The Choosing By Advantages Decisionmaking System
Choosing By Advantages is a set of concepts and methods designed to make decisionmaking more effective for organizations, communities, and individuals.
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Most decision-making methods in use today are flawed and result in less than optimal results. Choosing By Advantages (CBA) is a tested and effective system for determining the best decision by looking at the advantages of each option. It is an easy to use process that will be valuable to businesses, government agencies, engineers, and individuals.
Not only will the CBA system allow you to make the best decision in any scenario, it will also make it easy to show why the decision was the correct one. CBA is suprisingly simple to follow and will improve one's ability to create the best possible results in any given situation.
- Table of Contents
Foreword by Mark Johnson
The Pivotal Cornerstone Principle
Decisionmakers Must Use Sound Methods
Decisionmakers Must Learn How to Use Sound Methods
The Fundamental Rule of Sound Decisionmaking
What, Exactly, Is an Advantage?
Two Central Questions and Four Central Activities
Sound Methods Do Not Weigh Advantages and Disadvantages
Instant CBA and the Recognition-Response Process
The Five-Step Skill-Learning Process
The Principle of Anchoring
Anchored Versus Unanchored Questions and Judgments
The Two-List Method
Preference Charts and Preference Curves
Deciding Importance: Three Principles and Four Considerations
The Bridge Design Experiment
Vital Thinking Skills for Sound Decisionmaking
The Sound Decisionmaking Vocabulary
It Isn't "Just" a Matter of Semantics
Sound Methods Do Not Weigh Factors
Sound Methods Do Not Weigh Attributes
Sound Methods Weigh Advantages
Arithmetic, Reading, Writing, and Choosing By Advantages
The Methods Principle
How Can We Consistently Make Sound Decisions?
How Can We Simplify Sound Decisionmaking?
The Tabular Method
Special Methods for Complex Decisions
Special Methods for Money Decisions
Simple Methods for Simple Decisions
Very Simple Methods for Very Simple Decisions
^IThe Choosing By Advantages Decisionmaking System^R offers a framework for improving the discipline of thought that is crucial to our success as consultants.
The CBA principles and methods are the best available. They assure sound, valid decisions for simple, as well as complex problems. Examples of where CBA methods are applicable range from questions about major programs to questions about individual projects, such as whether a road should be built and if so, where to which candidate should be selected to fill an important staff vacancy, and even to choosing a cereal for breakfast.
Choosing By Advantages is the soundest, most rational decision-making process I have encountered. Its logical principles are deceptively simple but extremely powerful. In this book, Jim Suhr has perfected the clarity and usefulness of Choosing By Advantages.
Because Choosing By Advantages has served me and my family very well for many years, I introduce CBA every year, to my third grade students. I have found that they are very capable of learning the basic CBA concepts and methods. But teaching CBA only in the third grade isn't enough. It should be taught progressively, in all levels of the educational process.