Book "Decisive" by Chip and Dan Heath

Video Review for Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath-'Chapter 1' - YouTube

Review

...bad decisions are all too common in business and personal decision making. 40% of senior level hires by companies don’t work out within 18 months, 83% of mergers don’t create value for shareholders, and personally we all make bad investment and relationship choices all the time.

While incomplete information is sometimes to blame, the process used for making the decision is about six times more important. To put it bluntly, our processes for deciding are usually wrong, and they cite four main villains:

• narrow framing,
  
• confirmation bias,
  
• short-term decision making, and
  
• overconfidence.
  

Our brains are simply not optimally wired for making complex decisions. We can’t eliminate our biases, but we can plan for them and try to counteract them. To counteract these villains, there are four steps we should apply that encompass a number of specific tactics to improve our outcomes. The steps are described in the acronym WRAP:

• Widen your options
  
• Reality-test your assumptions
  
• Attain distance before deciding
  
• Prepare to Be Wrong