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(4)
Want to know how people make decisions? Try this view out.
This is an insightful book, exploring how we make decisions. Remember the old Ben Franklin approach? Two columns on a piece of paper: One column is headed reasons to decide yes and the other why we would not make the decision. Whichever side has the most entries determines our decision. Others argue that humans use a rational calculus to make decisions. What are the costs and benefits of any decision?
There are any number of perspectives on how humans make decisions--rational choice theory, heuristics and biases, the evolutionary toolbox, incrementalism, and on and on. This book adopts something like a naturalistic decision-making perspective.
Klein's book talks about how we make decisions based on his study of actual decision-making--whether by firefighters or military personnel. His focus is "naturalistic decision-making." It provides a useful alternative view on how people make decisions. He notes factors that help define such a situation--time pressure, high stakes, unclear goals, inadequate information, poorly defined procedures, and the like. Despite such challenges, people with experience tend to make pretty good decisions. This book addresses why and suggests how all of us could make better decisions.
I am not completely convinced by the argument, but the author does a nice job of laying out his viewpoint. And it clearly adds to the discourse on the subject of decision-making.
Fine book. Not the easiest read, but it makes a useful contribution.
Amazon.com
Gary Klein studies decision-making in the field, tagging along with firefighters, standing by in intensive-care units, and watching chess masters play lightning-fast "blitz" games to learn how people make choices with time constraints, limited information, and changing goals. From this research, he and his associates have developed a theory of "naturalistic decision-making."
Sources of Power essentially lends the validity of scientific research to techniques that many of us use every day. There's intuition, which is based not on instantaneous insight but on the rapid (perhaps even subconscious) interpretation of perceptual cues. There's mental simulation, a finely honed method of visualization. There's storytelling and metaphor, which enable decision-makers to devise meaningful frameworks and compare their present situations to previous events. Nobody is born with an inherent mastery of these and other techniques, Klein tells us, but we are all born with the capability to develop, through experience, the skill sets experts call upon to make good decisions.
Product Description
Anyone who watches the television news has seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Gary Klein is one of the developers of the naturalistic decision making approach, which views people as inherently skilled and experienced. It documents human strengths and capabilities that so far have been downplayed or ignored.
Since 1985, Klein has conducted fieldwork to find out how people tackle challenges in difficult, nonroutine situations. Sources of Power is based on observations of humans acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions. The professionals studied include firefighters, critical care nurses, pilots, nuclear power plant operators, battle planners, and chess masters. Each chapter builds on key incidents and examples to make the description of the methodology and phenomena more vivid. In addition to providing information that can be used by professionals in management, psychology, engineering, and other fields, the book presents an overview of the research approach of naturalistic decision making and expands our knowledge of the strengths people bring to difficult tasks.
(4.5)
