How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

I bought this book for my son who had recently had a major event in his life that impacted not only him, but his whole family including myself. I read the first two chapters before giving it to him. That was enough information to get me hooked on the book and the author's four steps for positive decision making. Also,the information about how we make decisions will either be self defeating or create success in all areas of our lives. I made a copy of his four steps and try to read them daily. I am astounded at how it has helped me with even the most insignificant decisions I make daily. Sometimes those small ones turn out to be the most important. I recommend this as a read for people in all walks of life. It can be used for both personal and professional decision making. I plan to purchase more copies and give it as gifts for birthdays, Christmas and what ever else I need to give a gift for. It is a gift that keeps on giving.

Very vague advice...I was required to read this in my freshman seminar for college and I have to say, they probably only made us read it because one of them graduated Harvard and we all know how people are all up Harvard's tushy. But the general advice is to make informed decisions, weigh your options, think positively, take constructive criticism, and see if you can do both of the big decisions you have to make.

I have decided that this is a good book for letting your mind explore this process of decision making. It gives a lot of great examples of other peoples decision making process and proposes some very interesting ideas. I have not finished yet, but so far it's really helped open my mind. Also, at the end of each chapter, there is a reivew- that's pretty cool.

I've read each of their books, I've noticed they are getting farther from the answers the book brings up with each new book. The book and their conclusions about the subject are difficult to incorporate into real life.

Gets more buzz than it should in my view. Blame it on well-done marketing and workbook resources at their website. Go there first. You may not need to purchase the book. "Winning Decisions" is more thorough.

I really thought this was a great book. My favorite part of the book was about expert opinions. I believe that I will use their wrap process in both my professional and personal decisions. My only complaint is that I did not read it sooner.

Absolutely brilliant, this book is totally making me rethink so many things and has already helped me make better decisions not only for myself but offering advice directly from the book to a friend totally resolved the agony he was suffering from indecision. The M& M story has to be one of my favorite "mind blown" moments in a long time. After also being so impressed with Made to Stick these guys are fast becoming a seriously favorite authors. Thank you Dan and Heath !

Made to Stick and Switch provided rich content that you could digest and apply with some time and effort. Decisive is different. You can understand the WRAP concept and start applying it the same day in personal or business situations. At a time when change and opportunity is so great, I appreciate the straight forward writing style.

If you are not familiar with the writings of the Heath Brothers, do yourself a favor and order all three books for your summer reading list. The moment you read the first paragraph you will be hooked and unable to put the books down. If you are an innovator and like to push the envelope then you will find some good ideas to apply and build upon.

Chip and Dan Heath are known for writing insightful and approachable books like Switch. Their new book, Decisive does not follow this pattern. That simple statement required me to make a decision about this review. Writing a less than stellar review is often a challenge eliciting negative feedback when sharing reasons why something did not live up to your expectations or was worth the time to read.

We all make decisions and the top of making better decisions should have been a slam-dunk. While Decisive does deliver, particularly in the first few chapters, overall the messages in this book get lost. The book is too long, heavy and complex to be helpful, particularly covering a subject already treated by others.

The core messages of the book are sound and helpful. The book covers recognizes the challenges we face in making decisions:

> Forcing an either/or decision when its not needed
> Confirmation bias, when we seek and see only the data that supports our views
> Removing emotion from the decision making process
> Overconfidence in decision making that limits our ability to consider alternative

The answers to these challenges are a pop acronym WRAP that describes their four-step process to making better decisions.

> Widen your options
> Reality test your assumptions
> Attain distance before deciding
> Prepare to be wrong

These are commonsense and helpful ideas. They are the basis for an easy to understand, actionable set of tools, you are right. This is a case where the structure and prose gets in the way as the book uses 11 chapters to cover each letter of WRAP. Each chapter goes through a review of other people's books, psychology studies and stories around a particular sub-aspect of each letter. Much of the content of these chapters will be familiar to readers of other books about decision-making.

In my opinion this book should have been 200 pages not 300. Focus would give the read more value by delivering less prose. The decision to deliver less would have meant so much more.

The best part of this book is the first few chapters, those related to widening your options. These chapters reflect the spirit of Chip and Dan Heath's earlier books. The logic is clearer, the actions more practical, and the explanations more accessible. After those first few chapters, the prose grows in heavier, the stories while interesting become a little confusing in large part because of their number and the book becomes less readable or interesting. It seems like the authors fell into the Gladwell trap and tried to write a Malcolm Gladwell book, which was probably a poor decision.

