Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time

by J. Edward Russo, Paul J.H. Schoemaker

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.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Leadership, Self Help, Management

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2001

About the author

Professor Russo holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in probability and statistics, and a doctoral degree in cognitive psychology. He has consulted for numerous public and private organizations. His research centers on decision making for managers and consumers. His published work has dealt with advertising, behavioral methodologies, consumer-information aids, decision processes, the distortion of information during a decision, and product knowledge.

Reviews

[Gerrit Gmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disappointing, this book is largely derivative of the classic Kahneman and Tversky works and is overly verbose for its content…

[Prateek Vasisht · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduction: Decision-Making in the Real World. Ch. 1. Setting the Course -- Phase I. Decision-Framing. Ch. 2. The Power of Frames. Ch. 3. Creating Winning Frames. Interlude A: Improving Your Options -- Phase II. Gathering Intelligence. Ch. 4. Avoiding Distortion and Bias. Ch. 5. Intelligence in the Face of Uncertainty. Interlude B: Technologies for Aiding Decisions -- Phase III. Coming to Conclusions. Ch. 6. Choosing: A Pyramid of Approaches. Ch. 7. Managing Group Decisions. Interlude C: Implementing Your Chosen Option -- Phase IV. Learning from Experience. Ch. 8. The Personal Challenges of Learning. Ch. 9. Learning in Organizations. Ch. 10. Bringing It All Home: The Decisions of RealHome.com. Epilogue: Learning into Action -- App. A. Decision Audits -- App. B. Organizational Challenges in Decision-Making.

[Quốc Khánh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The core idea of the book is: To make winning decisions in uncertainties, You have to make decision from multi-perspectives .
Make decision is a process from making choices from multi-perspectives, gathering focused-data informations without any confirmation bias or vague intitution, Come into conclusion with a detailed alalysis & weighing many criteria from many views with no emotional preference. And don't forget to review from your experience to grasp the context of your exp, and to improve your decisions.

This book is really a masterpiece about decision-making topic for anyone who wants to improve their decisions in work and life also.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. Many of the things in this book I already knew and use but interestingly - not all in or from business. Some of the ideas I actually knew and exercised in the area of sports coaching. So if nothing else it connected some knowledge that I had in two very different (but still goal-oriented) areas. Plus I learned a thing or two new as well. I think for those who haven't spent a lot of time in the study of decision theory and coupled that with real world experience can learn even more. I give this a thumbs up and suspect many others could rate it a 5 if they gave it a chance and learned the material.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's nice about this book is that it provides tools, frameworks, and plans that are flexible and open to change. It's not overly prescriptive but still provides a useful structure to begin any decision process. I suspect that this book works best in conjunction with Russo's previous effort since decision biases aren't explained in great detail, but it still works well as a solid first step. Some of the quotes and examples haven't aged well either, but I would generally recommend this as a useful business read.

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Required reading for a class this past semester. I thought it was a complete waste of time and money. A rehash of things that I already knew. Plus, the book had a quote from Jeff Skilling of Enron fame that was used as an example of good decision making. Any book that uses Jeff Skilling as an example of good decision making should be burned.

[Moshe Zadka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making decisions correctly is hard. Humans are biased and built badly to do so. This book is a pretty good manual on how to make good decisions. It talks about how to take uncertainty into account, and how to avoid many other pitfalls. I'm not sure, though, it lives up to its promise of solving every hurdle in the path of good decision making.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the authors' previous book. It's a book I give all my employees. This one is not as good. The first third and last 10 only score a 2.5 from me. The chapters on framing just don't do it for me. The middle 40% is very good and gets a 4.5, so I rate the book a 3.5 or so.

[Agoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decision making is important in real world, so far I need to read this book to help me to make a good decision. It's still on progress. I am reading it now.

[Alex Yost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super book. Has affected the way I work.