Knowing When to Quit
Examine why people remain committed after the case for continuing weakens. Explore exit criteria that can make stopping a deliberate decision rather than a last resort.
← Keynote Speakers
Annie Duke
Decision strategist and author | Special Partner, Decision Science, First Round Capital
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What Annie brings
Annie Duke helps a leadership audience examine decisions whose outcomes remain uncertain. Her work on quitting gives a portfolio discussion a difficult but practical question: what evidence would justify walking away? She connects the judgement developed through professional poker with research and business decision-making. For executive teams, that perspective is useful when sunk costs, reputation or a desire for certainty make a weak commitment hard to end.
Keynote topics
Decisions Under Uncertainty
Consider how to act when information is incomplete and outcomes are variable. A useful discussion for teams that need to make commitments without pretending to possess certainty.
Thinking in Bets
Explore the distinction between the quality of a decision and the outcome that follows. The lens helps teams discuss risk and learn without treating every success as proof of sound judgement.
Keeping Options Open
Examine how flexibility changes the value of a commitment. Relevant to leaders balancing the benefits of persistence with the cost of excluding other opportunities.
Annie Duke is an author, speaker and consultant on decision-making. She is also a Special Partner focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital and co-founder of the Alliance for Decision Education.
Before her current work, Duke played professional poker, retiring from the game in 2012. She completed her PhD in cognitive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. Her books include Thinking in Bets, How to Decide and Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away.
Her work brings uncertainty into the discussion before an outcome is known. In a leadership setting, this offers a way to examine how commitments are made and revised, and why a decision can deserve reconsideration even when abandoning it feels uncomfortable.
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