Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein

From the Publisher

Anyone who watches the television news has seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Gary Klein is one of the developers of the naturalistic decision-making approach, which views people as inherently skilled and experienced.

Since 1985, Klein has conducted fieldwork to find out how people tackle challenges in difficult, nonroutine situations. Sources of Power is based on observations of humans acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions. In addition to providing information that can be used by professionals in management, psychology, engineering, and other fields, the book presents an overview of the research approach of naturalistic decision making and expands our knowledge of the strengths people bring to difficult tasks.

Wall Street Journal - Thomas Petzinger Jr.

Dr. Klein, a cognitive psychologist, spent a decade watching fire commanders, fighter pilots, paramedics, and other smaking split-second decisions on the job, and this book is a clear and engaging account of his findings.

Nature

Klein has amassed an impressive quantity and range of evidence that erodes the myth of the expert decisionmaker who behaves according to classical rational models, and he suggests that traditional definitions of both rationality and expertise need to be re-examined.

Nature

Klein has amassed an impressive quantity and range of evidence that erodes the myth of the expert decisionmaker who behaves according to classical rational models, and he suggests that traditional definitions of both rationality and expertise need to be re-examined.

The Wall Street Journal - Thomas Petzinger, Jr.

Dr. Klein, a cognitive psychologist, spent a decade watching fire commanders, fighter pilots, paramedics, and other smaking split-second decisions on the job, and this book is a clear and engaging account of his findings.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents