? Ken Thompson, explores whether we can learn a thing or two about leadership from nature's most successful teams.