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Decision Quality: Value Creation from Better Business Decisions
Add value with every decision using a simple yet powerful framework Few things are as valuable in business, and in life, as the ability to make good decisions. Can you imagine how much more rewarding your life and your business would be if every decision you made were the best it could be? Decision Quality empowers you to make the best possible choice and get more of what you truly want from every decision. Dr. Carl Spetzler is a leader in the field of decision science and has worked with organizations across industries to improve their decision-making capabilities. He and his co-authors, all experienced consultants and educators in this field, show you how to frame a problem or opportunity, create a set of attractive alternatives, identify relevant uncertain information, clarify the values that are important in the decision, apply tools of analysis, and develop buy-in among stakeholders. Their straightforward approach is elegantly simple, yet practical and powerful. It can be applied to all types of decisions. Our business and our personal lives are marked by a stream of decisions. Some are small. Some are large. Some are life-altering or strategic. How well we make those decisions truly matters. This book gives you a framework and thinking tools that will help you to improve the odds of getting more of what you value from every choice. You will Many people are satisfied with 'good enough' when making important decisions. This book provides a method that will take you and your co-workers beyond 'good enough' to true Decision Quality.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2016
81 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 6, 2021
What I found particularly useful reading the book:
1. What is the real problem that needs to be solved?
- Page 22: Find the reasons for the problem.
- Page 150: Avoid dragging the real problem over to a problem you know how to solve. Understand and define the real problem that needs to be solved.
- Page 151: Ask yourself how someone with a different skill set or experience would think of the situation.
- Page 172: Are you solving the right problem?
2. What possibilities and alternatives are there to solve the problem?
- Page 14: A decision cannot be better than the best alternative.
- Page 60: What is the wildest idea that has been considered?
- Page 60: What external people will you ask to suggest alternatives?
- Page 60: Do the alternatives, you have, cover all potential sources of value?
- Page 60: Are differences between alternatives clear and significant?
- Pages 94 and 103: To help yourself decide between alternatives, draw a simple decision tree.
- Page 106: What is the best alternative? Why is this alternative better than the others?
3. What are possible outcomes and probabilities of doing x?
- Page 15: What are some possible outcomes of doing x?
- Page 15: When you do x, what is the probability that y will happen?
- Page 66: Quality information must be relevant and reliable.
- Page 72: Who will you ask to get a second opinion about what the probability is that y will happen?
- Page 76: If you had more time / money, what additional information would you seek?
- Page 113: Involving people in or becoming involved in decision-making engenders a sense of ownership that results in commitment and effectiveness during implementation.
- Page 134: What facts do you have? Note that stories, you hear / read, are not necessarily true.
- Page 138 and 149: Avoid taking part in group-think during which a group generates overconfidence in what they think and closes their minds to contrary views. In this regard, do not confuse agreeing with good decision making.
- Page 145: Avoid making unsupported assumptions and treating them as facts.
4. What values, purpose and personality do you have? What is needed for good decision making?
- Page 16: The clearer you are about which values are important for you, the easier it becomes for you to make a decision about what to do when.
- Page 31: To define your purpose, ask why you do what you do?
- Page 81: What is it that you really want? What are your most important values?
- Page 126: Avoid discrediting or ignoring information that does not fit your current way of thinking. Be open-minded.
- Page 126: Strengthen curiosity. Avoid thinking that you know more than you do.
- Page 127: Avoid holding on too long to current technology or strategies. When something is not working, move on.
- Page 129: Extroverts prefer a decision process where they can talk things out in a group. Introverts prefer a decision process where they can write things down on their own.
Additional research from the book:
- Page 21: A decision making challenge starts when a person demands a decision.
- Pages 3, 130 and 144: We often want to simplify, ignore what we don't think is important and settle for good enough.
- Pages 7 and 116: We need to judge a decision at the time it is being made. Good decisions will generate more good outcomes, but they are not a guarantee. We cannot control outcomes, but we can control the choices we make.
- Page 175: Perfection is the enemy of decision quality because it gives an excuse for delaying decisions that need to be made.
- Page 175: We usually experience peace of mind when we are clear and feel good about our decision and are doing what makes sense and feels right.
1. What is the real problem that needs to be solved?
- Page 22: Find the reasons for the problem.
