Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the role of misleading experiences, and how decision‐makers' experience can sometimes lead them to think they are right when they are really wrong. Design/methodology/approach – Literature was reviewed in neuroscience, cognitive psychology...

In a series of inductive case histories of leadership and strategy, we document the problem of how executives often learn the wrong lessons from history. The costs associated with such misdirected learning are significant, and often tally in the hundreds of millions to billions in losses. These...