Drinking from the Fire Hose: Making Smarter Decisions Without Drowning in Information

by Christopher J. Frank, Paul F. Magnone, Paul Magnone

You're sitting in a windowless conference room. Twenty minutes into the meeting the presenter finally makes it to slide four of a thirty two- slide deck. At least you can read this one, unlike the others, which were crammed with numbers, graphs and charts. You look around, wondering if anyone else is following the presentation. Just about everyone these days suffers from information overload the 24/7 explosion from our computers, smartphones, media, colleagues, and customers. Information is essential to making intelligent decisions, but more often than not, it simply overwhelms us. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose. The question isn't how to stop all those e-mails, meetings, conference calls, and fat reports; that's impossible. The question is what to do with them. How do you find the truly essential nuggets of information and use them with confidence? The solution proposed by Christopher Frank and Paul Magnone sounds deceptively Learn how to ask the right questions at the right time. Whatever field you're in, asking smarter questions will expose you to new information, point you to connections between seemingly unrelated facts, and open new avenues of discussion with your colleagues. The authors explain the seven questions that can help you bring a big- picture perspective to problems that often leave others buried in irrelevant details. And they show through real-life case studies- including Trader Joe's, Starbucks, Kodak, Microsoft, iRobot, and IBM-how their method can have a dramatic impact. It really is possible to convert the fire hose of information into useful insights. Consider a nonbusiness the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption that sent a giant ash cloud toward Europe. Tens of thousands of flights were canceled and five million passengers stranded, leading to billions in economic losses. Europe's best scientists generated oceans of data and carefully modeled the cloud's dispersion pattern. But no one could answer the essential Was the concentration of volcanic ash in the air enough to damage a jet engine? Without that key answer, all the carefully gathered facts were useless to the decision makers. Once you adopt the seven questions, you'll start having more productive brainstorming sessions. You'll answer critical questions faster and find unexpected solutions to important problems. And you'll get better at communicating to your colleagues with more clarity and focus, turning down the fire hose that other people have to cope with.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Nag Jayaraman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has many very useful ideas to filter through the deluge of information towards, discovery of relevant information; analyzing and enabling decision making.

Very well structured to be a easy reference, if and when one decides to apply some learning from this book.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have ever sat in a conference room and listened to a presentation go on and on and on and on, or if you are responsible for creating presentations that are supposed to actually engage listeners instead of putting them to sleep, you have to read Drinking from the Fire Hose: Making Smarter Decisions without Drowning in Information by Christopher J. Frank and Paul F. Magnone. It will help you figure out what data you should be paying attention to and presenting, so you are able to focus on what matters ~ and ignore the rest!

I don't generally review business books here at My Book Retreat, but I'm starting to read more for work, so I figured I'd share them as well. Drinking from the Fire Hose drew me in right away because I have, indeed, spent many hours sitting through presentations that have been completely and totally worthless in the end. The advice the authors of this book provide will help people, no matter what field they work in, focus on the most important questions and the data that helps to answer them.

The authors provide seven key points to focus on, the first of which is the Essential Question. There is so much data out there that companies can collect and analyze. But which data is really important and which can be put aside? If you focus on the essential question, whether it's what new features your customers want most or which treatments are working best for a specific diagnosis, the key is to find the data that relates to that, and ignore the rest.

Drinking from the Fire Hose ends by giving recommendations on creating presentations. This is the section I'd love to make some of the people I've worked with over the years read! The authors suggest starting by deciding what sort of meeting you are setting up (information gathering, decision making, etc.) and then stating that explicitly so people who are invited understand the purpose and their role. They also give some excellent tips on focusing on simple points during a presentation, rather than putting up slides that are filled with irrelevant information that are hard to read and understand.

I highly recommend Drinking from the Fire Hose to anyone who is in business or another field in which data collection and analysis, and presentations of that data, are common. Hopefully it will have a very positive impact on the quality of future analysis and presentations!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about time someone took on this subject. When you think about the information load our ancestors processed (full moon, rain coming, get the harvest, marry off the daughter, avoid the landlord) versus what we deal with (a parentheses could not hold it all), you know that you have to have a strategy for it. Me, I procrastinate and fight my impatience with people who are giving me all kinds of details I don't need.

The authors of Drinking from the Fire Hose offer seven questions with which to cut off the flood before it begins, and give good case studies - from Microsoft, Starbucks, and Kodak, among others - to show how it works.

The technique isn't a silver bullet, you're still going to be swimming through the data, and the book is really more geared towards business management folks rather than me (a writer and editor), but it's a worthwhile introduction to the concept for just about anyone.

We can't turn our backs on the information (Well. Some people do.), but we do have to have a logical strategy for prioritizing. Good techniques here on an important subject.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's well written, but it isn't what I expected or wanted. The subtitle makes it sound useful for anyone, but it's actually aimed at managers in large corporations.

There is a list of nine questions in the forward. It says if you answer frequently to at least five of the questions, you have the right book in your hands. I only had two. It's all about meetings and business decisions.

I think they should have either expanded the scope to at least be more applicable to small and medium businesses or been more clear as to who the target audience is.

I would not have read this if I hadn't won it. I wouldn't have entered the giveaway if I had known it was only aimed at managers in large companies. It just isn't useful to me.

This is an advance uncorrected proof. It will have an index. The page numbers are in an odd place.

I won this from the goodreads first-reads program on August 18, 2011.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the book's favorite metaphors felt a little stretched (e.g. customers' North Stars), trying too hard to fit complex topics into overly simplified molds. Where the authors truly excelled, though, was with their ability to use examples to clarify the concepts. There's a particularly good passage that uses baseball statistics to illustrate how unhelpful pure data is without accompanying context. It provides some thought-provoking questions that may come in handy in professional settings and is a good starting point for anyone wondering if all the data that is thrown around actually means anything.

[Eric Anest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 6 of this book on "swing voters" made the entire read worthwhile. The authors apply the swing-voter terminology of politics to marketing, making a compelling case that finding people uncommitted to your brand and working to convert them is the best way to increase sales. Maintaining a loyal, committed base has its place, but any business that concentrates solely on its committed customers will lose ground over time.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for folks who deal with a lot of data in their jobs. One of the key takeaways for me is to focus on what question you are really trying to answer, what do your clients care most about and don't be afraid to challenge your assumptions and thinking.

[Jan Y]

can't wait

[Kasia Hubbard]

I won this on Goodreads. I received my copy on August 25.

[L-H]

I won a free copy of this book through the Goodreads first-reads program. I can't wait to read this book. Thank you.

[Lulu]

I won this book from the first reads giveaways and I am so excited to read it. Thanks.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent core concepts, provides highly practical tools to deal with acquiring analyzing and presenting the "right" data to answer the most important business questions.

[Martin Bihl · Rating 2 out of 5]

please see our review here: http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...

[Effendy Yahaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The important of data. How important it is to strategically view it as top-bottom or bottom-up approach. It goes to basic rule of thumbs.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary at http://greatesthitsblog.com/category/...
Apparently the authors have read it and approve...

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for anyone dealing with data whether you produce or receive.