Strengths

> Focusing on decision-making is an important and timely topic and one that we all need to keep in mind.

> The book concentrates on personal decision-making, the ones we make as individuals and consumers more than the ones we make as business leaders and citizens. Since we make personal decisions all the time it makes it easy to test and apply the ideas right away.

Challenges

> The book is rather generic to the sense that many of the ideas are obvious and much of this ground has already been covered by the likes of Dan Ariely, Johan Lehrer and Daniel Pink. Chip and Dan Heath are latecomers to the subject area and do more to repeat and repackage rather than introduce new ideas.

> The story examples, while helpful, bog the book down; require you to wade through what the authors want you to read rather than enabling you to jump ahead to the information you want.

> The structure of the chapters and numbered subsections with chapters are not particularly helpful and chop up the book. If the authors were trying to make the book more like reading a blog, then the missed as the subsections are too long and indirect.

Overall, recommended if you have the time and have not read any other books on decision making. In that case, this content will be new and helpful. If you have already read other decision related books, then I might put this one lower on the priority list.

Bought the "USED: VERY GOOD" but this wasn't even high enough quality to be considered
used: good" it was closer to "used acceptable."

There's some minimal cover damage (little tears on the corners, creasing on the 8-ball). Then there's a written name on the inside (that's not that big of a deal). But there's tears and folds on 10-20 of the pages which are visible even when the book is shut.

Obviously the book itself is amazing. Literally my favorite book.

"Will this book help me to make better decisions?". This was the driving question when purchasing this book for me. The answer is 'possibly' if I can remember the nuggets of useful information hidden in pages and pages of rambling stories, some of which feel although they have been 'made up'.

The content should have been covered in a much smaller book. Hard work !

The first two books from Chip and Dan Heath were incredible. This third major work didn't disappoint. What's great about their projects is they do all the heavy lifting. You can trust that they have combed through all the research and pulled out the best stuff. They don't stop there. They take the best stuff and turn it into practical takeaways that everyday people can put into use in life. I've already been using the decision making framework they developed for several important choices I had to make in my own life. This book is well worth everyone's time.

First, know that this review is biased - the bar is set high for these guys. I'm a Change Management consultant and the Heath Bros' first two books had a huge impact on my professional practice and are the two of my three favorite business books of all time (it's a short list - I hate business books). That said, DECISIVE is an quick read, with simple to understand and actionable steps. It's full of their fabulous signature stories that are easy to relate to - albeit sometimes cringingly. The only reason I gave it four stars is that the topic isn't as close to my heart as their first two, and a few of the concepts overlap slightly with their previous work.

Chris and Dan have a great writing style with lots of updated examples of our problems making rational decisions. However, their "discovery" of better ways to make decisions omit the pioneering work 50 years ago by Chuck Kepner and Ben Tregoe, called The Rational Manager. Kepner and Tregoe started a major training program that has taught thousands of managers how to make decisions in a more considered way that is very consistent with what Chip and Dan are talking about. I'm very disappointed that they are focusing so much on Kahneman and have ignored the founders of the Rational Manager in their book.

It's an entertaining read, but is repackaging an old but excellent wine...

You know what you are going to get from the Heath Bro's. They take a business school subject, shape the fundamental texts - in this case Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow - into a framework, and then flesh out with case studies. This book isn't as good as the first two.

Their subject this time is decision making. As you read, you can almost feel them scratching to live up to their reputation. The framework isn't as good as Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. The Driver-Elephant-Path from Switch is a helpful analogy. WRAP, their framework for Decisive, is just an acronym. Decisive isn't as easy to implement as Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. You can easily go back and edit your writing. Changing how you make decisions is more difficult.

The Heath Bro's make their best point at the end. Making better decisions requires a process. You can't beat your biases; you need a process that neutralizes them. The Heath Bro's process for making decisions is WRAP. Widen your options, Reality test, Achieve emotional distance, and Prepare for failure.

Widen your options - If you are familiar with design thinking, you are familiar with this processes. Generating more options leads to better decisions. The worst type of decisions are "to do or not to do" decisions.

Reality Test - Don't believe in your own exceptionalism, instead rely on base case rates. Look for ways to disprove your assumptions rather than trying to prove your assumptions.

Achieve Emotional Distance - All emotions are bad of decisions; only the intense short-term emotions are. Try changing time horizons to uncover your true deeper emotions.