- Page 150: Avoid dragging the real problem over to a problem you know how to solve. Understand and define the real problem that needs to be solved.
- Page 151: Ask yourself how someone with a different skill set or experience would think of the situation.
- Page 172: Are you solving the right problem?
2. What possibilities and alternatives are there to solve the problem?
- Page 14: A decision cannot be better than the best alternative.
- Page 60: What is the wildest idea that has been considered?
- Page 60: What external people will you ask to suggest alternatives?
- Page 60: Do the alternatives, you have, cover all potential sources of value?
- Page 60: Are differences between alternatives clear and significant?
- Pages 94 and 103: To help yourself decide between alternatives, draw a simple decision tree.
- Page 106: What is the best alternative? Why is this alternative better than the others?
3. What are possible outcomes and probabilities of doing x?
- Page 15: What are some possible outcomes of doing x?
- Page 15: When you do x, what is the probability that y will happen?
- Page 66: Quality information must be relevant and reliable.
- Page 72: Who will you ask to get a second opinion about what the probability is that y will happen?
- Page 76: If you had more time / money, what additional information would you seek?
- Page 113: Involving people in or becoming involved in decision-making engenders a sense of ownership that results in commitment and effectiveness during implementation.
- Page 134: What facts do you have? Note that stories, you hear / read, are not necessarily true.
- Page 138 and 149: Avoid taking part in group-think during which a group generates overconfidence in what they think and closes their minds to contrary views. In this regard, do not confuse agreeing with good decision making.
- Page 145: Avoid making unsupported assumptions and treating them as facts.
4. What values, purpose and personality do you have? What is needed for good decision making?
- Page 16: The clearer you are about which values are important for you, the easier it becomes for you to make a decision about what to do when.
- Page 31: To define your purpose, ask why you do what you do?
- Page 81: What is it that you really want? What are your most important values?
- Page 126: Avoid discrediting or ignoring information that does not fit your current way of thinking. Be open-minded.
- Page 126: Strengthen curiosity. Avoid thinking that you know more than you do.
- Page 127: Avoid holding on too long to current technology or strategies. When something is not working, move on.
- Page 129: Extroverts prefer a decision process where they can talk things out in a group. Introverts prefer a decision process where they can write things down on their own.
Additional research from the book:
- Page 21: A decision making challenge starts when a person demands a decision.
- Pages 3, 130 and 144: We often want to simplify, ignore what we don't think is important and settle for good enough.
- Pages 7 and 116: We need to judge a decision at the time it is being made. Good decisions will generate more good outcomes, but they are not a guarantee. We cannot control outcomes, but we can control the choices we make.
- Page 175: Perfection is the enemy of decision quality because it gives an excuse for delaying decisions that need to be made.
- Page 175: We usually experience peace of mind when we are clear and feel good about our decision and are doing what makes sense and feels right.
June 24, 2021
Many organizations are bad at making decisions. Decision Quality (DQ) is a framework to help leaders and teams make better decisions.
I like the articulation of the "advocacy/approval megabias" (p152):
- Advocacy myth: "in which effective advocacy is misinterpreted as evidence in the quality of the recommended decision"
- Approval myth: "the idea that any proposed solution that is approved after intense interrogation by the approval body must be of high quality"
I'm keen to use DQ to help make decisions. There are good tools and processes here. I'm rating 3 stars because I usually rate books on emotional impact, and there are several sections that are quite repetitive (maybe a function of the audience - people who need to hear these messages repeated), which makes for dry reading. Less repetition and more case studies would have been great.
I like the articulation of the "advocacy/approval megabias" (p152):
- Advocacy myth: "in which effective advocacy is misinterpreted as evidence in the quality of the recommended decision"
- Approval myth: "the idea that any proposed solution that is approved after intense interrogation by the approval body must be of high quality"
I'm keen to use DQ to help make decisions. There are good tools and processes here. I'm rating 3 stars because I usually rate books on emotional impact, and there are several sections that are quite repetitive (maybe a function of the audience - people who need to hear these messages repeated), which makes for dry reading. Less repetition and more case studies would have been great.
February 16, 2024
So many business books look interesting and turn out to be advertisements for the consulting services of the writer(s). This one is a pretty classic case.
The model is fine, the religious fire behind it is a little weird, and no need to summarize as the top review from Frank Calberg does a fine job of that.
As always, some proposed best practice is dressed up in faux mathematics and pseudo-science to shine it up and sell the CEO/COO/CFO/WHOEVER on hiring a "Decision Professional" who is an employee at Spetzler's firm no doubt or the graduate of some kind of "Decision Professional" coursework created by same.
We start by misquoting Einstein, because I think it's the law for these books, intersperse it with touching stories of how maximizing rather than satisficing can help you personally when you buy a painting that is too large for your living room and need to decide on a new home to fit it into. We then cover how reliable and valid sciency assessments like the MBTI can help us in our quest for "DQ" (I already forgot Spetzler's type and too lazy to run a search - I'll just satisfice and say he's an INFP).
Move from there to try to piggyback on Daniel Kahneman through the creation of a "system 3" then elevate a list of biases to "mega biases" (not the taphonomic kind) and other kinds of weird intellectual chest thumping as hyperbole for the sake of the sale.
This book kind of reminded me in tone of Choice Theory by William Glasser except that one went off the rails a little later in the presentation. It's like starting a chat with someone on the subway and thinking they have some smart ideas and then 10 minutes into the conversation realizing they are actually in the middle of a mental health crisis centered on some sort of megalomania and messianic fantasy, but it's too late to find another seat.
A more serious book that wasn't trying to sell consulting time could have been much better, but I can't help but wonder how many gullible CEOs are out there who love spending company money on outsiders to fix things - oh, wait. I already know - it's most of them.
The model is fine, the religious fire behind it is a little weird, and no need to summarize as the top review from Frank Calberg does a fine job of that.
As always, some proposed best practice is dressed up in faux mathematics and pseudo-science to shine it up and sell the CEO/COO/CFO/WHOEVER on hiring a "Decision Professional" who is an employee at Spetzler's firm no doubt or the graduate of some kind of "Decision Professional" coursework created by same.
We start by misquoting Einstein, because I think it's the law for these books, intersperse it with touching stories of how maximizing rather than satisficing can help you personally when you buy a painting that is too large for your living room and need to decide on a new home to fit it into. We then cover how reliable and valid sciency assessments like the MBTI can help us in our quest for "DQ" (I already forgot Spetzler's type and too lazy to run a search - I'll just satisfice and say he's an INFP).
Move from there to try to piggyback on Daniel Kahneman through the creation of a "system 3" then elevate a list of biases to "mega biases" (not the taphonomic kind) and other kinds of weird intellectual chest thumping as hyperbole for the sake of the sale.
This book kind of reminded me in tone of Choice Theory by William Glasser except that one went off the rails a little later in the presentation. It's like starting a chat with someone on the subway and thinking they have some smart ideas and then 10 minutes into the conversation realizing they are actually in the middle of a mental health crisis centered on some sort of megalomania and messianic fantasy, but it's too late to find another seat.
A more serious book that wasn't trying to sell consulting time could have been much better, but I can't help but wonder how many gullible CEOs are out there who love spending company money on outsiders to fix things - oh, wait. I already know - it's most of them.
February 18, 2025
Dry but helpful
April 22, 2019
I read this as part of a Book Club at work. I found it very insightful on how to make quality decisions. The insights are both about the individual and the organization with respect to how decisions are made.
January 27, 2019
Easy to read, this book gives a disciplined approach to improve decisions, especially those that are more complex. Worth the effort.
May 9, 2025
A must-read for anyone making high-stakes decisions—or trying to get better at the everyday ones.
Decision Quality breaks down the anatomy of great decision-making with clarity, precision, and just the right amount of case study storytelling. Spetzler and his co-authors don’t promise perfect outcomes—but they do offer a powerful, practical framework for consistently making better choices, even when uncertainty looms large.
What stood out for me is how it reframes success—not as “was the result good?” but “was the decision good given what we knew at the time?” That distinction alone is gold. The six elements of decision quality are easy to grasp yet deep enough to apply across business strategy, personal goals, and leadership.
If you're tired of decision fatigue or want to bring more structure to how you (or your team) think, this book will become a go-to guide. Thoughtful, actionable, and genuinely transformative.
