Ralph L. Keeney > Quotes

“There are many important decisions where you may be tempted to select the first possible solution. In all of these, some effort spent creating alternatives that provide a nudge for your decision will likely be a wise investment. Examples include purchasing a car or a condominium, finding a new primary physician or a specialist, choosing a firm that will manage some aspects of your small company (e.g., taxes, payroll), or selecting an individual as the main contractor to build or remodel your house.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions

“For important decisions that you are facing for the first time, it is often useful to talk to others who have faced the same or a similar decision in the past. Examples include deciding about taking a stint in the main corporate office, as discussed above; how to report suspected illegal activity in your company to management; selecting a spouse or a partner for life; dealing with an important aspect of raising a child; and planning care and help for an elderly parent or relative. For almost all decisions such as these, there are many individuals who have faced that decision before you. Their experiences of thinking about and choosing alternatives and living through the consequences of those alternatives are an excellent source to stimulate your thoughts and uncover values relevant to your decision.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions

“The rest of your life will include a very large number of decisions that offer you the opportunity to make it enjoyable and rewarding. Some of your future decisions will be life-changing; numerous others will be well worth your thought. Collectively, they will create the rest of the life that you choose to pursue. There are numerous possibilities for the life that you create with your decisions. Recognize that some of the life-changing decisions that you face, or have faced, concern your education, your choice of friends, your lifestyle choices, what jobs you hold and where they are located, whether you marry and to whom, whether you have children and how many, how you try to avoid and address serious health and medical issues, and retirement.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions

“Examples may include decisions about negotiating a long-term lease for a business office, where to locate a new warehouse, whether and where to get an advanced degree, how to help your adult sibling who is clearly having personal difficulties, and what treatment to have for a serious medical condition.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions

“Such decisions include changing one’s residence, buying a house, quitting the current job, finding or choosing another job, taking six months off for a grand trip, getting engaged, addressing an important medical condition, choosing a school for their child, finding appropriate care or a nursing home for a parent, or retiring.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions

“If there are just ten life-changing decisions with only five alternatives for each of these, there would be close to 10 million distinct possible lives represented.”
― Ralph L. Keeney, Give Yourself a Nudge: Helping Smart People Make Smarter Personal and Business Decisions