Review: The Decision Book

The Decision Book: 50 models for strategic thinking
By Mikael Krogeus & Roman Tschäppeler
176 pages, hardcover

I picked this one up when I was in Singapore last year and it’s an interesting little book! I wasn’t looking at anything in particular that day but the title of the book intrigued me – I’ve always been a sucker for models of all sorts, but particularly ones that relate to thinking and creativity.

This little black book is a compact summary of 50 models of strategic thinking, broken down into four different chapters: How to improve myself, How to understand myself better, How to improve others and How to understand others better. From the popular SWOT model to obscure but interesting Swiss Cheese model, the book lays out tests, plots graphs and uncovers a lot of thinking process models that are useful to not just corporations and businesses – but to everyday people like you and me. In fact, one reviewer on Amazon said that the book didn’t cover enough for corporate types, so that’s good news for the rest of us!

Here’s some of the topics in the book that I enjoyed (and had a good chuckle at):

• The Gap-in-the-Market Model: How to recognize a bankable idea
• The Morphological Box and SCAMPER: Why you have to be structured to be creative
• The Superficial Knowledge Model: Everything you don’t need to know

• The Esquire Gift Model: How much to spend on gifts

The book doesn’t have in depth explanation to all the models (it’s rather small at 4.3” x 7.2”), but enough to get your curiosity going for the ones that tickle your fancy. It’s not all serious and drab – some of the systems and models are irrelevant and fun; it pokes fun at a little of everything.

So if you are constantly on the lookout for mental exercises that you can use to help you bridge to gap between a partner, or to understand others (and yourself better) you’d love this book!

Get it over at Amazon.

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And on that note, happy weekend folks!