DECISIVE

From the authors of two New York Times bestsellers Made to Stick and Switch— translated in 32 languages—come the four principles that can help us overcome our brains’ natural biases to make better, more informed decisions—in our lives, careers, families and organizations.

The Heaths identify four major obstacles and present a finely calibrated, yet straightforward and easy to follow four-step process that anyone can use to make better decisions: Widen your options. Reality-test your assumptions. Attain distance before deciding. Prepare to be wrong. WRAP for short.
How can I avoid getting stuck on one track? Perhaps the most common decision-making mistake is “narrow framing,” or failing to identify the multiplicity of options you really have. Decisive identifies ways to prevent that from happening.
How can I load the deck in my favor? We will never know with certainty whether a particular decision will work out well. But with the right kind of analysis, we can tilt the odds in our favor.
Whether you’re a manager in a large corporation, or a teacher helping to shape young minds, or someone who wants to jump-start a career and improve your personal life, Decisive is essential to making the best decisions.
Chip Heath and Dan Heath have consulted with organizations such as Nike, Microsoft, and the Navy. Chip’s research has appeared in Scientific American, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Business Week, Psychology Today, and Vanity Fair. Their business column appears monthly in Fast Company magazine. Chip is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and Dan is senior fellow at Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship.