A Foundational Explanation of Human Behavior: How to Get Beyond Observed Behavior to the Why of What We Do

Conventional psychology says your brain fits stimuli into a symbolic map of the world and calculates actions in response, an idea established in the early days of computers. But actually, even a well-designed robot doesn’t work that way. The better explanation is that your brain controls input perceptions through actions to reduce the discrepancy between what we are experiencing and what we want to experience. This field of study is called Perceptual Control Theory (PCT).PCT opens the way to innovative thinking about the behavior of all living creatures—especially people. With such a broad scope, as this book explains, PCT leads to insights that can help management achieve a firm’s purpose through improvements in productivity, employee job satisfaction, and win-win relationships among the firm’s key stakeholders.