You Are What You Choose

The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions

By: Scott de Marchi, James T. Hamilton

Published: November 12, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 208pp
ISBN-13: 9781591842866
ISBN-10: 1591842867
Publisher: Penguin/Portfolio








"Choice is at the crux of all social science, and it's a complicated body of research that a large number of very bright people have worked on", write Duke University political scientists and social science researchers Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, in their highly accessible and research based book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions. The authors make a compelling case that what they term their TRAITS system, derived from their very extensive and groundbreaking research, is a powerful source methodology of why people make their many decisions.



Scott De Marchi (photo left) and James T. Hamilton conducted thousands of surveys, involving test populations covering all income levels, racial groups, and regions of the United States. The resulting findings were startling to the authors, who discovered that much of previous information on how people decide what to buy, where to live, and for whom to vote, was incorrect. Instead, the authors concluded that certain personality and character traits predispose people to make their choices, even if the person believes otherwise. The six core traits or habits of mind, developed from the research surveys were:

* Time
* Risk
* Altruism
* Information
* MeToo
* Stickiness



James T. Hamilton (photo left) and Scott De Marchi recognized that the emphasis and degree of importance an individual placed on each the six TRAITS determined how they made decisions in their lives. These habits of mind, as the authors describe them, carry over into purchasing products and services, to how a person votes or even abstains from voting, to their personal health and eating choices. James T. Hamilton and Scott De Marchi tested their theory against traditional marketing concepts and segmentation tools including gender, income level, political party affiliation, and age. In each case, the TRAITS system was able to at least duplicate or exceed the decision making forecasts made by the traditional marketing techniques. The authors make the strong research proven case that using TRAITS will yield better results for marketers than standard demographic segmentation. The authors make the convincing argument that their system is especially powerful for locating and motivating early adopters of products and services.

For me, the power of the book is how Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton utilize actual field research as the basis for their decision forecasting system. Unlike many books on marketing and buying behavior, the authors don't depend on theory and speculation. Instead, they not only used their survey results to formulate their TRAITS methodology, but they field tested it in the real world against standard, well established demographic marketing based concepts. The authors found that TRAITS was a powerful predictor of buying behavior, and of involvement in the political process. They distilled their research into an easy to use system that can be employed by marketers and by political parties. They even supply a handy self test that readers can take to discover their own TRAITS.

I highly recommend the very powerful book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, to any marketers or other individuals seeking to understand how people's already existing habits of mind determine their decision making process. Instead of relying on abstract ideas and unproven concepts, the authors demonstrate their TRAITS system through extensive research, conducted with thousands of test subjects.

Read the important and marketing transformational book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, and discover how to put the TRAITS system to work in your own marketing programs. Instead of guessing or being misled by demographic groupings, your marketing plan can zero in on the people who share similar traits, and provide suitable products and services to fit their needs and desires. The book will change your ideas about marketing forever.

Tags: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions, Scott de Marchi, James T. Hamilton, business marketing methodology, business book reviews.

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Ian Mitroff, founder of Mitroff Crisis Management, Inc., and widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of crisis management, was kind enough to take the time for sharing an interview with us.

The topic is the important and thought provoking book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, that he co-authored with Abraham Silvers.

Thanks to Ian Mitroff for his time and for his insightful and informative answers.



What was the background to writing this book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely?

Ian Mitroff: For years, I have worked with decision-makers in all types of organizations, public and private, to help them improve on how they solve important problems and make crucial decisions. While the executives and mangers that I have worked with are intelligent, they have not been educated on how to formulate problems from multiple perspectives. As a result, more often than not they end up solving the wrong problems precisely because they pick the first formulation of a problem that they happen to chance upon. What good does it do to solve the wrong problems? Not much since it is a tremendous waste of time, energy, etc., and it often leads to a crisis, so that you are worse off than when you started. In other words, you end creating worse problems than the original ones with which you started.

You write in the book that we are often lured into solving the wrong problems with the wrong answers. What do you mean by that?

Ian Mitroff: Most of us are the prisoners of our education, profession, job position, etc. That is, our education, specialty, etc., predisposes us to see certain problems and to formulate them in terms of the preferred variables of our chosen field. Thus, engineers naturally see technical variables and focus on technical problems; economists see economic problems, etc; but in doing so, they often neglect the human variables and the broader context in which all problems are situated. As a result, they do not recognize the full dimensions of the problems we face. By solving only a part of the real problem, they thereby solve the wrong problem.

