Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking (The Tschäppeler and Krogerus Collection)

Despite this book's title, the book's content has very little to do with decision making. So what is it about? A simple summary eludes me, so I'll just let you find out. I gave this book perhaps more stars than it deserves because sometimes it's nice to sit back and think superficially (i.e., like a manager).

This small sized book (173 pages) covers a set of models that could fall under decision making tools (if you use a broad spectrum for that definition that is).

The models get placed under 4 basic questions:
1) How to improve yourself
2) How to understand yourself
3) How to understand others better
4) How to improve others

Some models are well known and broadly used, some are lesser known, some disappoint and some are nice surprises.

This book is a very fast read and really stripped down to the basics. The models are explained in single page format, followed up with an illustration. So as long as you don't expect detailed explanations on the models, you will love this one.

Interesting!

Contents

Instruction for use

How to improve yourself
- The Eisenhower matrix: How to work more efficiently
- The SWOT analysis: How to find the right solution
- The BCG box: How to evaluate costs and benefits
- The project portfolio matrix: How to maintain an overview
- The John Whitmore model: Am I pursuing the right goal?
- The rubber band model: How to deal with a dilemma
- The feedback model: Dealing with other's people's compliments and criticism
- The family tree model: The contacts you should maintain
- The morphological box and SCAMPER: Why you have to be structured to be creative
- The Esquire gift model: How much to spend on gifts
- The consequences model: Why it is important to make decisions promptly
- The conflict resolution model: How to resolve a conflict elegantly
- The crossroads model: So what next?

How to understand yourself
- The flow model: What makes you happy?
- The Johari window: What others know about you
- The cognitive dissonance model: Why people smoke when they know it's unhealthy
- The music matrix: What your taste in music says about you
- The unimaginable model: What do you believe in that you cannot prove?
- The Uffe Elbaek model: How to get to know yourself
- The fashion model: How we dress
- The energy model: Are you living in the here and now?
- The SuperMemo model: How to remember everything you have ever learned
- The political compass: What political parties stand for (UK model)
- The personal performance model: How to recognize whether you should change your job
- The making-of model: To determine your future, first understand your past
- The personal potential trap: Why it is better not to expect anything
- The hype cycle: how to identify the next big thing
- The subtle signals model: What your friends say about you
- The superficial knowledge model: Everything you don't need to know

How to understand others better
- The Swiss cheese model: How mistakes happen
- The Maslow pyramids: What you actually need, what you actually want
- Thinking outside the box: How to come up with brilliant ideas
- The Sinus Milieu and Bourdieu models: Where you belong
- The double-loop learning model: How to learn from your mistakes
- The AI model: What kind of discussion type are you?
- The small-world model: How small the world actually is
- The Pareto principle: Why 80 per cent of the output is achieved with 20 per cent of the input
- The long-tail model: How the internet is transforming the economy
- The Monte Carlo simulation: Why we can only approximate a definitive outcome
- The black swan model: Why your experiences don't make you any wiser
- The chasm - the diffusion model: Why everybody has an iPod
- The black box model: Why faith is replacing knowledge
- The status model: How to recognize a winner
- The prisoner's dilemma: When is it worth trusting someone?

How to improve others
- The Drexler-Sibbet team performance model: How to turn a group into a team
- The team model: Is your team up to the job?
- The gap-in-the-market model: How to recognize a bankable idea
- The Hersey-Blanchard model (situational leadership): how to successfully manage your employees
- The role-playing model: How to change your own point of view
- The result optimization model: Why the printer always breaks down just before a deadline
- The world's next top model

Now it is your turn
- Drawing lesson 1
- Drawing lesson 2
- My models

Appendix
- Bibliography
- Illustration credits
- Final note
- Thanks
- The authors

The Decision Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler presents a concise and useful set of models for a variety of circumstances. Clear explanations accompany elegant diagrams in describing the overall models. The models are placed into four categories: Improve Oneself, Know Oneself, Know Others, and Improve Others. All of the models, regardless of what category they belong to, claim to help us make decisions in uncertain situations.

The authors' purpose in this book is to aid decision-making and reflection, in both individual and collaborative contexts. The authors' state that a model must have the following attributes:

(1) simplifies
(2) is pragmatic
(3) summarizes
(4) is visual
(5) organizes
(6) is a method

These models help clarify and structure uncertain situations. The authors reinforce this point at the end of the work, when they state that (a) pictures are easy for the audience to follow, and (b) models rely heavily on pictures to convey a lot of information. This leads naturally to the conclusion that models are a particularly effective way of communicating methods of action.

If this book seeks to help us make better decisions, I think it partially fulfills that goal. There is, however, no advice on how to deploy the models; the book is simply a reference book for various methods and not a book that shows the reader how to truly integrate these models into their thinking. That kind of knowledge may only arise from a trial and error application of the models to real life situations.

Another shortfall I can easily elucidate is the weakness of the models from the categories about understanding and improving others relative to the models about self-improvement or self-knowledge. The models about self-improvement and self-knowledge are more susceptible to experimental feedback than the other models. Some of the models from the know/understand others section seem merely descriptive (The Status-Model, The Small World Model) as opposed to proactive methods that help form constructive questions.

If you are looking for a slim reference book of models, then this book fulfills that purpose. If you are looking for a deep understanding of the models within the book, or an education in how to use models effectively, this book falls somewhat short.

