Customer Reviews

The Right Decision Every Time: How to Reach Perfect Clarity on Tough Decisions(paperback)

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One of those I really wished I could have browsed at a local store. Judging from the quotes she pulled from books listed in the bibliography, you'd be better served buying some of those. There is little that is original here, and the whole "achieve clarity" mantra comes across as an attempt to create the next BIG THING in management fads. Soon we'll all be going off on expensive training sessions to work on our clarity.

Frankly, and I know some readers won't appreciate this, I gave up detailed reading after a few pages, skimmed the rest of the chapter, skipped and skimmed around a bit more, and had had enough.

I'm clear about one thing: I wasted my money.

I just finished reading the advanced reader copy of "The Right Decision Every Time..." Very impressive piece of work by Luda. Here are some very noteworthy specifics:

* I Like the five phases outlined in the book, particularly starting off with relaxing your mind & body.

* The book is filled with in-line examples & assignments; they are great reinforcement and enhance the readability of the book.

* I particularly liked the "Acknowledge Emotions" concept...too often we as leaders look to cerebral answers and are reluctant to acknowledging gut instincts. This concept liberates the gut-thinkers to listen to and acknowledge emotions but not get caught up in the emotion

* The pick a fight chapter is great! Luda articulates very well the concept of letting others poke holes at a decision to make the decision better

* I love the practicality of the methodology. Not heady, just very basic and understandable.

* The clarity of objective chapter very nicely lays out a practical and usable decision map.

* The methodology acknowledges both near-term and long-term benefits, constraints, and objectives. Very important in coming up with holistic decisions to thorny problems. This is particularly helpful to avoid making short-sighted decisions which will come back to bite the decision maker later because long-term implications weren't considered.

All in all, a great read which clearly explains a practical and usable decision-making framework for managers at any level. Great job Luda!

Decision-making seems to be a very popular topic these days, perhaps due to Malcolm Gladwell's recent book "Blink". I've read both "Blink" and Kopeikina's "Right Decision Every Time" and found the latter book much more informative because it provides not only interesting case histories, but very actionable and well reasoned approaches for decision making. I also applaud the author in that while she while brings an MIT developed analytical approach to problem solving, she also emphasizes the mental 'clarity state' and 'informed instinct' aspects of decisions and effective decision makers.

Ever dithered over a decision to be made, and just couldn't reach a level of comfort with the process? Luda Kopeikina attempts to help you past that point in her book The Right Decision Every Time - How to Reach Perfect Clarity on Tough Decisions.

Contents: The Key to Mastering Decisions; The Clarity State - Mental Focus Redefined; Five Hurdles to Clarity; How Do You Make Decisions? Overview of a CEO-Tested Process; You Too Can Reach Clarity at Will! - How to Attain the Clarity State; No Aim, No Game - How to Achieve Clarity of Objective; Escaping Handcuffs - How to Achieve Clarity of Constraints; Balancing Mind and Body - How to Learn from Your Emotional Clues; Pick a Fight! - How to Get the Most Out of Clashing Opinions; Everything Is Relative! - Why the Right Frame Is Critical; Becoming a Frame Artist - How to Master Clarity of Perspective; Bull's-eye! - How to Align with the Right Outcome; Voila! - How to Put It All Together; Clarity State Decision-Making Technique - A Summary; Additional Tips on Reducing Decision Complexity; References; Index

Kopeikina has made a career out of studying and teaching these decision techniques, and they do appear to work. The basic premise is to put yourself into a relaxed state (she covers how that is done), and then you can follow the decision-making steps she proposes in order to make decisions with less stress, less emotional turmoil, and more clarity. Even if you're not quite ready to follow the entire methodology, the material in the book will help add some structure to your decision process. The Decision Map she uses, once you understand it, can by itself help to come up with better decisions. You set a proper objective for the decision (often an issue in itself), identify the options and constraints, list the assumptions and success factors, and then go to work. Just clarifying these elements of a decision is usually more than most people do... Each chapter has a number of real case studies from her experience, so it's pretty easy to take her teaching and apply it to real-life scenarios.

I'm not personally ready to adopt this program for my decision situations, but I can see the value in it. I don't think I'd have a problem recommending this title as a potential source for someone looking to learn better decision-making skills.

The framework presented in this book is insightful and practical. Many books about decision-making are based on anecdotical "evidence" and lack a rigorous analysis of the situation and facts. The author presents a methodology widely used to help people to deal with stress and make more objective decisions. In fact, Harvard University, no less, has a training program based on the same techniques this books proposes: biofeedback and awareness,
Very helpful to speed up the decision making process. More importantly, the techniques presented here will help us to make conscious decisions that will allow us to get a good night's sleep.

As an entrepreneur at an MIT incubated start-up, my team and I are constantly faced with decisions. In such a fast-paced environment and with limited resources and time we turned to Luda's Kopeikina's book to be better equipped to reach decisions not only faster but to make better decisions in the first place. "The right decision every time" has brought tremendous awareness to the whole management team on how critical it is for the success of our company to be in a "state of clarity" , how to get there (the exercises and examples are great in her book) and how to avoid so-called "death habits" such as multi-tasking and working 24/7. A great executive coaching book, I highly recommend it if you want to take your leadership development to the next level!

In short, this book is an elaboration of the author's five part "Clarity State Decision Making Process, including:-

1. Reach and maintain the clarity state (Utilizing breathing and mind focusing techniques, reach a coherent state of mind, body and emotions....)

2. Define the decision (Create a one page decision map that captures the most salient factors related to the decision....)

3. Deal with emotions (Identify, acknowledge, and utilize emotions related to the decision.....)

4. Achieve clarity of perspective (Utilize several techniques, such as constraints relaxation.....)

5. Align with outcomes (Reflect on the solution options ....that one option is the right solution....)

Certainly the above is nothing unique. However, thanks to the author's excellent writing and presentation skill, the book is outstandingly readable and practical. The abundance of carefully picked wise sayings, exercises, examples, techniques in individual chapters do help readers a lot to get the most of it. For those who wanna enjoy an edge in decision making, dont miss it.

This book does a great job to address the importance of clarity throughout the decision making process. It provides a Decision Map which will help any executive or manager to carefully consider and explore the objective, constraints, assumptions, options and success metrics for any decision. It emphasizes the importance of a corporate culture where people can openly disagree, which ignites dialogue and debate. It forces you to ask questions and pushes people to defend their positions. Its conflict in search of understanding that leads you towards making the best decisions. The book is filled with famous quotes and words of wisdom which are helpful to the reader to reinforce the decision making process. It takes the subjective function we call decision making and turns it into a disciplined approach and process which will help you to make the right decision every time.

The book strikes the right balance between CEOs who boast about their success stories, dispensing fascinating narrative without independent verification and Harvard Business Review case studies that gather the facts but leave the analysis and conclusions up to the reader/instructor. The combination of fact-based research on how to make better decisions and specific examples based on the author's experiences at GE and elsewhere left me with a very positive impression of the book. My only wish is that the author included more personal examples from her own life experiences in the book. I can recommend it to anyone makes decisions in business or in personal life, which is just about everyone.

Well finally -- a scientific decision making tool that provides for the incredible merging of human essence and matter. Luda Kopeikina has captured and provided an excellent process toward sound decision making for any individual on high performance teams and puts it together in an easy to read book. I look forward to follow-on books from her....