Wilful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril

What the book does

Heffernan takes the legal interpretation of wilful blindness (knowledge a person could have had and should have had, but chose not to) and applies it to individuals, organisations and institutions. Using psychology, neuroscience, interviews and cases from Enron to Grenfell, she examines how affinity, obedience, conformity, distance, incentives and overload narrow what people are willing or able to notice.

What it changes in practice

In practice, this book helps board members read board reporting with a sharper eye for what is missing, softened, or overly reassuring. It is especially helpful to newer appointees, whose questions may test assumptions that longer-serving colleagues may have set aside.

Heffernan's healthcare and aviation examples show how challenge can be built into roles through cross-checking and escalation, so it does not depend on individual confidence alone.

Why I recommend it

In my experience, even large, successful organisations with deep governance resources benefit from fresh insight. The questions a newer voice hesitates to ask because everyone else appears comfortable with the issue, are often the ones worth raising. Deference to competence and experience is one form of wilful blindness; strong processes can make it feel unnecessary, even presumptuous, to keep asking questions. The book is journalistic in style and stronger on diagnosis than solutions, so boards and individual directors/trustees will need to translate its insights into their own disciplines and frameworks. Each chapter covers a single cause of blindness, so you can read it selectively.

Who it suits

Board members and trustees in organisations where a founder, a dominant chief executive or a consensual culture dampens challenge, and anyone whose questions about established assumptions are treated as disruption.

Recommended by

Julia Warrander, NEDness Founder and CEO