The Decision Book
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By Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
Former US President Harry Truman famously kept a sign declaring “The Buck Stops Here” in the Oval Office at the White House.
He’s not the only US President to revel in decision-making, George W Bush branded himself “the Decider”.
Another former president Dwight D Eisenhower had lots to say about effective decision-making, albeit without the flamboyant catchphrases of his counterparts.
However, Eisenhower’s habits of appealing for calm under pressure and espousing methodical decision-making perhaps best epitomises Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler’s mini-manual, The Decision Book.
This pocket-sized book of ideas is full of advice on how to make decisions.
It provides simple diagrams and descriptions of 50 management and social theories for strategic thinking on everything from what your taste in music says about you to how to spot the next big thing.
Sometimes the daily decisions we make can be instinctive and obvious but at other times they need more careful thought so the book uses a plethora of graphs and bar charts in its attempts to calculate how our decisions can achieve the best outcomes.
For example, Eisenhower’s legendary time management skills are broken down in just four simple-to-read pages. They show how to manage priorities and a busy schedule by employing a methodical process to tackle a workload.
The book advises that if something is important but not urgent, then decide when to do it. If it is urgent but not important, then delegate it.
If a task is urgent and important, do it immediately. If it is not important and not urgent, do it later.
While being busy might not have been a problem for brokers in recent years, business is now picking up and firms need to manage their time effectively.
“Whatever job lands on your desk, begin by breaking it down according to the Eisenhower method and then decide how to proceed,” the book states.
“We often focus too strongly on the urgent and important field, on the things that have to be dealt with immediately. Ask yourself: when will I deal with things that are important, but not urgent?”
Another time management method explored by the authors is that of legendary investor Warren Buffet.
Buffet makes a list of the things he needs to do in a day then works from the top downwards until he has completed the list. However, this simple task is far easier said than done since many brokers know that some days simply don’t seem long enough to complete their work.
Dealing with feedback is categorised in a similar way to the Eisenhower method of time management.
The authors claim you should divide any comment on your work under the headings of advice, compliments, criticism and suggestion. Categorising this may be tricky but only then can you decide how to react to the suggestions.
As a compendium of ideas the book can sometimes be a hit and miss affair and some of the more complex concepts, such as the Monte Carlo simulation, may be best ignored.
However, the book is informative and interesting and each article can be read separately so you can choose when and what you want to read.
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