What types of errors do business people, and those in other government and non-profit organizations make?

Ian Mitroff: They don’t examine and challenge their fundamental assumptions about every aspect of their business or organization. For instance, are we pursuing the right business strategies? Are we trapped in an old, outdated mission?

In general, people bound the problems they are attempting to solve too narrowly. That is, they don’t take a big enough look at the problem. And they don’t look at multiple formulations of a problem.



Ian Mitroff (photo left)

You mention health care in the book as being a very difficult problem and that the real problem is being overlooked. What is wrong with how that issue has been addressed?

Ian Mitroff: The problem with health care is that it rests upon a number of fundamental assumptions that, while they certainly have been raised and challenged to a certain extent, need to be raised even more. For instance, it is not true that government run health programs are always less efficient and less innovative than private programs. It is also not true that the private sector is always more innovative, cost-effective, etc. So again, we really don’t challenge our fundamental assumptions systematically and systemically.

Business people encounter many crises in the course of doing business. How can business people be sure they are solving the right problem in the right way that is best for the customers and for society as a whole?

Ian Mitroff: Again, by looking at all problems from multiple perspectives. For instance, consider health care. There are obviously short-term cost considerations, but there are also long-term systemic considerations (how do we reinvent the entire health care system?). Health care is not the elimination (decrease) of disease, but it also the increase of well-being. Thus, you obviously need both, but you need to be taught to appreciate both before you can integrate them into a coherent system. The problem is that people take sides saying that one is more fundamental than the other when they are not.

How has the media contributed to the problem of asking the wrong questions that result in the wrong answers?

Ian Mitroff: By devoting enormous attention to non-events--such as the helium balloon episode--and by creating pseudo-celebrities. By using of all kinds of gimmicks such as computer-enhanced images that are “better than the ‘real thing’,” the media divert our attention from focusing on the really important problems. Because the really important problems are too scary for most of us to face, the media help us to avoid facing them by making everything into a “fun game show” or “reality TV” that sanitizes everything.

How can the education system be improved to teach students how to ask the right questions and to insist upon the right answers?

Ian Mitroff: By getting away from canned exercises at the end of textbooks and giving students real problems that they have to formulate from multiple perspectives such as “Should we stay in Iraq?”

Exercises are not problems. First of all, they are already pre-formulated for the student so that he or she doesn’t have to go through the difficult process of formulating the problem. For another, exercises have a single “solution,” which real problems never do. Thus, we have to educate students on how to formulate problems correctly, and that problem formulation comes before and is an integral part of problem solving.

How can changing the type of questions asked in our society improve the life of all citizens?

Ian Mitroff: By not wasting our energy on solving the wrong problems that only create worse ones.

What is next for Ian Mitroff?

Ian Mitroff: I want to write a book of fables to get the ideas across in an even more powerful and accessible format.

*************

My book review of Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers



Ian I. Mitroff (photo left) founded Mitroff Crisis Management, Inc. in 1995. MCM draws upon a nationwide network of associates and specialists who are available for crisis management projects.

Dr. Mitroff is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of crisis management. He specializes in crisis prevention, strategic planning, and the design of ethical work environments. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal issues, Dr. Mitroff has published over 350 papers and articles and 26 books, including Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger And Better From A Crisis, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, and Managing Crises Before They Happen.

Dr. Mitroff is a University Professor at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Alliant University, San Francisco, a Visiting Professor at Institute of Business and Economic Research, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, School of Public Health, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. He is also a Senior Investigator in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley.

He is Professor Emeritus from the Annenberg School for Communication and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, where he was the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy and the founder and director of the USC Center for Crisis Management.

Tags: Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, Ian Mitroff, problem solving, business author interviews.

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Dirty Rotten Strategies

How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely

By: Ian Mitroff, Abraham Silvers

Published: November 2009
Format: Hardcover, 192pp
ISBN-13: 9780804759960
ISBN-10: 0804759960
Publisher: Stanford University Press





"What we need are the right answers to the right problems, and not wasted effort on getting the right answers to the wrong problems", write authors Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers, in their important and thought provoking book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely. The authors demonstrate how people convince themselves that they are solving the right problem, when the opposite is true. At the same time, the book describes how various interest groups, governments, academia, the media, and corporations attempt deliberately to impose the wrong questions for solution.

