It's Your Move
It's Your Move
Creating Valuable Decision Options When You Don’t Know What to Do
About the Book
Please Note: This title is no longer available here. It is now republished by Springer/Nature/Apress.
The simple, routine decisions we often face usually present us with a few mutually exclusive options. Do we get the vanilla ice cream or the chocolate? Do we travel to Disney World for vacation or the dude ranch in Alberta? Do we take the scenic route to work today or the timeliest route? We usually address these decisions by weighing in our mind the net effect of the relative pros and cons of each choice without generally worrying that the consequences will be beyond our ability to handle them should they turn out contrary to our preferences, even significantly so.
Business decisions often present us with a more complex situation, however. In these cases, we frequently face multiple coordinated decision options in which the possible combinations of options approach hundreds if not thousands. How do we possibly consider the pros and cons of all those options without getting mired in analysis paralysis or, throwing our hands up in frustration, shooting from the hip to deal with the consequences reactively as they arise? The answer is: we don't have to resort to either extreme.
The purpose of this short tutorial is to show you how to use three thinking devices called the Decision Hierarchy, the Strategy Table, and a Qualitative Description table to frame creative decision strategies that effectively reduce the decision complexity of business case analysis. It gives you the ability to create the right combinations of decision options for analysis without testing all of them or simplistically guessing at the best pathway to take at too high of a level of consideration.
The tutorial addresses the following issues:
- Why do you need this tool?
- Use a Decision Hierarchy to partition decision categories and identify decision options
- Use the Strategy Table to create spanning sets (or thematic threads) of global value
- Develop qualitative descriptions (rationales) of decision strategies for effective interdepartment communication
- What you should and should not do next
The tutorial also includes a downloadable template for creating your own creative decision strategies.
About the Author
Reader Testimonials
Bob de Wolff
Mr. Brown has done an admirable job presenting a very useful approach to making choices, and then providing tools that will help the reader. The Decision Hierarchy and Strategy Table together are worth many times the price of this book.
Anya Faingersh
...an excellent starting point for those who struggle with making decisions systematically.
Reader "Archimedes"
A clear and concise guide to aid with the decisions we encounter. Robert's book provides specific and detailed models along with insightful questions for navigating complex issues, not just convoluted theory.
Table of Contents
-
1. INTRODUCTION
- 1.1 Acknowledgments
- 1.2 “What Should I Do?”
- 1.3 Why You Need This Tutorial
- 1.4 The Full Scope of Effective Decision-Making
- 1.5 Definitions
- 1.6 Complementary Resource: Integrated Decision Hierarchy and Strategy Table Template
- 2. USE A DECISION HIERARCHY TO CATEGORIZE DECISION TYPES
- 3. TAME OPTION COMPLEXITY BY CREATING OPTION RICHNESS IN A STRATEGY TABLE
- 4. CLEARLY COMMUNICATE THE INTENTIONS OF DECISION STRATEGIES
-
5. WHAT COMES NEXT
- 5.1 What You SHOULD Do
- 5.2 What You Should NOT Do
-
6. APPENDIX: INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE
-
6.1 Decision Hierarchy worksheet
- 6.1.1 Decision Issues
- 6.1.2 Decision Hierarchy
-
6.2 Strategy Table worksheet
- 6.2.1 Strategy Table
- 6.2.2 Simplified Strategy Table
- 6.3 Strategy Rationales worksheet
-
6.1 Decision Hierarchy worksheet
-
7. A SPECIAL OFFER
-
7.1 How to be a Business Analytics Jedi
- 7.1.1 Initial Discussion
- 7.1.2 Decision Simulation - Let’s Make A Deal
- 7.1.3 Clarifying Objectives
- 7.1.4 Generating Creative Alternatives
- 7.1.5 Clarifying the Sources and Effects of Uncertainty
- 7.1.6 Understanding Risk & Uncertainty
- 7.1.7 Taking Uncertainty into Account
- 7.1.8 Rolling It All Up
-
7.2 To Framing…And Beyond!
- 7.2.1 Immediate Application of Concepts
- 7.2.2 Beyond Framing
-
7.1 How to be a Business Analytics Jedi
- Notes
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