Prepare to Fail - Before you make a decision you can limit your exposure if the decision turns out to be wrong. Once you have made a decision, decide on the criteria for re-examining the decision.

I LOVE Made to Stick and I personally think it is one of the best business books ever written.

This book however, is very disappointing. The material in Decisive is very thin, perhaps best for a Rolling Stone article, but certainly not rich enough for a book. The Heath brothers are writing too many books too soon, they seem to be running out of great topics that they can cover in depth.

Here are 3 aspects I've appreciated about Decisive

Readability: No one writes non-fiction business books like these guys. In parts, Decisive is hard to put down. If you've read Made to Stick, you'll see the authors practicing what they preach by applying their SUCCES principles to the format of this book (if you haven't read it, then get it).

Gives You Language: Three of us in our department at work got a copy of Decisive and it comes up in conversation everyday. The Heath brothers have given us language like: "ooching", "setting tripwires", "widen our options,"narrow framing, and "What would have to be true for this to be the best option?" This is kind of language has the power to shape the culture of an organization.

Researched: I love the footnotes! Decisive is full of credible examples, and you can tell that the authors and their research team put in hundreds of hours exploring the topic of decision making. The result is a litany of real-life examples and the results of research studies put into layman's terms.

The authors proposed a "WRAP" framework for decision making and use a variety of case studies to make their points stick. I'm really excited to put these to use!

1. Widen your options.
2. Reality-test your assumptions.
3. Attain distance before deciding.
4. Prepare to be wrong.

*Widen your options*

When you encounter a choice “narrow framing” causes us to miss out on options. A red flag should go off anytime you hear “whether or not” because that’s often only evaluated 1 option.

How
1. Explicitly state the opportunity cost of this decision.
1. Consider what you could do with the resources associated with the opportunity cost
1. Create a stop doing list. A ship crew hated painting ship. So they figured out that bolts cause rusting requiring re-painting and found bolts that would rust slower enabling them to not have to paint anymore
2. Ask questions that will surface contrary information
1. What if your options vanished and you had to come up with another alternative?
2. Reframe by asking a different, related question
1. e.g. Chocolate covered bananas company needed to stand out so asked how children behave in a grocery store so put painted banana peels in frozen aisle to attract children like a treasure hunt.
2. Get the right mindset. Xerox CEO had every executive match with 1 of 500 key customers and have 1 day where they handled all customer complaints to improve empathy.
3. Bounty had their competitors products put in office to really experience them.
4. Major hollywood studios said they wouldn’t support Redbox. Analysis of Redbox DVD rentals showed that even though studios were cutting off distribution, the drivers could buy the DVDs at Walmart retail and legally the company could rent them. The panic around stock price was unwarranted.
5. Be honest about downsides to candidates. A “vaccination effect” enables people to expect negative effects. This has an effective even if the vaccination is after the hire is made by increasing job satisfaction and reducing churn.
6. Be mindful of unintentional innovation. Rogaine unintentionally started sprouting hair elsewhere on the body and manipulated to the head. Viagra was for heart health and patents called the side effect.
3. Look at external best practices or bright spots of success you’ve had personally dealing with similar problems. If you can't find a suitable best practice, “ladder up” to a less idea identical comp until you find something.
1. e.g. Colgate picked the name Wisp for a product because a team was assigned to name an Olay product as a way to generate out of the box ideas
2. Speedo assignment to redesign bathing suit. Looked at animals who go fast in water. Sharks have rough skin defying swimsuit logic to be smooth.
4. Create a “playlist" or list of pre-canned questions designed to generate multiple solutions. People can be in “prevention” modes focused on safety and comfort or “promotion” modes seeking risk and change. Deliberately ask questions to avoid falling prey to either prevention or promotion mindset.
5. Check yourself by considering the opposite.

*Reality test your assumptions*

We use confirmation bias to only find data that supports our initial inkling. Said another way, we cook the books to support our gut instinct.