Abraham Silvers and Ian Mitroff provide both the philosophical and logical background to the difficult and often messy issues of problem formulation and solution. They point out that what they call Type Three Errors and Type Four Errors are prevalent in business, government, and in society as a whole. A Type Three Error is one where the person deludes themselves that they have found the right problem, even if it's precisely the wrong one. The more serious Type Four Error is very often seen in business and government, and involves imposing the wrong problem and solution on others. The authors believe that people are susceptible to these dangerous errors through social conditioning caused in large part by the educational system, the media, and political biases. The very nature of these institutions, and how they perceive problems and solutions, leads people to solve the wrong problems very well.



Ian Mitroff (photo left) and Abraham Silvers delve into detail as to how the education system presents simple exercises as if they were real problems. The result is students leave the academia believing that complex problems have one correct and easy to discover solution. The authors consider the media to be turning reality into a version of unreality, where false problems are given neatly packaged solutions, that feed into even more lack of reality. At the same time, science and religion are misused to formulate the wrong problems and to result in the wrong solutions. The framing of problems by business leaders and politicians are also Type Four Errors, as their often incorrect assumptions about the nature of a complicated problem, into a simple yet wrong solution. The authors warn against listening to anyone who attempts to define a problem in only one way, that results in only one solution, as all real problems contain many issues and involve many people.

For me, the power of the book is how Ian Mitroff and Abraham Silvers understand the critical importance of properly defining the right problem, and provide a powerful set of criteria for doing so, in a logical and unbiased way. Solving the wrong problem well can very very often make the real and more fundamental problem even worse. The authors recognize how institutions from schools and the media, to business and government, create the social, institutional, spiritual and ethical framework of assumptions that lead to solving the wrong problems. The authors take the position that very often these framing and imposing of the wrong questions are intentional, to serve an agenda. Ian Mitroff and Abraham Silvers guide the reader through an intensive study of how these wrong questions are formulated, and how to ask the right questions to solve the right problem.

I highly recommend the insightful and well reasoned book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Abraham Silvers and Ian I. Mitroff, to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of how the wrong problems are given a precise solution that fails to solve the real problem. The authors describe the complexity, and interconnectedness of problems, and how people's underlying assumptions are influenced by society ranging from the education system to the churches to government and business. Through a culture of seeking unreality, people have developed biases that cause the wrong questions to be asked, resulting in the wrong problems being given precise solutions.

Read the brilliant and must read book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers, and learn how to avoid the frequent Type Three and Type Four Errors that are so much a part of business and government activity. Discover how to recognize the deliberate framing of questions to result in an a predetermined and often ideological solution. By understanding how these errors are made, you can help define the right questions, resulting in the best solution for everyone.

Tags: Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, Ian Mitroff, Abraham Silvers, problem solving, business book reviews.

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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

By: John Perkins

Published: December 27, 2005
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN 9780452287082
Publisher: Penguin/Plume







"That is what EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our governments, and our banks", writes former economic hit man John Perkins in his now classic, landmark book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. The author pulls no punches, as he describes the sordid and little known behind the scenes world of international debt, and the people who benefit from huge foreign government debts that can't be repaid. He also shares insights into how the misguided economic policies of corrupt business and government people drives the poor into even deeper despair.

John Perkins lived in a shadowy world where the major players were little known corporations, and corrupt politicians from various developing countries. His role was to induce the government of the targeted country to take out huge debt loads to finance hydroelectric projects, telecommunications systems, and energy development. The justification for loans were, according to the author, inflated and unattainable projections of economic growth attributed to the completed project. The main financial beneficiaries were a select group of international engineering and energy firms, a small group of banks, and a small collection of local elites. Any benefits or costs to the general population of the country was never a consideration. At the same time, there was what John Perkins called the larger plan. An indebted government, unable to repay their massive foreign debt, would be ripe for favors and support for any United States government global activities.



John Perkins (photo left) doesn't simply describe the cloak and dagger world in which he lived and worked during his time as an economic hit man. This is also a deeply personal book, and as the title makes clear, it is a deeply personal confession. The author admits that he was torn between doing his job well, and his conscience. He developed serious misgivings regarding the harm he was doing to the people living in the targeted countries. He confesses that he developed several rationalizations to salve his tortured conscience, but over time these artificial balms lost their effectiveness. John Perkins writes bluntly that he sold his soul for the money and other material benefits he derived from being an EHM. The book is an attempt at buying back is lost soul, finding redemption for his past, and eventually receiving absolution.

