The Power of Decision - Making by Manoj Tripathi

 

The Power of Decision-Making by Manoj Tripathi

Decision making may be a boring subject to read a book on but if presented in a scientific and analytical narrative, then there’s no better topic to dive in. “The Power of Decision- Making” by Manoj Tripathi is one such insightful read that gets the topic right and tight and impacts the reader’s understanding. This is not that normal self help book that goes on pages after pages. It is a crisp and impactful read that one can finish in a quick reading time.

 The book may appear to be one more among the countless books on decision making, but reading through this book will be impactful due to its concise and crisp structure, to the point narrative and connectivity with the real -life events and outcomes. There will be situations in the book where one will connect with his own experience in decision making.

The main aim of the book is to showcase how optimal decision making can actually decide one’s destiny and can change the normal flow of events. The author, Manoj Tripathi, a sales and marketing professional with over two decades of experience, brings in his entire practical experience in the writing. As one reads through, one would come across a fact that majority of the concepts and aspects has been dealt by the author himself and perhaps by most of reader in practical experience.  This is the author’s second book. His first book was “The Power of Ignored Skills”

There are a lot of other books also available on the topic of decision making covering various other dimensions and sub segments. The book in the final chapters has given a list of suggested readings on this topic. References from some of these books have been used in this book very impactfully.

The initial chapters in the book makes the reader understand the basics of decision making and how it impacts one’s life. The importance of decision making is showcased by some practical examples. In this section the reader will also come across the fact that decision making has its own consequences and it is not so simple as an ordinary human mind may perceive it to be.  This section also introduces the reader to decision making cons like; Too many choices impacting the speed of decision making and the concept of Analysis paralysis that is overthinking and decision paralysis. These are situations we as human come across everyday but never give a second thought to the science behind the outcome in such situations. The book explains this in a very simple and understandable form.

One of the most important chapters in the book and perhaps its backbone is the one where the reader will be introduced to the steps in making a decision. We make decision everyday but do we follow these scientifically proven steps. Practically it may be difficult for us to follow these but knowing these can really help us. The steps are easy and only need a deep thinking and understanding on the problem, the expected outcome and the solution.

The section where in the book describes the influencers to decision making and the factors contributing to poor decision making is an eye- opening read where one comes across the pointers on which we generally make errors in decision making. In this section one would also come across as to how different forms of biases namely; Confirmation Bias, Anchoring Bias, Overconfidence Bias, Halo effect Bias, Gambler’s fallacy, correspondence Bias, Bandwagon Bias, Hindsight Bias, and Dunning -Kruger effect, impact   decision making

The book provides for some 17 to 20 tips for better decision making. These are general tips that we come across everyday but rarely apply. A quick read through these will give us some insights into the reasons for its use.

An interesting section in this book gives the readers some practical high profile and real- life decisions from all around the world that went bad. The reader would come across that in these cases the intention of the actions and decision taken was good but the decision making was faulty and bad. These examples bring out the fact that decision making and brain storming while concluding on a decision is of utmost importance especially when the decision impacts a population.

The book is a quick read spanning some 150 pages. However, the content will surely make the reader, read the book slow as he consumes the information and the concepts. The language of the book is easy to read. Chapters have been sub divided into the topic and concepts. Like other books in this genre, there is a summary at the end of each of the chapters that helps the reader recollect the important pointers of the chapter.

Reading some parts of this book each morning will surely be productive and optimal for the reader. Further, noting down important learnings from this book will help the reader to utilize and apply the concepts in practical situations. Revisiting the concepts is essential to get a productive use of these concepts