Decision-making - Managerial Skills - Manageris

Decision-making

Intuition and Decision Making Make better decisions by combining logical analysis and intuition	Should managers follow their intuitions? Long decried in the business world, with its unconditional attachment to “logical reasoning,” intuition has become popular once again in recent years, as people have become more aware of the role of emotions and intangible factors. Yet, intuition and decision making do not always make good bedfellows. Although intuition is sometimes extremely efficient, it also contains many potential traps. So how do you know when to trust your intuitions? The publications that we have analyzed offer practical advice on turning intuition into a valuable asset to improve the quality of your thinking.
Intuition at Work, Gary Klein, Doubleday, 2003. Its Powers and Perils, David G. Myers, Yale University Press, 2002.

Why Decisions Fail	Over half of decisions do not produce the expected outcome, according to a recent study. Why Decisions Fail shows that although blame is often placed on external factors, poor decision-making practices are often the real reason. Using examples of famous fiascoes, such as the commercial flop of the London Millenium Dome and Eurodisney’s initial problems, the author analyzes the key factors that cause poor decisions, e.g. making premature commitments, failing to consider the interests of all stakeholders, etc. His abundantly illustrated look at these striking examples invites managers to challenge many accepted habits.
Paul C. Nutt Berrett-Koehler, 2002.

Winning Decisions	Paradoxically, teams sometimes make decisions that are less effective than those that their individual members would have made on their own. Winning Decisions analyzes the traps that threaten collective decisions. In addition to advising managers to be aware of these traps, the authors recommend adopting a disciplined decision-making process: ensure that all team members share the same vision of the problem, establish routines to limit confusion during the information gathering process, set strict rules to resist the pull toward conformity and sterile conflicts, use systematic, rather than intuitive processes, etc.
J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Schoemaker, Currency Doubleday, 2002.

The Logic of Failure	In the Logic of Failure, Dietrich Dürner, the German cognitive psychology expert, shares the findings of his research on decision making. Computer simulations were used to study the behavior of decision makers confronted with complex systems. The researcher then used this information to underline the main risks threatening all decision makers, regardless of intellectual capacity or expertise. All managers will benefit from the precious information drawn from his work.
Dietrich Dšrner, Perseus Books, 1996.

Smart Choices	This book takes the form of a practical guide to good decision making. The authors show how the decision-making process is rife with traps that often take decision-makers unaware. To avoid these traps, a systematic approach to decision-making is recommended: carefully define the problem; specify objectives; lay out all possible options; understand their potential impact; adopt a rigorous approach to establishing priorities. The formal, somewhat pedantic style of the book can be a turn-off, but it focuses on several basic principles that are all too often ignored.
John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeny and Howard Raiffa, Harvard Business School Press, 1998.

Decision Traps	This book offers practical conclusions drawn from decion-making behavioral research, alerts readers to the traps of ingrained thinking, and describes modes of behavior that can improve decision quality.
J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Schoemaker, Doubleday, 1989.