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The cover of The Unaccountability Machine

The Unaccountability Machine

Dan Davies, 2024

Understand why organisations keep making harmful decisions nobody can change, and how restoring feedback could make them more responsive to the people affected.

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7 parts, about 19 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Explains how modern organisations build systems where decisions happen but nobody can be held accountable for them
  • Gives you tools from cybernetics to see why information fails to reach anyone who can act, and what could fix it
  • An economist's argument linking management theory, shareholder value and leveraged buyouts to everyday institutional failures

Who it is for

  • Managers squeezed by targets, cost cuts and outsourcing
  • Public servants and reformers redesigning institutions
  • Customers stuck arguing with rules no one can bend

What the summary covers

  1. When nobody can change the decision2 min
  2. Learning from systems3 min
  3. Enough capacity to respond3 min
  4. What the numbers leave out3 min
  5. From coordination to financial discipline3 min
  6. The costs travel downward3 min
  7. Restoring the ability to listen2 min

Recommended by

  • Rory StewartBritish writer and former politician
    A great book ... a wonderful way of talking about our current world

About the author

  • Dan DaviesBritish author and former bank regulator
    • Former regulatory economist at the Bank of England and analyst for a number of investment banks
    • Career investigating financial scandals including LIBOR, FX, Anglo Irish Bank and Swiss Nazi gold
    • Has written for the Financial Times and the New Yorker among other publications

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