Freestyle Decision Making: Surfing the Wave of Information to Get Better Results in Life and Business

by Mona Riabacke, Ari Riabacke

Overview

Never before has the number of decision-demanding situations been so many and number of options to choose from been greater. Every day, we make up to 10,000 decisions at an ever-faster pace in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world. This is a book about how decision problems can change into decision opportunities. It can be as easy as simply resolving to make decisions, to stop postponing decision making - to dare. Arriving at good decisions is essential to achieving success and the life that we want to live, but we seldom consider how we go about making decisions or how we could do it better. Businesses are attempting to improve their decision making by acquiring more technology but improving decision-making requires more than this. There is a global knowledge-shortage with respect to what it is that triggers people when they make decisions. This ground-breaking book will help close these knowledge gaps. The authors introduce the Pyramid of Decision Making, based on extensive research and experience within commerce and industry. Through following the steps outlined, you will make wiser decisions in both businesses and life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910649077
Publisher:	LID Publishing
Publication date:	08/10/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ari and Mona Riabacke are consultants and doctors of philosophy, and specialize in risk and decision analysis. They are members of the Decide Research Group at Stockholm University.

Table of Contents

Foreword 12

Preface 15

No decision is also a decision 18

Decisions and choices - non-stop 19

Two big decisions 20

The world will never be normal again 22

Are most of us better than average? 24

The Pyramid of Decision Making - in brief 26

1 The Human Element 28

A Stone Age mind in a cyber world 30

Rational or not? 34

More structure 37

The logic of being inconsistent 40

The brain's two systems 43

Would you like an injection or two? 46

Different types of decision maker 49

Male and female 51

Men are more cocky by nature 55

Sex 58

Stress, hunger and fatigue 61

Do you remember what you remember? 63

Heuristics and biases 66

Which line is longer? 69

Summarizing tips 72

2 The Herd Instinct 74

Recognizing the paths we have always taken 76

Where one leads, others follow 78

C.R.I.T.I.C (al) decisions 83

Conforming 86

When we make "herd decisions" 88

Never let the fear of failure keep you from playing the game 94

Freak out dude! 97

Create an "ok to make a mistake" atmosphere 100

Summarizing tips 102

3 Context 104

What you see depends on its context 106

The right person in the wrong place 108

There is always a context 109

Irrelevant information is relevant 112

First impressions last 114

Hey monkey, what are you doing and why? 117

How we choose to compare 121

Who is right and who is wrong? 124

Summarizing tips 126

4 Information 128

The more the better? 130

Grasp the concept 133

We see what we want to see 135

Information gap 138

Stereotypical 140

Half as much is twice as good 144

The answer lies in the question 147

Screw logic, tell a story 151

Consult the brain before engaging the tongue 154

Info holies anonymous 156

Summarizing tips 158

5 Tech 160

Computerized decision making 163

We had a dream 167

What's in it for me? 172

We can improve 176

How can we improve? 180

Don't we like technology? 186

Summarizing tips 188

Postscript 190