Customer Reviews

Why Decisions Fail

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If we can accept Microsoft's statistic that more than 74 percent of the projects undertaken by business are behind schedule or result in failure, costing more than $74 billion a year, then this book is a bargain.

Ohio State University Professor Paul C. Nutt, who has spent more than 20 years studying how decision are made, says failures can be traced to three blunders and seven traps. Avoiding the blunders and the traps they set will cut one's failure rate significantly.

The blunders to avoid:
* Failure-Prone Practices
* Premature Commitments
* Wrong-Headed Investments.

These blunders lead unsuspecting managers into seven ensnaring traps:
* Failure to Reconcile Claims
* Failure to Manage the Forces Created by a Decision
* Ambiguous Directions
* Limited Search with No Innovation
* Misuse of Evaluation
* Avoidance of Ethic Questions
* Failure to Learn.

Sounds simple; yet anyone who has participated in a project recognizes these blunders and traps. In fact, most of us could supply the author with reams of case studies to add to the ones he uses to illustrate his points.

This is a great book and should be read by project managers and corporate managers alike. Microsoft's number may seem high, but there is no doubt we participate in too many projects that spiral behind schedule and over-budget. Good decision making techniques can only help improve our results.

This book has some good examples and insights, but it could be better organized. I like the focus on step-by-step decision making processes, as well as the summary of key points at the end of each chapter. Many of the points are common sense, but seeing the way things play out in practice is helpful.

There are some punctuation issues and tense shifts, which are distracting, but the most glaring issue is the author's habit of mentioning an example briefly and then dropping it, only to return a few pages or chapters later, and then switching among several examples before returning to discuss the decision theory. The narrative thread can get pretty muddled at times. I wish he had chosen a structure and stuck to it (give example then use it to illustrate the theory; give theory then explain using an example; explain theory and example together; etc.) as he progressed through each section. Also, the author will drop casual references to things like product recalls and business conditions from the seventies and eighties, as though any reader would remember them. The book reads like it was written (probably over years) and then completely reorganized without being rewritten. It would really benefit from a thorough revision and restructuring.

We often learn more from those who fail than those who succeed. The value in this book is in learning how to avoid using poor decision making techniques. As the founder of an Inc. 500 consulting company, I've seen executives and managers across many companies fall into these decision pitfalls described by the author. This is a great, if somewhat laborious, read on how to make better decisions. If you're continually amazed at how poorly people make decisions, I think you'll enjoy the book.

This book is repetitive, boring, uninformative, and any points made in the book are simply common sense.

Did I mention it's repetitive? ad nauseum.

However, some of the stories about geat disasters stemming from idiotic decisions are interesting, but the stories themselves only constitute about five per cent of the book. The rest of the book is filled with how to avoid these horrible decisions. I'll save you the effort of 300 pages of reading and give you the lesson of the book right here: Don't be a moron!

That's right, folks: don't be a moron - don't buy this book.

My textbook arrived in perfect condition and in record time. My only complaint is the following:
I received an email from Amazon saying my bank declined payment and my order was canceled. I was instructed to edit my bank information and reorder which I did.
Then I received an email saying that the order went through.
I ended up with two sets of textbooks
When I sent one order back, I was charged because it "was my fault".
On the screen where you list reasons for the return, there was nothing that could adequately explain why I was returning the books.

Other than that, my experience with Amazon was great.