How
1. Be diligent about way we information collection asking disconfirming questions and considering opposite
1. Appoint a devil's advocate to consciously argue the other side.
1. e.g. Treat decision like a trial case where 2 separate sides make arguments (e.g. for vs. against Corporate m&a deal)
2. What would have to be true for that choice to be the best?
2. Zoom out by gathering base rates from knowledgeable experts and zoom in by understanding examples representative of our decision
1. If you are opening a restaurant, look at the data of probability of success for restaurants like this. Be mindful of the “spotlight effect” or assuming you are unique.
2. Talk to an expert or someone with more experience than you but only to get information and data about the past and present NOT future predictions.
1. In reference calls, ask very specific questions. If you want to work at a law firm and are worried about work/life balance, ask how many days did they eat dinner at home and at what time. What is their favorite TV show and recent movie. People are more willing to admit their iPod is broken if you ask “Are there any problems with it?” as opposed to “Tell me about it”
3. Get detailed texture by examining individual, representatives examples of this decision
3. Prototype to learn from a real test
1. Speed up the collection of trustworthy information. Note this is not to slow down a decision that deserves our full commitment. Intern with a marine biologist, don't use it to quit the baseball team.
1. Consider a deliberate mistakes. Specify what assumptions exist and deliberately break one to see what happens like a law office secretary who was bringing documents home to re-check 3 times when letting through a grammatical error was totally fine.
2. Multi track multiple ideas at once - Design firm had 5 design firms horse race the first phase instead of choosing 1 for the whole project

*Attain distance before deciding*

Decisions are about emotion controlling for your passions, values, beliefs and even who and what you are. An agonizing decision is a priorities conflict. The need it to enshrine key priorities for informing decisions.

1. Review prior steps because one option should jump out by now.
2. Escape short term emotions
1. 10/10/10. How would you feel 10 minutes from now? 10 months from now? 10 years from now?
2. We bias to the status quo due due to exposure principle (like things the more we are exposed to them) and loss aversion (overvalue what we have the cost of losing it)
1. People prefer the view of themselves in the mirror whereas others prefer inverted view since that’s what we see more often.
2. Coffee mugs given to half a class of college students. Ones with mug value over $7 vs those without value at $2
3.
3. We are better at advising friends than deciding ourselves. What would I tell my best friend to do in this situation?
3. Create gurdarails wide enough to empower, narrow enough to inform
1. When facing a decision, note any potential guardrails that can be used for future similar decisions

*Prepare to be Wrong*

1. Determine the bookends
1. Calculate a predictable range NOT a specific guess since we are overconfident. Evaluate the best possible outcome and worst possible outcome of the decision
2. Add a confidence buffer
1. Do precise expectations setting but then multiple by a buffer factor (e.g. engineers of elevators add a 10x factor for weight to ensure an elevator would never actually break due to too many people)
2. Do a pre-mortem
1. Look at the whole post-decision journey and determine what might go wrong at each step x how bad it would be to identify a few areas to focus risk
2. Pretend the future has happened and then explain how NOT forecast how a future event might happen (people more creative explaining how an Asian president was elected in 2020 than how might an Asian president be elected in 2020)
3. Pre parade explaining how this decision led to wild success
1. e.g. Minatonka made pump soap but as a small company needed to prepare for scaled demand so locked up all volume from the only 2 pump suppliers
4. Set a trip wire for what circumstances trigger revaluation of decision (remembering people are over confident about decisions).
1. Identify ways to get quick feedback, evaluate decision in a binary fashion, ensure results are predictable
2. E.g. Rock Band asked for Brown M&Ms to be removed to ensure people actually read contract. Zappos offers bonus to new hires to weed out nagging doubters.
3. Use partitions to force revised decisions e.g. individually wrap cookies so you have to open one at a time

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices In Life and Work by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

"Decisive" is a very useful book on how to make better choices. The authors provide the readers a four-step process (WRAP process) for making better and more decisive decisions by protecting you from biases that hurt the decision-making process. The Heath brothers provide a very insightful and helpful tool to help the masses in life and work. This instructive 336-page book includes twelve chapters broken out into the following four steps: 1. Widen Your Options, 2. Reality-Test Your Assumptions, 3. Attain Distance Before Deciding, and 4. Prepare to be Wrong.

