Courses

Making DAMN Good Decisions is a full academic year of university courses on how to use decision analysis to improve both the process and content of decision making in business enterprises, non-profit entities, educational and health-care institutions, and government organizations.

Developed at Stanford University, these courses can be added to the curriculum of any institution of higher education. The sequence of courses covers the 32 modules that are essential in making good decisions. Each module covers a decision-making concept and its associated tools, and comprises four one-hour classes: a lecture and discussion, an exercise or demonstration, an application example or case study, and a practice session.

The 32 modules are naturally grouped around the essential triad of focus, discipline, and passion:

1. Focus on Framing and Structuring - decision context, frame, vision, issues & SWOTs, alternatives, strategy table, information, decision diagram, preferences, preference model, decision models, and tornado diagram.

2. Discipline in Uncertainty, Analysis, and Process - uncertainty assessment, bias mitigation, probabilistic evaluation, decision tree, information evaluation, expert information, risk analysis, risk attitude, portfolio analysis, decision quality, decision process, and change management.

3. Passion of People -- motivating the right people, individual behavior, group behavior, value creation culture, risk management, opportunity management, and leading and managing people.