The Art of High-Stakes Decision-Making

Of course, when you really have a tough call crisis, you won't have time to consult a book. This one is worth dipping into during downtime. It's practical—offering a method called "SCRIPTS" to guide executive decisions. (To wit: Search for signals of threats and opportunities. Find the Causes. Evaluate the Risks. Apply Intuition and emotion. Take different Perspectives. Consider the Time frame. Solve the problem.) And it's got a highbrow side, too, with a little game theory and discussion of the role that crippling biases might play with your judgment. It also deconstructs a number of real-life corporate emergencies to demonstrate how practicality and intellect work in tandem for the tough calls. Author Murnighan is a professor of risk management at Kellogg School of Management; Mowen chairs marketing strategy at Oklahoma State University.