As an entrepreneur, leader, husband, volunteer, etc., I make decisions. Some work. Some don’t. When I heard the latest book from Chip and Dan Heath was about decision making, I knew I could grow from applying its contents. Decisive did not disappoint. Having read it, I will be a better decision maker at home, work and everywhere in between.

Regardless if your decisions involve million dollar acquisitions, making a job offer or naming your child, it’s safe to say better decision making is worth working at.

Whether you decide to read the book yourself or not (I’d highly recommend you do) these 10 takeaways can help you make more effective decisions.

Beware the spotlight effect

This is about looking, searching and investigating information in limited areas (often unintentionally) and missing useful and critical information.

“What’s in the spotlight will rarely be everything we need to make a good decision, but we won’t always remember to shift the light. Sometimes, in fact, we’ll forget there’s a spotlight at all, dwelling so long in the tiny circle of light that we forget there’s a broader landscape beyond it.”

Beware the confirmation bias

“Our normal habit in life is to develop a quick belief about a situation and then seek out information that boosters our belief.” “And this is what’s slightly terrifying about the confirmation bias: When we want something to be true, we will spotlight the things that support it, and then, when we draw conclusions from this spotlight scenes, we’ll congratulate ourselves on a reasoned decisions. Oops.”

Beware the “whether or not”

Paul Nutt, who studied how businesses make decisions found that “most organizations seem to be using the same decision process as a hormone-crazed teenager.” In other words, they consider only one option such as to see a movie or not, go to France or not, buy this book or not. Nutt found that “whether or not” decisions failed 52% of the time over the long term, versus only 32% of the decisions with two or more alternatives.”

Beware Of Overconfidence

According to the Heath brothers, overconfidence is the fourth villain of decision making. “People think they know more than they do about how the future will unfold.” As it turns out, we are all terrible at predicting the future.

One study found that when doctors are “‘completely certain’ about a diagnosis, they were wrong 40% of the time.” Overconfidence becomes an issue because “when we make guesses about the future, we shine our spotlights on the information that’s close at hand, and then we draw conclusions from that information.”

Be skeptical and ask questions

Be skeptical of your own certainty, the confidence you feel you have about a decision. Be skeptical of your emotions in the moment. Might they be leading you astray? Ask, “What are other options?” “Is there a better way?” “What might we have missed?” “What if our current options were no longer available?” “How have others solved this problem?”

Implement “Multitracking”

Multitracking is “considering several options simultaneously.” Have individuals or teams work different angles on the same problem (with little or no cross-talk). Bring them together and collate a wide variety of ideas. Although this approach may take some added time, widening the spotlight and pulling together the best of ideas will be well worth the investment when it’s time to deliver the goods.

Look Inside

“If you take the time to study and understand your bright spots–how exactly did you manage to get yourself to the gym on those four days [last month]?–then you can often discover unexpected solutions.”

Create Decision “Playlists”

A playlist is like a series of questions or checklist of considerations. A playlist helps guide future decisions. It helps broaden your options. After making a decision, I can create a playlist to help me navigate similar decisions in the future.

“A playlist stimulates new ideas.” “A playlist is useful for situations where you need a stimulus, a way of producing new ideas.” I can look back and see what decisions have worked out well.  I see this working well for financial decisions, work-life balance decisions, and product development decisions.

Back Away For A Better Perspective

Ask, “What would our successors do?” Take my own advice by asking, “What would I tell my best friend to do in this situation?”

Run A Premortem & Preparade

A premortem is when you look further down the road, imagining the failure of a project and ask, “What killed it?” or “Why did it fail?”

A preparade similarly looks ahead to the imagined success of a project and asks, “What led to its unbelievable success?” or “How do we ensure that we’re ready for [a parade in our honor]?”

There was so much more in this book, but I just couldn’t include everything. I certainly can’t apply it all at once either – at least not yet. However, I intend for these take aways to form a desk reference, something I review for any meaningful decisions I face. Hopefully, they’ll spur you toward making better choices and decisions too.

Question: Which takeaway jumped out at you the most? What did I miss? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Link:

• Book: Decisive: How To Make Better Choices In Life And Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath