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Home About Tilia Solutions What are we doing? Suggested reading and listening Comments Contact Tilia Solutions	*The Lazarus Heist* BBC World Service Podcast This podcast explores the impact of cyber fraud and how criminals can take advantage of minor weaknesses in internal controls. It sounds fantastical and I have to remind myself that it is all true.
	*Sway: Unravelling Unconsious Bias* Pragya Agarwal Bloomsbury Sigma This was, by turns, fascinating and uncomfortable as it delved into the various ways in which people are biased and the consequence of this. It took me a long time to finish the book but I learnt a lot along the way.
	*The Norm Chronicles, Stories and Numbers about Danger* Michael Blasted and David Spiegelhalter Profile Books Putting the risks that we face in our day-to-day lives into perspective, using their three protagonists, average Norm, careful Prudence and reckless Kelvin to show the differences. Full of numerical details and new ways of thinking from the creator of Radio 4's More or Less. This book is why I go flying with one neighbour and refuse rides on the motorbike of another.
	*Quiet* Susan Cain Penguin Exploring the power of the introvert to make a difference and encouraging those with a quiet voice to speak up. Essential reading for all, intoverts and extroverts.
	*How to Fail* Elizabeth Day 4th Estate I came to this book via the podcast of the same name, which is endlessly fascinating. The book, which is mostly memoir, explains that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Learning to fail is actually learning how to succeed better.
	*How to Fail* Elizabeth Day Podcast This podcast interviews celebrities and 'normal' people, asking them about three failures and what they have learnt from those failures. While some of the episodes are a bit repetitive (there have been several seasons), others really make me sit back and think. Threaded throughout the podcast is the mantra: Learning to fail is learning how to succeed better
	Rethinking Reputational Risk Anthony Fitzsimmons and Derek Atkins Kogan Page This book will explain what makes your organisation and its reputation resilient and what can make it fail. There are a number of helpful case studies and also useful points to ponder and challenging questions to ask. A good reputation can take years to build and seconds to lose and the effects can be devastating so maybe we should think about these risks more.
	*The Checklist Manifesto* Atul Gawande Profile Books This book was recommended to me by a few people but I resisted: how could a book on checklists be interesting? But I'm so glad I finally read it. All the things that I have been saying about checklists in my courses (not a tick list and make them meaningful) put together in an engaging way, backed up by good stories and hard details. The next time you suggest developing a checklist, make sure you read this book first!
	*The Effective Board Member* Karl George MBE tgf books An engaging book, following the fortunes of four typical board members as they go through Karl George's training scheme. We discover why Bee should be less busy, Rabbit less scared, Peacock less confident and Penguin less friendly. The book is mostly written for private-sector board members but many of the themes will be relevant to those of us working in the public sector, especially the sections about audit committees.
	*Cautionary Tales* Tim Harford Pushkin Industries podcast In this series, Tim Harford, on of my favourite broadcasters when it comes to numbers and risks, explores the things that went wrong, how they could have been prevented and the lessons that we could learn.
	*More or Less: Behind the Statistics* Tim Harford BBC podcast I enjoy anything broadcast by Tim Harford, the Financial Times undercover economist. In More or Less, he and his team examine the numbers in the news and explain what the real size of the problem is.
	*Wilful Blindness Why we ignore the obvious at our peril* Margaret Heffernan Simon & Schuster What makes us blind and why are we, as individuals and organisations, so prone to this weakness? There are comforts and costs when we fail to see and we need to recognise and understand what we are doing.
	The Failure Files David Hillson (editor) Triarchy Press A series of essays on the joy of failure and how success can only come if we are prepared to fail and prepared to learn from our failures.
	*A short Guide to Risk Appetite* David Hillson and Ruth Murray-Webster Gower Introducing the RARA model, explaining the complementary and central roles of risk appetite and risk attitude and showing how other risk concepts fit in. Includes practical guidance on setting risk thresholds.
	*Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude* David Hillson and Ruth Murray-Webster Gower Examining the RARA model in greater detail, especially the individual and organisational influences on risk attitudes and what that means for all of us in seeking to manage risk.
	*The Failure of Risk Management, Why It's Broken and How to Fix It* Douglas W Hubbard Wiley I struggled with this book initially but I'm glad I persevered. Hubbard's thesis is that we can and should seek to measure the likelihood and impact of all risks, ideally through Monte Carlo simulation, and that we can improve our ability to estimate risk levels for even the most obscure of risks. He points out that most of us understimate risk levels. While I won't be moving to Monte Carlo soon, I will be taking a more critical look at risk scoring, maybe through use of the bow tie.