Positives:
1. Engaging, accessible, well-researched and referenced book.
2. A practical topic; how to make better decisions in life and work. Great command of the topic and they make it fun and instructive.
3. Love how this book is formatted! It takes a professorial approach. Each chapter follows a consistent format that includes: new concepts, real-life examples, and one-page summaries.
4. One of the main ideas of this book is to get over the "spotlight". That is to recognize that the spotlight rarely provides everything needed to make sound decisions. The book is full of great examples illustrating the spectrum of poor to sound decisions in business and on the personal front.
5. Identifies the villains of decision making and proposes a strategy to counteract them.
6. Explains why narrow framing is the first villain of decision making. "That phrase `whether or not' is, as we've seen, a classic warning signal that you haven't explored all your options." "We'll get stuck in a mindset of prevention OR promotion. If we can do both, seeking out options that minimize harm AND maximize opportunity, we are more likely to uncover our full spectrum of choices."
7. Combating confirmation bias. "Confirmation bias is probably the single biggest problem in business, because even the most sophisticated people get it wrong. People go out and they're collecting the data, and they don't realize they're cooking the books." In other words, we only collect information that supports our own preferences. "The meta-study found that the confirmation bias was stronger in emotion-laden domains such as religion or politics."
8. Dealing with short-term emotion. "There's one critical ingredient missing from this kind of analysis: emotion. Grove's decision wasn't difficult because he lacked options or information; it was difficult because he felt conflicted. The short-term pressures and political wrangling clouded his mind and obscured the long-term need to exit the memory business."
9. The dangers of overconfidence. "People think they know more than they do about how the future will unfold." Many great examples.
10. Full of interesting observations that have practical implications. "How you react to the position, in short, depends a great deal on your mindset at the time it's offered." Absolutely.
11. Practical business advice that I personally use. "This playlist idea turns a reactive search--Who has solved my problem?--into a proactive step: We've already found the people who have solved this problem, and here's what they said."
12. I would be beside myself if I didn't share this golden nugget, "For years many people thought smooth fabric was the key [to speed], but if you look at sharkskin and how rough it is, roughness is the actual key to making a fast fabric."
13. Sound advice galore, "an antidote to hubris: disagreement."
14. Applications run the gamut. "The justice system isn't alone in using a balanced process. For centuries, the Catholic Church made use of a "devil's advocate" in canonization decisions (i.e., in deciding who would be named a saint). The devil's advocate was known inside the church as the promotor fidei--the "promoter of the faith"--and his role was to build a case against sainthood."
15. How to gain a more realistic perspective. "Zooming out and zooming in gives us a more realistic perspective on our choices. We downplay the overly optimistic pictures we tend to paint inside our minds and instead redirect our attention to the outside world, viewing it in wide-angle and then in close-up."
16. Debunks the idea that experts are better at making predictions. "Ooching provides an alternative--a way of discovering reality rather than predicting it." "TO OOCH IS TO ask, Why predict something we can test? Why guess when we can know?"
17. One of my favorite observations. "Phillips quickly learned that the art of car sales was getting customers to stop thinking and start feeling."
18. The importance of tripwires. "In short, tripwires allow us the certainty of committing to a course of action, even a risky one, while minimizing the costs of overconfidence."
19. The importance of having a process that works. "What a process provides, though, is more inspiring: confidence. Not cocky overconfidence that comes from collecting biased information and ignoring uncertainties, but the real confidence that comes from knowing you've made the best decision that you could. Using a process for decision making doesn't mean that your choices will always be easy, or that they will always turn out brilliantly, but it does mean you can quiet your mind. You can quit asking, "What am I missing?" You can stop the cycle of agonizing."
20. Great supplementary material: recommended reading material, three real-world situations in which the authors apply the 4-step process, and links to their excellent website.

Negatives:
1. I would have liked an appendix on the basic approach of observational behavioral research. How it's conducted, consensus among subject-matter experts and how it is peer-reviewed.
2. Very few visual aids to complement the excellent narrative.
3. A lot of advice presented is really intuitive. "When you're trying to gather good information and reality-test your ideas, go talk to an expert. If you're considering filing an intellectual-property lawsuit against a competitor, talk to a top IP lawyer." Of course.
4. The book could have been condensed to 50-75 lesser pages without missing a beat.

In summary, this is a very helpful book based on observational-behavioral research. I enjoy books that provide useful advice and this is one of those books. One key thing that I got out of this book is that making better decisions requires a process, a process that will help you minimize biases. The process is simple but the implications are deep. I intend to refer back to this book when need. Very solid book, I highly recommend it!

Further recommendations: "Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard" and "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip and Dan Heath, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On" by Jonah Berger, "Collaborate or Perish!: Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World" by William Bratton and Zachary Tumin, "Outliers: The Story of Success" and "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell, "Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future" by Leonard A. Schlesinger, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, "The One Thing" by Gary Keller, "Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business" by Thor Muller and Lane Becker, "Work with Me" by Barbara Annis and John Gray, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins,"The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg, "Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success" by Rick Newman, and "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" by Daniel H. Pink.

As of this writing, 92% of the reviews gave this book a 4 or 5 star rating.

The 92% have done a great job summarizing and have hit the target in the process. .

This is a thoughtful, extensive, and excellent book on improving one's decision making, written in an engaging fashion
by citing many examples, including Benjamin Franklin, Andy Grove of Intel, Snapple, Procter & Gamble, NASA, Travel Advisor, Yelp, YouTube, Speedo, PayPal, and many others.

Each chapter has an effective summary of the concepts presented.

p.273-299 lists off the endnotes for each chapter.

There are many quotable sections to this book, here are a few:

The goal of the WRAP process: "...is not to neutralize emotion. Quite the contrary. When you strip away all the rational mechanics of decision making--the generation of options, the weighing of information--what's left at the core is emotion. What drives you? What kind of person do you aspire to be? What do you believe is best for your family in the long run? (Business leaders ask: What kind of organization do you aspire to run? What's best for your team in the long run?)

Three approaches on fighting confirmation bias: "One, we can make it easier for people to disagree with us. Two, we can ask questions that are more likely to surface contrary information. Three, we can check ourselves by considering the opposite (or going against assumptions developed over a period of time)."

On compromise: "...it demonstrates that you've made sue of diverse opinions, which is a way of limiting risk. Here's why: Bargainers come to the table with different opinions, which help the group dodge a narrow frame...(and) tend to act as devil's advocates for each other, asking the disconfirming questions that people don't always ask themselves."

My digest of the authors' WRAP framework:

1. Widen your options (to combat narrow framing)
a. Widen your frame (what else could you do with the time/money?)
b. Consider if “AND, not OR” is possible
c. Work multiple tracks (of ideas) in parallel
d. Find someone who has already solved your exact problem or a analogous one (internal & external bright spots --- aka “positive deviance”)
e. Use the vanishing options test: What would you do if your current options were not available?

2. Reality test your assumptions (to combat confirmation bias)
a. Discuss/consider what is still uncertain
b. Elicit perspectives on the past & present (not the future) from a range of experts who hold prior experience or different views; make it easy for others to disagree with you
c. Seek disconfirming information; trust the averages
d. For each option, consider what would have to be true for it to be the right decision (rather than comparing)
e. Place “little bets” (aka ‘ooch’, prototype) to gain information through direct experience then double down on successes

3. Attain distance before deciding (to combat short-term emotion)
a. Make decisions based on long-term goals and guiding principles
b. Role-play alternative viewpoints (what would our successors do? How would you advise your best friend on this decision?)
c. Consider how you will feel 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years after making a decision (10/10/10 approach)

4. Prepare to be wrong (to combat over-confidence)
a. Bookend: Mentally rehearse what you will do if you decision is incorrect in a bad way (pre-mortem) and in a good way (pre-parade); consider what you will do after the bad outcome has happened rather than what you would do if it happens
b. Establish tripwires (deadlines, milestones, spending limits) to take you out of autopilot so that you can consider a change in direction

Other ideas from the book that don't fit nicely into the WRAP framework:
a. Assume positive intent in others
b. Have a bias for action
c. Create a ‘stop-doing’ list
d. Be easy to do business with

[ Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of the book from Goodreads.com's First Reads giveaways. That should not influence my review :) ]

Decisive sits securely in a hot subgenre of non-fiction that I love but have yet to find a concise name for. Taking learnings from psychology, sociology, and social economics, authors like the Heath brothers, Dan Ariely, Charles Duhigg, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein help us learn about and improve ourselves at the same time. If this is considered a "self-help" book, I consider it the best kind.

Decisive lays out a framework with a simple mnemonic with the acronym WRAP, as follows:
- Widen your options.
- Reality-test your assumptions.
- Attain some distance before deciding.
- Prepare to be wrong.
Each section clearly explains the potential decision-making pitfalls, then gives a few example tactics you can take to apply them. The text is never dense nor mechanical; they keep it lively with plenty of real stories, and do not pad the text with much blather. What you get as a result is an easy, enjoyable read that sets you up to improve your confidence and wisdom in making decisions.

If you read a lot in this subgenre, you'll notice common themes including cognitive bias and decision fatigue, and often the same studies appear again and again. What sets Chip & Dan Heath apart is their focus on giving you the tools to apply the learning. There are chapter summaries to aid retention; appendices full of specific applications, recommended follow-up reading, and detailed notes; and even more available for download from their website (I'd definitely recommend these downloads--heck, maybe even check these out and read the first chapter before you buy the book). Altogether, Decisive is a thoroughly worthwhile read.

