Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time

Business revolves around making decisions, often risky decisions, usually with incomplete information and too often in less time than we need. Executives at every level, in every industry, are confronted with information overload, less leeway for mistakes, and a business environment that changes rapidly. In light of this increased pressure and volatility, the old-fashioned ways of making decisions–depending on intuition, common sense, and specialized expertise–are simply no longer sufficient. Distilling over thirty years of groundbreaking research, Winning Decisions, written by two seasoned business advisers and world leaders in behavioral decision studies, is a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind guide to the proven methods of making critical business decisions confidently, quickly–and correctly.
Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take for granted in themselves and others–but it's not as easy as some might think. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over a hundred companies, including Arthur Andersen, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unilever, contend that decision-making, like any other skill, must be developed and honed if it is to be used effectively. Winning Decisions offers step-by-step analyses of how people typically make decisions, and provides invaluable advice on how to improve your chances of getting your next big decision right the first time. The book is packed with worksheets, tools, questionnaires, case studies, and anecdotes analyzing major decisions made by organizations like British Airways, NASA, Shell Oil, and Pepsi. Some of the proven, straightforward techniques covered in Winning Decisions include how to:

Reframe issues to ensure that the real problem is being addressedImprove the quality and quantity of your options
Convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights
Make diversity of views and conflict work to your advantage
Foster efficient and effective group decision-making
Learn from past decisions--your own and those of others

With Winning Decisions, managers and other professionals now have access to a proven set of skills and strategies they need for making the right decision, right away.

Making "good, fast, frequent decisions... better than those with whom you compete," say J. Edward Russo and Paul J.H. Schoemaker, is a critical skill in today's business climate. They additionally believe it's a skill that all of us can learn, much like a proper golf swing. In Winning Decisions, they lay out a four-step process that constitutes "a broad, conceptual framework" applicable in virtually any situation where a decision is needed. Russo and Schoemaker, consultants and professors who collaborated on an earlier book about the roadblocks to proper decision making, turn their attention here to making decisions "with the head, not the gut." Their program is divided into four phases fully explained in their own sections: Framing, Gathering Intelligence, Coming to Conclusions, and Learning from Experience. In total, they reveal a disciplined system that will benefit anyone looking to make better decisions in just about any situation. --Howard Rothman