Contents -- My story -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 01 Dreams and determination -- Early years -- Changing course -- Summing up the interview highlights -- 02 Nightmares: Striking a balance between being tolerant of mistakes, and understanding the danger signs that tell you a decision can go badly wrong -- It isn't wrong to be wrong -- What's the ROD (Return on Decision)? -- But don't be wrong too often -- Sometimes people make really bad decisions -- How do we explain seriously bad decisions? -- Why do things that aren't a good idea? -- Why do the mighty fall so often? -- Have you ever wondered why so many decisions fail? -- Language matters -- Stanovich's theory -- Decision Traps -- Condemned to repeat the experience -- Try to avoid the biggest decision trap of all: downside delusion -- Loss aversion -- Being too busy -- Keep watching out for the early decision -- Here's another way of looking at an early decision -- Was the financial crisis caused by Decision Traps? -- What makes a decision bad? (a checklist you can add to) -- Bad judgement. Was failure due to...? -- ... or more fundamentally to not being in the right condition to make a good decision? -- Bad luck? -- More questions to be asked after a failed decision -- 03 Opportunities and problems -- Before embarking on a big decision you have to define the opportunity or solve the problem -- Capitalizing on opportunities -- Turning a big problem into an opportunity -- Wasting opportunities -- 04 Smart decision making -- The Holy Grail - better decisions -- A smart way to make decisions better -- The Agency Assessments method − rigour, but also room for chemistry and gut feel -- Allowing for gut feel in the Smart Decisions Approach -- Another reason we need to accommodate gut feel -- The emotional side of decision making -- How do we rationalize gut feel? -- Fast and frugal.

Lessons from modern neurology -- The learning from neurology -- Rear Admiral David Snelson talks about the effect of 'autopilot' -- Decision making is best played as a team game -- The key question -- The journey - not the single step: mapping a decision process, and managing it over the life of a project -- 'Morethanism' -- Identify the limiters, and you will make decisions better -- Luck -- Go back if you have to -- 'The situation has moved on' -- Difficult decisions -- Decisions and journeys -- 'All the emotional intelligence of a lamp post' -- 'Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance' -- Highlights on decision making from the interviews -- 05 It's a matter of time: the magic number 60 -- Time is relative -- 60 seconds or less -- 60 minutes -- 60 hours or more -- David Jones of Havas on fast decisions -- Simon Calver of Lovefilm told me about fast decisions and how important they can be -- Daniel Topolski, the rowing coach, told me why he is suspicious of fast decisions -- A moment of indecision -- Are there decisions we are happy to talk about - and others we would rather forget? -- Surely technology has made it easier to make great decisions? -- Blackout -- Maybe there is learning from marketing -- Why are meetings so frustrating? -- What can go wrong with meetings -- 60 minutes to an hour is enough time to bring a meeting to a decisive conclusion -- but there need to be special rules -- Meetings - 10 suggested hygiene factors -- Listen if you want to be heard -- David Jones of Havas was the creator of an ambitious 60-week (plus) project, One Young World -- Barbara Cassani was responsible for another 60-week project: the launch of a new airline - Go -- I asked General Sir Mike Jackson a question about his judgement of time: did he think the second Iraq War would be a long-drawn-out affair? -- 06 The people factor.

De Bono - the Maltese Eagle -- How I have always profiled client and advertising agency people -- Sample one - initial view on the team and its leader Shaun -- Account planners understand what makes people tick -- Blamers and Pacifiers -- Meredith Belbin - the hero of team theory -- Thinking time -- High confidence, low self-esteem -- Why do female tennis players grunt? -- Bright Eyes -- Happiness is what we want, what we really want -- Is experience the be all and end all? -- A big insight into the way business leaders behave: causals and effectuals -- Steve Jobs - the most effectual thinker of our era -- Calver, Cassani and Vasiliev on enterpreneurs and managers: -- 07 Choice is three-dimensional decision making -- Daniel Topolski on selecting oarsmen -- Choosing agencies -- Three dimensions of choice -- Consumer choice is a highly sophisticated business nowadays -- Behavioural Economics isn't a one-way street -- Neuromarketing -- Charles Spence interview -- Two moments of truth -- Costco: Behavioural Economics in the raw -- 08 War: What we can learn from the way nations fight -- War -- All Hell Let Loose by Sir Max Hastings (2011) -- The fog of war -- Decision making - it's a contact sport -- Britons and Americans - Part 1: the Gulf, 1988 -- Britons and Americans (and Russians) − Part 2: Kosovo, 1999 -- Britons and Americans (and Serbs) − Part 3: offshore Montenegro, 1999 -- Jackson on decision making -- Snelson on gut feeling and training -- I asked General Sir Mike Jackson about intelligence and hierarchy -- Should we use wartime decision making in dealing with terrorism? -- 09 Sport and other games: Serious lessons from evenings and weekends -- Let's start with a game - an ancient game -- Sport matters -- Decision making by sportsmen and women -- Daniel Topolski on how bad decisions can drag down even proven winners.

Colin, Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA) -- The Inner Game of Tennis, Timothy Gallwey (1974) -- Quieten the negative thought in your head -- Randy Haynes is a leading expert on sports betting -- 10 Love: Deciding with the heart and not the head -- Vitaly Vasiliev, CEO of Gazprom - a true love story -- Karl Gregory - MD of Match.com -- Thoughts on Karl Gregory's description of how the dating industry works -- Are there any rules for decision making in love? -- What match.com's Lovegeist report tells us -- 11 My 20 best decision tips -- References -- Index.