I have a confession to make: I love the books the Heath brothers write. Made to Stick is still one of the best books I've ever read on preaching and it isn't a book about preaching.

We all make decisions everyday, at work, at home. So making decisions in a timely way is something all of us could benefit from. In the book, the authors point what they call "four villains" when it comes to making decisions:

-We have too narrow of focus. The authors called this "spotlight thinking." Instead of asking should I do this or that, ask how to do both, how can you widen your view. We miss important facts outside our immediate view because we won't shift the light to see what's around it. By doing this, you miss options.
-We fall into confirmation bias. We only look for information that confirms what we think. The authors pointed out that when you read reviews on the store or Yelp, you eyes go to reviews that confirm what you already think. By doing this, you gather self-serving information.
-We get caught in short-term emotion. We get stuck in decisions because our emotions get tied up in those decisions. By doing this, you are tempted to make the wrong choice.
-We are guilty of overconfidence. The authors write, "People think they know more than they do about how the future will unfold." By doing this, you miss what could be.
-If we aren't careful, the "four villains" keep us from making wise choices from where to eat, who to hire, or what job to take.

Over the course of the book, the authors lay out their strategy for making better decisions, using what they call the WRAP method:

Widen your options. As a leader, look for ways to wide your options, how to get more choices. Don't settle for 2 options, how can you get more?
Reality-test your assumptions. How can you get outside your head and collect information that you can trust?
Attain distance before deciding. In making a decision, you must remove yourself from the equation. Asking what someone in your shoes would do, what would a new hire in your position do.
Prepare to be wrong. That one is self explanatory, don't get attached to your decisions, make them as fluid as possible. Don't say, "never" or "always."

Overall, this is a great read. While not as ground breaking as their other books, it's good. I haven't read a ton of books on how to make decisions, but would imagine this is a great place to start.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath breaks down our decision-making patterns and helps to identity the problems of our narrow points of view. It's a business book, but it can be read to help someone with their personal life.

Chapter One begins with the title, "The Four Villains of Decision Making," which includes making decisions based on tradition and political infighting:

"This was the moment of clarity. From the perspective of an outsider, someone not encumbered by the historical legacy and the political infighting, shutting down the memory business was the obvious thing to do (page 14)." The authors explained how Intel's CEO, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove fought on what direction they should take Intel. At the time, they were deep into the memory business, but microprocessors were where the profit was even though Intel had a legacy in memory. Because of asking themselves, what would a brand new CEO do in this situation who didn't have the history of the company ingrained in their psyche, Moore and Grove saved Intel.

Decisive breaks the book down in four parts, outlining their business theory: WRAP (Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, and Prepare to be wrong).

Many times we don't widen our options by expanding the spotlight beyond what people want us to focus on. We need to look at the bigger picture and widening your options does this.

Reality-test your assumptions uses the example of Ooching. Someone in one of the chapters chose to test a product before deciding to invest in it. In this section, Decisive even suggested that people applying for a specific job interview people in that field to determine if the job is the right fit for you and if it met your expectations.

Attain distance before deciding talks about stepping away or sleeping on a decision before agreeing to the job. It used an example of someone who had to decide between a great job and a greater job. The emotional high after the interview impeded her judgement and ultimately she chose to stay with her job because it gave her balance in her life. She had time for all the things she wanted to do in life, but the better paying job would have increased her work hours exponentially.

Prepare to be wrong is preparing for the worst-case scenario. Decisive talked about setting trip wires. Trip wires are like early warning systems.

"All this worrying about traps and contingencies may make tripwires sound overly cautious-the bicycle helmet of decision making. But actually we want to argue the opposite, that tripwires encourage risk taking by letting us carve out a "safe space" for experimentation" (Pg. 240).

Decisive's chapters bear a summary and repetition style of writing which makes keeping this new knowledge easier. I enjoyed reading this book and gave it five stars.

*Book given by publisher to review.

What if you get improve your percentages of making better choices? What if you could read a great book in doing so? That's the beauty of Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath. It does both, and it does them quite well.

Wrap your hands not only around this book but the great insights Chip and Dan Heath share in making better choices. They not only deal with the 4 villains that hinder decision making, they also lay out 4 ways to leverage our decision making to a higher level. They don't promise 100% accuracy in making decisions (that would be the sign of a fool). But they do share 4 choices to overcome the villains to be wiser at work, at home, and in one's daily life.

In reading Decisive you learn the WRAP method of making decisions:

Widen your options.

