How can you know you've made a good decision, even before you know how things turn out? It’s all about understanding decision quality.
To talk about that, I invited award-winning decision quality expert, Carl Spetzler onto today's show. Carl is the co-founder and chairman of Strategic Decisions group, a leading strategy consulting firm, renowned for its expertise in strategic decision making for greater value creation. He also literally wrote the book on decision quality along with his colleagues, Hannah Winter and Jennifer Meyer.
Today, we talk about how the concept of decision quality has helped companies make better decisions when millions and billions of dollars are on the line, how you can employ the six links of decision quality to be confident you are making a good decision, as well as other tips for making better decisions.
Topics Covered
2:49 The early days of decision analysis and engineering economics
6:17 Applications of decision quality in the corporate world
7:55 Applications of decision quality in everyday life
11:28 How to have a good decision at the time you make it
11:35 Appropriate frame
14:08 Creative alternatives
14:45 Values
16:14 Information
17:12 Sound reasoning
17:53 Commitment to action
21:05 Your decision is only as good as the weakest link
22:06 How to use the six links when you need to make decisions quickly
23:58 Having the right decision agenda
25:34 Pay attention to how you relate to clarity and action
Guest Bio
Carl Spetzler is the co-founder and chairman of Strategic Decisions Group, a leading strategy consulting firm renowned for its expertise in strategic decision-making for greater value creation. He is also the lead author of Decision Quality: Value Creation from Better Business Decisions(Wiley, 2016) with coauthors Hannah Winter and Jennifer Meyer.
He serves on the board of the Decision Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the decision-making skills of youth. In 2004, Dr. Spetzler received The Ramsey Medal, the highest honor awarded by the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS for lifetime contributions to the field.
Resources mentioned
To learn more from Michelle about decision making, check out
Michelle Florendo is a Stanford-trained decision engineer and executive coach who is on a mission to teach people how to make decisions with less stress and more clarity. Over the past decade, she has coached and taught hundreds of leaders across tech, healthcare, and financial services, in organizations ranging from pre-IPO startups to major tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Salesforce.
She's been an adjunct lecturer at Stanford, helps train coaches as a faculty coach for Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, and hosts the podcast, Ask A Decision Engineer. She earned her engineering degree from Stanford and her MBA from UC Berkeley.
For those interested in exploring Michelle's coaching and speaking services further, additional information can be found on her professional website at poweredbydecisions.com.
