TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW
by
HL Carpenter

 

How Great Decisions Get Made
by Don Maruska
207 pages; hardcover; $21.95
Amacom, New York, 2004

A camel is a horse created by a committee.

No doubt you’ve chuckled at the expression. Unfortunately, the cliche is as true as it is humorous, because most committees are made up of members zealously protecting their slice of turf. In that environment, what started out as a design for a horse can easily end up in the form of a camel.

In How Great Decisions Get Made, author and consultant Don Maruska presents a plan for achieving a result that looks like a horse ought to. His ten step program requires the elimination of the typical Western-style, linear pursuit of solving problems, and replacing it with a more Zen-like solution. Decision makers are guided into letting go of ego and focusing instead on possibilities.

While that may sound like the recipe for a meeting bound up in endless discussion and decision-deferment, the steps outlined in How Great Decisions Get Made are practical and well defined. Listening is emphasized over debating, and the focus is on reaching a useful and constructive result. The outcome is based on team consensus, as opposed to majority rule.

The practices, examples and games in the book are targeted toward improving unproductive meetings, but Mr. Maruska suggests his process will also work for decision making in your personal life. The common thread is learning how to climb out of your rut. (Mr. Maruska discusses a game for accomplishing this called ‘Balance Nails’, but, disappointingly, the web site with the promised solution appears to be non-functioning.)

For managers and others who are tired of interminable camel-producing meetings, How Great Decisions Get Made provides guidelines for a fresh approach. You might want to check it out before you begin creating your next horse.

 

Review originally published April 2004.