For me, the power of the book is found on several levels. John Perkins opens up the formerly hidden world of international debt and its role in creating governments subservient to the global empire. His vivid descriptions of his role in the overall plan, and his sharing of important details of his career as an EHM, are powerful and lasting. At another level, he confesses his personal battle for his conscience and his lost soul. His personal love for the people and the countries he was to bankrupt, is poignant and moving, especially given his employers' motive for sending him to those developing nations. Despite the damage done to the lives of the people, their countries and the environment, the book is one of hope. John Perkins believes strongly in the power of democracy and of people to determine their own destinies. He offers powerful advice and ideas for building a better and more ethical and just world, that works for the many, and not just the few.

I very highly recommend the powerful and seminal book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the world than is depicted in the daily headlines. The author describes a dangerous world where power, money, and threats of assassination and invasion are very real. Instead of this dark and deadly globe, John Perkins proposes a world based on freedom, equality, and ethical business and government. The author makes clear that the deliberate economic problems created by the economic hit men have and will continue to return to hurt everyone. For the author, no one benefits from an unjust, unsafe and environmentally ravaged planet.

Read the absolutely must read book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, and discover how the pressing issue of global debt problems and its related global poverty, were created in part through the activities of EHMs. Learn how foreign aid and international debt worked to impoverish countless developing countries, and how that debt was created intentionally to install subservient politicians. John Perkins provides a powerful and eye opening guide book for understanding how the world of international finance really works, and how to replace the system with one that is just, ethical, and beneficial to the needs and aspirations of everyone.

Tags: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, international finance, corruption, business book reviews.

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Breaking The Bank

By: Yona Zeldis McDonough

Published: September 2009
Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
ISBN-10: 1439102538
ISBN-13: 9781439102534
Publisher: Downtown Press







Mia Saul is a single mother, living in a run down New York City apartment, and in constant need of money. Her daughter Eden keeps getting into trouble at school, and her meddling ex-husband Lloyd is always late with her child support payment. Desperate for money for food for Eden, Mia goes to her local automated teller machine, for some cash. Instead of giving her the expected withdrawal, the ATM gives her more money than she had requested. The receipt only recorded the amount of her request. This inexplicable windfall sets off a series of events that will change Mia's life forever in the magical and heartwarming novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough.

Acclaimed author Yona Zeldis McDonough weaves a charming spell in this delightful and often surprising novel, as she builds a world peopled with intriguing characters and strange happenings. Mia's life takes many a twist and turn, as she uses her good fortune to not only keep herself and her daughter Eden afloat, but to help other people in need as well. Mia is unable to explain here unexpected good fortune, but her family needs are real, and the money is essential for food and clothing. Combined with some possible romance and the strains of her other family members, Mia finds her secret ATM gifts both a blessing and a burden.



Yona Zeldis McDonough (photo left) develops strong themes of the importance of family, of not judging others based on appearance, and of the power of giving and generosity. Mia is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her daughter Eden in her care, despite her constant tests as a parent and as a person. She holds the firm conviction that as long as she and Eden stay together, that things will work out in the end. Throughout the story, people are judged on surface appearances, but Mia realizes that the spark of humanity exists in everyone, and that all people deserve a chance at life. Mia gives generously of her windfall to her friends and to complete strangers. She brightens and changes the lives of others for the better, and uses her strange gifts for helping others to be happy.

I highly recommend the fairy tale novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough, to anyone seeking a story of the power of family, sharing, and caring about others. The magic that flows to Mia, in the form of unexpected money, is also part of the inner magic of love and caring in Mia's heart. She believes strongly in family, and despite the tests of the familial bonds, she always knows that the love of family will prevail. Mia's story is one of magic, and a fairy tale of love and family. While Mia seeks her true destiny, her world and life are in disarray. Until she discovers true happiness, she must endure many hardships, on the road to destiny.

Read the enjoyable and lighthearted novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough, and discover that real magic can happen to everyday people, through the power of love, family, and caring for others. Join Mia, as she travels her emotion packed journey, on the way to her destiny.

Tags: Breaking The Bank, Yona Zeldis McDonough, New York City novels, fiction book reviews.

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