Decisive – New book by the Heath Brothers

I just read Chip and Dan Heath’s new book “Decisive – How to make better choices in life and work”.  I don’t usually grab a new book as soon as it comes out, but after reading “Switch” I anticipated that it would provide some great ideas and tools for problem solving and decision making - and I am using the tools already personally and professionally.

“Decisive” delivers ideas, a plan, and stories that capture the essence of the acronym WRAP – Widening options, Reality testing assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, and Prepare to be wrong.  At the conclusion of each chapter is a one page summary that serves as a great tool to remember the concepts and key stories for each point made – a helpful tool when you need a quick reminder.

Chip and Dan address the “Villains of Decision Making” - the traps we fall into that cause a poor decision.

1. Narrow framing that results in limiting the options we pursue
2. Having a confirmation bias that leads us to find the information that supports our initial thoughts
3. Short term emotions that deliver a mountain top experience leading the decision making process
4. Overconfidence in our own prediction capabilities – remembering only the times we were right

While I walked away with several ideas from the book, there are five that resonate more than others for me.

• Widening options is about lighting the entire stage.  There is a tendency to let the spotlight be so intense that we only look in the lit area for our options and then miss out on the activity on the remainder of the stage. 
• “Ladder Up” – Climb the ladder for ideas and a broader/higher perspective.  Look for internal brightspots (a reference to Switch) that can be duplicated, look for external successes as benchmarks, and look for broader similar issues – maybe in a different field.
• Pre-mortem review.  Too many times we get to the end of a failure and ask what caused the failure or less than expected success.  Pre-mortem preview looks at the decision and asks, “What will cause this decision to not be wildly successful?” and then follows up with “Can these be overcome?” or “What needs to be done to overcome these?”.
• Enshrining core priorities.  Core values can be aligned with many of the decision we have.  Core priorities clarify what is important.  “Debt free” as a priority will change the type of car to buy for most people.  “Developing our own talent” as a priority may change the resources allocated to an intern program.
• Setting tripwires.  Tripwires provide guidelines to make secondary decisions and can be used to provide a safety net for risk taking.  If we are not at a certain enrollment by a date, we will re-evaluate; if we have hit a certain revenue level, we will add staff; if I haven’t heard anything by a certain date, I will switch vendors.

You may pull other ideas out the book depending where you are at right now personally and professionally.  Regardless, you will find that the Heath brothers have given you additional tools to use in your leadership toolbox – and who doesn’t appreciate a toolbox that is filled with useful and practical tools for their particular trade.