	*Thinking, Fast and Slow* Daniel Kahneman Penguin How good are you with statistics and interpreting numbers? A wince-making read for those of us who thought we were numerate as we realise how easy it is to misinterpret data and act accordingly.
	*Planet Money* NPR podcast Another podcast about ecomonics and statistics, but with an American slant to it. I particularly enjoyed their economics 101 course over the summer of 2020 which reminded me of all the economics I both loved and hated as part of my accountancy and MBA qualifications.
	*You are not so Smart* David McRaney Podcast A fortnightly podcast on the theme that you are unaware of how unaware you are which leads you to beome the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. It is a fun and challenging exploration of the ways you and everyone else tend to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation and behaviour. It's aim is to help us rediscover a humility and reconnect with the stumbling, fumbling community of humans trying to make sense of things the best we can.
	*Invisible Women* Caroline Criado Perez Chatto & Windus This book has been on my to-read list from the moment it came out (just in case you haven't heard of it, it exposes the data bias in a world designed for men) but I was waiting for the paperback ... It made perfect lockdown reading as we contemplated the end of the world as we know it and also recognised that countries run by women tended to do better. I finished reading it just before the murder of George Floyd and the message that diversity matters was really hammered home. It is, by turns, fascinating, horrifying, amusing, educational; it is also a good read. Let's hope its message doesn't get lost in the chaos we find ourselves in now.
	*Think with Pinker* BBC podcast The way we think makes us vulnerable to bad decision making, but in this guide to thinking better, Stephen Pinker explores how we can understand our cognitive biases to make better choices. This is sometimes challenging but always interesting and he has some excellent interviewees.
	*The Introvert Advantage, How to Thrive in an Extrovert World* Marti Olsen Laney Workman A useful manual for the introverts among us to get the best out of our special mindset and a guide for the extroverts to help them understand why having a quiet time is so important.
	*Influencer The Power to Change Anything* Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler McGrawHill Highlighting the key skills and attributes needed to make changes and influence others, their hearts, minds and behaviours and how to make yourself heard.
	*Unspoken Giants* RPC podcast This podcast brings together majore international financial institutions to discuss the global fight against corruption. Each episode focuses on a different institution and examines the way in which it tackles corruption. My main takeaway is that they are all very similar and work closely together. As a result, this started to get repetative but it is still useful background information if you work in the internation finance world and/or are interested in fraud.
	*The Optimism Bias* Tali Sharot Robinson This book explores why we are wired to look on the bright side and how our illusions about the future can create problems. It includes some interesting research evidence but less "how to deal with it" than I was hoping for.
	Sex by Numbers, What Statistics Can Tell Us About Sexual Behaviour David Spiegelhalter Welcome Collection You may be wondering at my reading habits here but I can't put it better than the review by Tim Harford "Spiegelhalter brilliantly uses statistics to teach us about sex, while also using sex to teach us about statistics". Definitely an eye opener, in so many ways!
	*Risky Talk* David Spiegelhalter Ilan Goodman Podcast This podcast looks at how we can best communicate the risks and the evidence on the most pressing issues of the day, from genetics and nutrition to climate change and immigration. David Spiegelhalter holds conversations (that could, perhaps, be more tightly edited) with some fascinating people
	Black Box Thinking Matthew Syed John Murray I was bound to like this as it refers back to some of my favourite authors, including Taleb and Kahneman. The book explores learning from failures and near misses and how important failure and incremental change is to achieving change and high performance
	Sideways Matthew Syed BBC podcast In this podcast, Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives, offering a new perspecitive on the way we live. He particularly focuses on the misuse of statistics to draw conclusions and understand risks.
	The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable Nassim Nicholas Taleb Penguin We shouldn't be fooled into thinking that we can predict and manage the future. Most of the crucial events throughout history have been "black swans" that were not and could not have been forecast. We need to recognise the limits of our risk management systems and deal with them accordingly.
	Fooled by Randomness Nassim Nicholas Taleb Penguin An easier read than The Black Swan but just as challenging. This book picks up on many of the issues rasied by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow pointing out how badly we understand probability and, in particular, how the fear of a loss will be a far greater influence than the possibility of a gain.