Must read books about decision making techniques

Books About Decision
Making Techniques

Of the many books about decision making techniques, I have reviewed a few of them below and will add to the list as time goes by.

'Intuition at Work'

Gary Klein defines an intuition is the ability to put experience into practice. He suggests that as people build up their experiences, it allows them to recognise more and more patterns. This pattern recognition capability is the basis of expertise and it's what allows people to make more effective decisions.

He believes that intuition is a skill that can be learned and improved and throughout the book there are many exercises for doing just this. Even though he seems to belittle the rational, analytical aspect of decision making, he is actually advocating a combination of analysis and intuitive decision making.

This is one of my favorite books about decision making techniques, not just because it goes against much of the conventional wisdom, but because I think his model is more accurate to fact than the commonly accepted ones.

'The Effective Executive'

Written by Peter Drucker over 40 years ago, it still holds true today. Many of the ideas have been confirmed time and again since then.

He sets out some important principles behind effective decision making, including the timing of decision making and what kinds of things are useful to make decisions about.

He spends some time discussing the use of time effectively. An effective executive knows exactly how he spends his time. He also says that an effective executive is being himself/herself rather than trying to be somebody else, puts attention on his/her strengths and what works rather than problems, and focuses on results and not efforts.

(I think he would have really liked the decision making model laid out in this particular web site!)

'Decisions, Decisions'

David Welch starts out describing the three parts of a decision and builds a nine step model of decision making.

This is quite an involved process which involves quite a lot of cognition and analysis, although he does suggest that some steps can be skipped at different times.

He does also cover some of the biases of decision making that we are all subject to.

Great Answers To Tough Interview Questions

Martin John Yate runs through a lot of decision making interview questions that interviewers use to make their decisions. He also explains what information they are looking for, potential reasons for wanting it, and he suggests a variety of excellent answers.

He covers many aspects of interviews, including a chapter on 'The other side of the desk'.

"Yes" or "No": The Guide to Better Decisions

Written by Spencer Johnson, this is the srory of a young man who goes on a hike with a group of people who teach him how to make his own map for decision making by asking two particular questions.

This is one of the books about decision making techniques that combines the rational and intuitive approaches. It will prove useful for many, although even the intuitive aspect is overly head based.