Rating: 
Summary: A Fundamentally Different Way to See Decision Making
Review: After a year has passed since having read this book and since also having delved into QFD, AHP, MAUT, heuristics and biases (Kahneman, Slovic & Tversky),etc., I've had the opportunity to generate a decision methodologies course. I came back to this material as a central theme for the course. Why? Because, in practice, traditional decision support methodologies (mentioned above) usually fail to reach their goal - which is to take real people and get them to make better decisions. Sources of Power provides a framework for understanding about how real people make decisions - novices, journeymen and experts - and how they differ. Because the Klein Associates' Recognition-Primed Decision model (RPD) begins to explain expertise's properties, some surprising things fall out: experts typically do not weigh alternatives in trade-study fashion: down the tubes with most analytical models (in the traditional sense). Experts must be able to see the context of the raw data, not just processed data. Down the tubes with collaboration tools (IT-based solutions, PDM, etc.) as "the answer" for integrated product development. Expertise must be supported, not IT-based solutions (...that statement is likely to hit hard in your business environment). This leads to totally different thinking about how to train people to make better decisions, and not just in time-critical domains. With the insights related above, this opens some doors to new ways of understanding why other techniques fail. When formulating a decision problem, the goal must be carefully formulated. Sources of Power will subtly change your approach. Without this understanding, your chances of solving the wrong problem go up exponentially. When you remove expertise from the difficult problem-solving domain, no decision method can save you. But note, you also cannot expect expertise to answer certain questions -- multi-attribute problems still need methodology support, e.g., problems comparing "apples, oranges & bananas"). See Robyn Dawes' "The Robust Beauty of Improper Linear Models" from "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases". What do you do in a group decision-making environment (such as IPTs)? Use Delphi? QFD? AHP? MAUT? Once your emphasis changes from "canned" decision-support approaches to context-sensitive approaches, then your entire perspective changes. (See B. Boehm's "Software Engineering Economics" principle of top talent). The combination of domain expertise and the other decision support methods forms a new path - you cannot expect to do much better without both. But how do you combine these methods? Sources of Power doesn't provide you a canned answer, but it definitely provides you a path - a necessary one for understanding and improving successful decision making. Tell your colleagues about this book, and let them form their own (expert) opinion. By the way, the price makes it a steal...
Rating:
Summary: A Fundamentally Different Way to See Decision Making
Review: After a year has passed since having read this book and since also having delved into QFD, AHP, MAUT, heuristics and biases (Kahneman, Slovic & Tversky),etc., I've had the opportunity to generate a decision methodologies course. I came back to this material as a central theme for the course. Why? Because, in practice, traditional decision support methodologies (mentioned above) usually fail to reach their goal - which is to take real people and get them to make better decisions. Sources of Power provides a framework for understanding about how real people make decisions - novices, journeymen and experts - and how they differ. Because the Klein Associates' Recognition-Primed Decision model (RPD) begins to explain expertise's properties, some surprising things fall out: experts typically do not weigh alternatives in trade-study fashion: down the tubes with most analytical models (in the traditional sense). Experts must be able to see the context of the raw data, not just processed data. Down the tubes with collaboration tools (IT-based solutions, PDM, etc.) as "the answer" for integrated product development. Expertise must be supported, not IT-based solutions (...that statement is likely to hit hard in your business environment). This leads to totally different thinking about how to train people to make better decisions, and not just in time-critical domains. With the insights related above, this opens some doors to new ways of understanding why other techniques fail. When formulating a decision problem, the goal must be carefully formulated. Sources of Power will subtly change your approach. Without this understanding, your chances of solving the wrong problem go up exponentially. When you remove expertise from the difficult problem-solving domain, no decision method can save you. But note, you also cannot expect expertise to answer certain questions -- multi-attribute problems still need methodology support, e.g., problems comparing "apples, oranges & bananas"). See Robyn Dawes' "The Robust Beauty of Improper Linear Models" from "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases". What do you do in a group decision-making environment (such as IPTs)? Use Delphi? QFD? AHP? MAUT? Once your emphasis changes from "canned" decision-support approaches to context-sensitive approaches, then your entire perspective changes. (See B. Boehm's "Software Engineering Economics" principle of top talent). The combination of domain expertise and the other decision support methods forms a new path - you cannot expect to do much better without both. But how do you combine these methods? Sources of Power doesn't provide you a canned answer, but it definitely provides you a path - a necessary one for understanding and improving successful decision making. Tell your colleagues about this book, and let them form their own (expert) opinion. By the way, the price makes it a steal...