Decision Quality breaks down the anatomy of great decision-making with clarity, precision, and just the right amount of case study storytelling. Spetzler and his co-authors don’t promise perfect outcomes—but they do offer a powerful, practical framework for consistently making better choices, even when uncertainty looms large.
What stood out for me is how it reframes success—not as “was the result good?” but “was the decision good given what we knew at the time?” That distinction alone is gold. The six elements of decision quality are easy to grasp yet deep enough to apply across business strategy, personal goals, and leadership.
If you're tired of decision fatigue or want to bring more structure to how you (or your team) think, this book will become a go-to guide. Thoughtful, actionable, and genuinely transformative.
June 12, 2022
What I most value about this book is how much I've found myself immediately using the concepts and sharing them with others. Decision Quality presents a research-backed framework for making optimal decisions within the most efficient timeframe and involvement suitable to the problem at hand. The six components of the Decision Quality Chain help deciders define the scope of the problem, balance information gathering against time and resource constraints and move from reasoning to action. The system applies equally to group and individual decisions. Key benefits of the method include stakeholder buy-in and the elimination of common biases.
March 22, 2022
appropriate frame - creative alternatives - relevant and reliable information - values and tradeoff (generate common platform to compare) - sound reasoning (tools like tornado diagram, sensitivity analysis, and EV, experts) - action
February 16, 2023
1. Dialogue Decision Process: waterfall decision process for strategic decision;
2. DQ Appraisal Cycle: agile decision process for significant decision;
挺不错的，不过还需要多加时间。印象比较深刻的几点： 1。好决策不能保证你每次都赢，只能保证你在不确定和复杂面前，赢得概率比较高。所有决策的好坏在做决策的那一刻已经可以判断，不需要等待结果来验证； 2。问题的定义很重要，问题定义好了，问题就已经解决一半了；3。decision quality 6步：approprate frame -> creative alternatives -> relevant and reliable info -> clear value and tradeoffs -> sound reasoning -> commmitment to actio
2. DQ Appraisal Cycle: agile decision process for significant decision;
挺不错的，不过还需要多加时间。印象比较深刻的几点： 1。好决策不能保证你每次都赢，只能保证你在不确定和复杂面前，赢得概率比较高。所有决策的好坏在做决策的那一刻已经可以判断，不需要等待结果来验证； 2。问题的定义很重要，问题定义好了，问题就已经解决一半了；3。decision quality 6步：approprate frame -> creative alternatives -> relevant and reliable info -> clear value and tradeoffs -> sound reasoning -> commmitment to actio
June 26, 2025
Nunca pensé que le daría 4 a un libro técnico que enseña una metodología para tomar mejores decisiones.
Al igual que cualquier tipo de bibliografía similar, entender no es lo mismo que aplicar y generalmente los ejemplos de este tipo de obras son superficiales y te dejan lleno de preguntas de cómo realmente implementarlo.
Pues este libro, señores y señoras, es la excepción hasta ahora. Da muchos ejemplos prácticos... Sin embargo, en realidad está centrado en la toma de decisiones de mega proyectos. Aún así, me inspiró bastante y se logran sacar algunas cositas para ponerlas en práctica.
Al igual que cualquier tipo de bibliografía similar, entender no es lo mismo que aplicar y generalmente los ejemplos de este tipo de obras son superficiales y te dejan lleno de preguntas de cómo realmente implementarlo.
Pues este libro, señores y señoras, es la excepción hasta ahora. Da muchos ejemplos prácticos... Sin embargo, en realidad está centrado en la toma de decisiones de mega proyectos. Aún así, me inspiró bastante y se logran sacar algunas cositas para ponerlas en práctica.
May 28, 2016
A nice introduction to decision science, pitfalls of normal decision-making and how to apply decision science into personal and business decisions. I liked the scaled up and simplified versions for use with strategic and significant decisions respectively. Made me want to know more about this field.
June 27, 2016
Exceptional book for decision makers
This is a must read for leader / executives required to make decisions as a significant component of their work. It provides a practical way to approach sections large and small.
This is a must read for leader / executives required to make decisions as a significant component of their work. It provides a practical way to approach sections large and small.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews