Hands down one of the best problem solving/decision making books written.
Ken Watanabe, a McKinsey consultant, hears the call of Japan's prime minister for his nation to shift their educational system from a "memorization-focused education" to a "problem-solving-focused education". His response to the prime minister's calling is to quit his consulting job to teach kids and write Problem Solving 101. Fortunately, the business community also paid attention to the content of Mr. Watanabe's book and did not get hung up on the childlike presentation, which I believe actually makes it more powerful. Eventually, Problem Solving 101 became Japan's number one best-selling business book in 2007.
I stumbled on Problem Solving 101 in a bookstore when browsing but did not purchase it. A few days later I went back to look at one of the diagrams in the book as I thought it would be a useful process for something I was working on. However I still did not buy the book as it seemed too childlike to spend money on. Two days later I was back in the bookstore looking something up again in the book. As I was walking out of the store without purchasing it I thought, "This is stupid," and went back and purchased the book.
There's the key to the value of this book, you keep coming back to it to put its concepts to actual work. In the past week I have used processes outlined in the book for a high priority business problem and a major personal decision. I can honestly say both have benefited significantly with one now having a process to solve the problem and the other reaching a confident, effective decision. You just cannot get much better consulting than what this book provides.
Great job Mr. Watanabe, great job.