Rating:
Summary: A very readable book that talks to the reader
Review: Although I am not a professional in this area, I have had many experiences that required me to learn how people make decisions. This book goes a long way toward explaining these processes and provides plenty of examples to learn from. Not only does Gary Klein present his results, he covers how the data were obtained, its analysis, his assumptions, and how the conclusions were reached. It provides great insight into one's own thinking and decision making process. I was truly amazed at how readable this book was and how thoroughly real life examples were analyzed. I would recommend it to anyone in any field.
Rating:
Summary: How we really make decisions?
Review: As an Emergency Physician, I have taken an interest in the decision making process we use under time pressure to care for patients. I found this book very important and reflects what actually happens rather than what we are TAUGHT occurs in the medical decision making process. Under time pressure, I believe we do make an instant subconscious decision about whether a particular clinical scenario is typical or atypical and adapt our treatment accordingly. For the most part, it works well. But when things go wrong, I now have a better understanding of why. I strongly recommend this book to anyone truly interested in decision making or in teaching others how to make decisions under time pressure.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Far exceeded my expectations in terms of supplying useable information about how to make better decisions. Reading this book has made me a better person. The numbers of books that I can say that about are fewer than the number of fingers on one hand.
Rating: 
Summary: Great but not exactly about decision making.
Review: For someone with high management/administration responsibility, many of the examples and anecdotes described in the books would shed light on how your organisation as a whole could go wrong, eg, mis-communications, failure to spot symptoms due to inexperience of staff etc. But the bulk of the book is not (at least directly) on how individuals make decision in particular situations. It will be five stars if it could be more focused and systematic. Anyway if all the lessons are remembered and applied, a manager will make much less management mistakes and devise better management systems to avoid those mistakes. All in all, a very good and rare book.
Rating:
Summary: The truth about how decision makers perform these decisions
Review: This book is definitively one of the most eye opening publications I've ever read. It poses several interesting issues related to the way people make decisions and why experts have a certain "intuition" which the author ends up demystifying and explaining to the rest of us.
The chapter about team work is also one of the most eye opening sections. I believe this books should be included in the curriculum of every school that bases its programs in the concept of teamwork. This book should be a mandatory text for very MBA and even for film students (if you see my profile you could tell filmmaking is my passion and one of my areas of expertise).
If the title is what made you look at these reviews and if the concept sounds interesting, believe me, the book will surpass your expectations. The examples are very clear and understandable and the knowledge could be applied to almost every field, since all fields of knowledge and of economic activity require both expertise and decision-making. The case style used throughout the book to sustain the different concepts it introduces are also an excellent way to make it self sustainable. If you are not certain, buy it, believe me.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This book represents a whole new approach to decision making. It is a must-read for managers and decision makers. Klein breaks outside the box of the traditional decision making process and presents a fresh look at how to make decisions that are timely, accurate, and effective. One of the best things about the book is straightforward manner in which Klein writes. You don't feel like you're in another yawner of a business class. You feel like you're listening to a colleague who has come up with a new way of doing something, a way that he has obviously been successful with himself. This book is just another in the list of great Klein business books. If you manage a business or are in a position to make decisions that affect a business, you need to read this and Klein's other masterful books.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This book represents a whole new approach to decision making. It is a must-read for managers and decision makers. Klein breaks outside the box of the traditional decision making process and presents a fresh look at how to make decisions that are timely, accurate, and effective. One of the best things about the book is straightforward manner in which Klein writes. You don't feel like you're in another yawner of a business class. You feel like you're listening to a colleague who has come up with a new way of doing something, a way that he has obviously been successful with himself. This book is just another in the list of great Klein business books. If you manage a business or are in a position to make decisions that affect a business, you need to read this and Klein's other masterful books.
Rating:
Summary: Decisions and Judgment in the Real World
Review: This is a thought-provoking book about how experiential experts render judgments and make decisions about the events that are going on around them. The title, Sources of Power, confused me as a reader. Through observation and stories, we come to a very diffrent view of leadership and decision making than the one espoused by rational problem-solvers. I recommend this book to individuals who want to improve their patterns of leadership.
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