Synopses & Reviews
Make better decisions – every day, everywhere! Decide and Conquer, Second Edition brings together all the practical skills you need to do just that. This quick, concise book identifies every key obstacle to quality decision-making and shows exactly how to overcome them. You'll discover how your personality impacts your decision-making, why instincts and experience can lead you astray, how to simplify complex decisions without oversimplifying them and much more.
Renowned management author Dr. Stephen P. Robbins translates cutting-edge research findings about human behavior and decision-making into language anyone can understand – and act upon. In this Second Edition, he provides many new and updated examples, updated research, and new coverage, including these crucial new topics:
- Are you a Maximizer or a Satisficer – and what it means for your decision-making
- Overcoming the familiarity bias, adaptation bias, and fear-of-loss bias
- How to stop throwing good money after bad
- Knowing when doing nothing is your best option
- Accounting for gendered decision-making styles
Decide and Conquer, Second Edition covers everything from goal-setting and risk-taking to overconfidence to procrastination, and offers indispensable insights for overcoming the multiple biases that are built into all human decision-makers. You'll use Robbins' powerful techniques to improve every decision you make – about your relationships, career, finances, everything!
Synopsis
Updated and expanded with brand-new research and techniques!
MAKE BETTER DECISIONS—EVERY DAY, EVERYWHERE!
- Leverage the latest advances in behavioral decision-making research
- Identify and leverage your decision style
- Learn techniques for reducing common decision biases and errors
When it comes to decision making, your intuition and experiences can often lead you astray. Dr. Stephen P. Robbins translates thousands of studies on decision making into a short, easy-to-read guide that will help you improve the choices that shape your life.
You’ll learn the importance of clear goals, not to “throw good money after bad,” the downside of experience, why seeking decisions that are “good enough” may make you happier than trying to maximize, and that sometimes the best decision is to do nothing.
Robbins’s techniques can help you improve every decision you make—about your career, finances, business, and relationships.
About the Author
Stephen P. Robbins (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is professor emeritus of management at San Diego State University and the world's best-selling textbook author in the areas of both management and organizational behavior. His books have sold more than 6 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. His books are currently used at more than 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities, as well as hundreds of schools throughout Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
In Dr. Robbins’ “other life,” he participates in masters’ track competitions. Since turning 50 in 1993, he has set numerous indoor and outdoor age-group world sprint records. He has won two dozen indoor and outdoor U.S. championships at 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, and 14 individual gold medals at World Masters Track Championships. In 2005, Dr. Robbins was elected into the USA Masters’ Track & Field Hall of Fame.
Table of Contents
Part I: Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Decision Making Shapes Your Life 3
Chapter 2: The Search for Rationality 7
Chapter 3: Why It’s Hard to Be Rational 11
Part II: How Do You Make Decisions? 17
Chapter 4: What’s Your Decision Style? 19
Chapter 5: Are You a Risk-Taker? 23
Chapter 6: Are You a Maximizer or Satisficer? 27
Chapter 7: Who Controls Your Destiny? 29
Chapter 8: Do You Procrastinate? 33
Chapter 9: Are You Impulsive? 35
Chapter 10: Can You Control Your Emotions? 39
Chapter 11: Are You Overconfident? 43
Chapter 12: Understanding Your Personality Profile 45
Part III: Common Biases and Errors That Most of Us Make (and How to Overcome Them) 49
Chapter 13: How Can You Be So Darn Sure About That? Coping with Overconfidence 51
Chapter 14: Never Do Today That Which You Can Do Tomorrow: The Inertia Bias 55
Chapter 15: I Want It, and I Want It NOW! The Immediate Gratification Bias 59
Chapter 16: Where You End Up Depends on Where You Start: The Anchoring Effect 63
Chapter 17: I’ll See It When I Believe It: The Selective Perception Bias 67
Chapter 18: I Hear What I Want to Hear: The Confirmation Bias 71
Chapter 19: Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? The Framing Bias 75
Chapter 20: What Have You Done for Me Lately? The Availability Bias 79
Chapter 21: Looks Can Be Deceiving: The Representation Bias 83
Chapter 22: Seeing Patterns That Aren’t There: Coping with Randomness 87
Chapter 23: I Only Like Change That Jingles in My Pocket: The Familiarity Bias 91
Chapter 24: Gone Is Not Always Forgotten: Understanding Sunk Costs 95
Chapter 25: Keep It Simple: The Limited Search Error 99
Chapter 26: Losing Your Head in the Heat of Battle: The Emotional Involvement Error 103
Chapter 27: Who You Gonna Blame? The Self-Serving Bias 107
Chapter 28: Novelty Wears Off: The Adaptation Bias 111
Chapter 29: I Knew It All the Time: The Hindsight Bias 115
Part IV: Advice Your Mother Never Gave You 119
Chapter 30: Clear Goals and Preferences Make Choosing a Lot Easier 121
Chapter 31: Sometimes Doing Nothing Is Your Best Option 125
Chapter 32: Choosing Not to Decide Is Still a Decision 129
Chapter 33: Decisions Are Not Made in Isolation 133
Chapter 34: All Decisions Aren’t Important 137
Chapter 35: More Information Isn’t Necessarily Better 141
Chapter 36: You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing 145
Chapter 37: Don’t Rehash Past Decisions 149
Chapter 38: Successful People Take Risks 153
Chapter 39: It’s Okay to Make Mistakes, or No One Has an Undefeated Season 157
Chapter 40: Experience Can Improve Decisions, But 161
Chapter 41: Where You’re from Influences How You Decide 165
Part V: An Epilogue 169
Chapter 42: Summary, or Why Ignorance Isn’t Bliss 171
Endnotes 177
Index 199