Think Fast!: Accurate Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Planning in Minutes a Day

Think Fast!: Accurate Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Planning in Minutes a Day

Released June 2011
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118004630

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Apply proven critical thinking processes and supercharge your business

Alamo Learning Systems has been providing Critical Thinking Skills (CTS), problem solving, decision-making, preventive action, and innovation training solutions to the corporate world for more than 35 years. They have been at the forefront of such movements in management as ISO 9000, Six Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing.

Now, in Think Fast!, these CTS experts bring you an up-to-the-minute toolbox of strategies and tactics you can use to optimize your business. This useful and easy-to-read guide looks at real-world consumer issues, giving you top-level skills to address a wide range of practical business, professional, and life problems.

  • Alamo's CTS solutions have been proven effective in major companies, including 200 of the current Fortune 500

  • Uses real examples from outside the business world to make problems and solutions widely accessible

At last, the Critical Thinking Skills that have guided some of the world's most successful companies are available to readers of this insightful guide. Start rethinking your business today, and take your business skills—and business results—to the next level.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Foreword
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1. Good News
    1. The Observation
    2. Yes, You Can Do It!
    3. Trust The Process
  9. Chapter 2. Start Here: Stop
    1. Critical Response Training
  10. Chapter 3. The Dump List
    1. Meet John
    2. John’s Situation
    3. Making The Dump List
  11. Chapter 4. Simplify
    1. Make It Even Simpler: Prioritize
  12. Chapter 5. Pick the Right Road: Three Little Questions
    1. Pick The Right Road
  13. Chapter 6. Recognize Your Progress
    1. Going Forward
  14. Chapter 7. Present: Decide Now!
    1. Consistently Good, Accurate Decisions
    2. Don’t Skip A Step . . . Not A Single Step!
    3. Yes But . . .
    4. A Lesson From The Pros
    5. John’s Decision Making
    6. Angela’s Decision Making
    7. 1. Purpose
    8. 2. Criteria: Nonnegotiables
    9. How Do You Know if It’s Nonnegotiable?
    10. Don’t Confuse “Highly Desirable” With “Nonnegotiable”
    11. Apply The 1–10 Scale
    12. 3. Compare Options to Criteria, Not to Each Other
    13. 4. Identify and Assess Risks
    14. Identify The Risks
    15. Assess The Risks
  15. Chapter 8. Past: Find Out “Why?”
    1. 1. State The Problem
    2. 2. Gather The Facts
    3. 3. Compare
    4. 4. Pay Attention to Differences/Changes
    5. 5. Generate and Verify Likely Cause
  16. Chapter 9. Future: Plan to Make It Happen
    1. 1. State The Objective
    2. 2. Develop An Action Plan
    3. 3. List Foreseeable Problems and Opportunities
    4. Enjoy The Journey
    5. 4. Define Actions to Prevent or Facilitate
    6. 5. Define Back-Up (Plan B) Actions
    7. Wait A Minute!
    8. 6. Create Trigger Alert
    9. 7. Update Your Action Plan
  17. Chapter 10. Go Forward with Confidence
  18. Bonus Chapter. Innovation: Create Something New
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Think Fast!: Accurate Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Planning in Minutes a Day
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118004630