This is a very helpful book! Just having this book displayed on our coffee table is motivating us to make decisions, and to make better decisions. It helps us to be aware of how we make decisions, and encourages us to try new strategies for ourselves and those we are engaged with. Both the printed words and the illustrations are beneficial. This book has been helpful to our relationship, in my work as a physical therapist, and within our authors' group, especially as we are working to "turn our group into a team." I am being haunted, in a good way, with the quote "Groups move forward only when one of the participants dares to take the first step. As leader, you should be prepared to be the first to make mistakes." (paged 130-131) Thank you for providing the encouragement to keep-on-keeping-on. Doranne Long, PT, MS, author of Your Body Book Guide to Better Body Motion with Less Pain.

The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking by
Mikael Krogerus (Author), Roman Tschäppeler (Author),
Philip Earnhart (Illustrator), Jenny Piening (Translator)
is an important resource on the intricacies
of making decisions. Initially, decision-making
may be approached by simplifying issues,
taking a pragmatic approach, summing up key
areas, visualizing a solution, organizing
data and generalizing the solution set.

The authors remind readers that leaders can
decide issues on an immediate basis, delegate
parts of tasks to others, make a decision on
when to decide key elements or postpone a
decision to some future time.

Decision-makers are faced with a multiplicity
of choices which include having to make an
unavoidable decision, possessing the capacity
to decide an issue and wanting to decide an
issue with more than a modicum of complexity.

The authors present a Johari window which consists
of elements of a decision known to decision-makers,
as well as the unknowns. When an important decision
needs to be made, there are hindrances, most critical
aspects, danger points and critical associations.

Decision-making also involves drivers of a decision.
A driver can refer to a thought in deep memory,
a dream or an upcoming reality which cannot be put
aside.

The book also contains strategies for conflict
resolution. The resolution of a conflict can
involve flight, fight or an accomodative mode
for parties who can reach a consensus on a complex
subject.

The Decision Book by Krogerus and Tschappeler is an
important advance in the area of complex decision-making
and articulation. The book is easy to understand and
implement.

Credits: First Published on Blogcritics

I picked up "The Decision Book" by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler at London's Heathrow Airport. It presents a concise and useful set of models for a variety of circumstances. Clear explanations accompany simple diagrams to help:
Improve Oneself,
Know Oneself,
Know Others, and
Improve Others.
All of the models, regardless of what category they belong to, claim to help us make decisions in uncertain situations.

The authors wish to help readers decide and reflect, in both individual and group contexts. They say a model must meet the following criteria:
1) It must simplify,
2) Must be pragmatic,
3) Must summarize,
4) Must be visual,
5) Must organize,
6) Must be a method.
Their 50 models, more or less, meet the criteria. They are used in the service of clarifying and structuring the chaos we are encounter.

At the end of the book, the authors argue that (a) pictures should be used when addressing an audience, and (b) models rely heavily on pictures to convey a lot of information. This leads naturally to the conclusion that models are an effective way of communicating methods to others.

Caution: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The book does not provide advice on how to deploy the models. It is a short quick-and-easy eference book for various methods and not a book that provides enough information to implement in a corporate context. Some models are better than others. The "models" about self-improvement and self-knowledge are easier to implement. Some of the models from the know/understand others section seem merely descriptive (The Status-Model, The Small World Model), tidbits or trivia rather than a process.

If you understand the limitations of a small book that takes on a huge topic, this book is useful. If you are looking for a deep understanding of the models within the book, or an education in how to use models effectively, you will need to move on and delve deeper.

I bought this book recently at the airport, thinking it would contain a useful library of mental models. What I got instead was a list of basic ideas, shamelessly collected from multiple authors, with zero development above the most basic fundamentals of each concept. No examples or case studies, with diagrams that were difficult to read and follow.

Anyone who wastes their money on this book (and time reading it) deserves to feel insulted that these charlatanic authors thought they could compile some basic notes and churn out this pamphlet of a brain-fart, which any final year business student could put together during a rainy weekend.

I cannot stress strongly enough how disgusted I am that the authors decided to not only publish this book, but put their names to it. Find an honest profession, idiots.

The concept of this book is good: a brief introduction to 50 models for decision-making. While the exercise of reading the book is stimulating, the problem is that the descriptions of the models are too brief, to the point of being superficial. Moreover, while some of the models have proven or potential practical value, just as many are relatively useless and best treated as abstract intellectual toys. Bottom line is that I want to see enough value in this book to give it a qualified recommendation, but instead I would say don't bother unless you've browsed the book and it piques your interest enough that you can't resist.

Journalist Mikael Krogerus and communications expert Roman Tschäppeler summarize 50 of the most popular decision-making models that individuals and businesses around the world adopt and use to make significant choices and to think in a strategic way. The authors' thoughtful little book shows readers how to develop a strategy, how to choose among alternatives and how to make intelligent decisions. Accompanying graphics illustrate each of the models. While a book that summarizes 50 strategies does not cover any one of them in depth, and much of the content is simple synopses of other people's models, getAbstract endorses this fun, informative little book about conceptualizing and decision making.

I love this book. My mind just gravitates to things like models that help reveal the sometimes hidden relationships between things, making it easier for the mind to look at things in different ways. Great book to have.

The authors present multiple models in a logical structure which makes it an easy read. Their thoughtful presentation gives an empowering feeling of autonomy for using the models. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in exploring methods for thought process.