Can decision-making be turned into a science? Michael Useem seems to think so in his book, The Go Point: When It’s Time to Decide. The author invites us to spend some time in the shoes of different people from history who have been faced with important life-or-death decisions. He invites us to consider all the facts, formulate our own decisions, then compare them with the actual decisions which were made and analyse the decision-making process to learn lessons.
The name of the book is uninspiring, but the book itself is written in an engaging manner and the scenarios give the reader plenty of opportunity for thinking. In Chapter 1 we find ourselves fighting fires in Colorado, and analysing each decision made over a period of several hours before 14 firefighters were killed. In Chapter 4 we analyse the decision-making mistakes made by General Lee which led to the loss of the battle at Gettysburg. Chapter 5 provides decision-making exercises for teams.
So what are the ingredients of good decisions? The book provides a number of them, including: prepare for decisions under stress; establish clear priorities; look to the future instead of rethinking the past; break hard decisions into smaller steps; consult those most familiar with the context and situation; and clarify what the decision entails before trying to make it. This is a useful book which I highly recommend.