Reality-test your assumptions.

Attain distance before deciding.

Prepare to be wrong.

By putting these choices to work, you and I can develop a process for making better decisions.

In addition to developing some great principles for processing decision making, there is also some great stories along the way -- the dietary impact of Red Velvet Cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory or why David Lee Roth's obsession with no brown M&M's was critical to his band's success.

Even better there are great questions to apply when making decisions in business and in life. Such as 10/10/10 (my favorite from the book), how will you feel about your decision 10 minutes from now? 10 months from now? 10 years from now?

What would I tell my best friend to do in this situation?

What would my successor do when he comes into this situation?

The book does not promise perfection in decision making. That's why prepare to be wrong. But having read Decisive, it has provided better clarity for decision making. And so far it has led to better decisions and insight into what next steps might be for me. I think it will do so for you as well.

I give Decisive 5 out of 5 stars. Well-written. Thought provoking. Best of all, life changing. My thanks to Blogging for Books for a free copy to review. I didn't have to give a positive review, just an honest one. My thanks for helping me to make better decisions, including reading this book!

This is a well written book with interesting stories about people making challenging decisions using different techniques. The authors show you how to apply a myriad of techniques to everyday decisions. They point out that we often limit our solutions by stating a problem as an either/or decision. For instance we try to decide to invest our money in a given company stock at a given price at a given time or not. We should be considering options of purchasing in several steps, consider other similar companies, especially competitors.

Use a checklist to ensure the same method is employed for the same process such as airplane takeoffs, surgeries, i.e., most complicated procedures that need to be replicated without error. Multitracking is considering several options simultaneously and is used to produce the playlist. Use a playlist as a stimulus for producing new ideas.

Kevin Dunbar researches how scientists think. He finds that successful labs try to find solutions to their research problems by checking how others have solved similar experimental problems. Often making a more general search for techniques from other research labs -regional analogies, is productive. A problem here is that time may be saved by not replicating work, but you can also miss new insights into a problem by not checking other parameters by just using a known procedure. Another problem is that the molecule being studied is going to have some different properties and the borrowed technique may miss these.

They find that experts are quite good at identifying the basic trends, but terrible at predicting future trends. Just extrapolating the basic trend is superior to expert predictions. The more the expert appears in the media the worse the prediction. In many examples such as would it be possible to sell cars online, or would a career as a pharmacist or a physical therapist be appealing the best thing is to try it out on a small scale. They call this preliminary testing ooching.

Additional methods suggest looking at decisions from different perspectives such as the 10/10/10. This suggests making a decision and imagining how you would feel after 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years to put the decision in perspective. Another is to imagine your best friend is making the decision how would you advise them?

They discuss the need to identify your core priorities, your `A' list and a second `B' list of other things you spend time on that are not as important. Then find ways to eliminate or streamline items on The `B' list to give more time and energy for your core priorities. They give an example of replacing iron bolts with steel bolts that don't rust to save time of constantly scraping and repainting a US Navy vessel. The time saved was put toward training for their missions and resulted in great improvements in performance. Another is an hourly beep to remind people to check if they are doing what is most important.

Byron Penstock is an investment analyst who wants to find Buffett type investments that are low priced but have a good chance of improving and going up in value. Penstock first estimates the value of the stock if the company actually goes broke, this is one bookend. Next he values the company if mostly good things happen, this is the second bookend. If the stock is near the low evaluation it is a buy, if it is near the high evaluation he doesn't invest. These parameters allow him to invest more heavily when a stock is near its go broke value. In general you might prepare for the worst case by asking why your decision failed a year from now, and what can you do hedge against that possibility. Can you build in a safety factor? If you are right how do you take maximum advantage of the situation or investment. Preparing for the lower bookend -ask why your scenario could fail in the next year (called a premortem ). You also need to think about success when do you increase your commitment or sell your investment.

Tripwires are alerts that remind us that we need to check a given situation. For an investment that has moved up a lot (or down), is it still a reasonable investment when it reaches the tripwire price? It is well known that medical errors cause many injuries and deaths. The use of rapid response teams who respond to nurses noticing a negative change in a patient, looked like a possibility to catch declines in health before patients died. This was a step before calling an emergency code that death was imminent. And it turned out that mortality decreased and it took less time to help patients before they were critical. Using tripwires is a way of limiting risk, and reminding yourself to step back and realize you have choices.

Developing a method to make decisions and check using tripwires that we are still on course can free up resources for other pursuits or just enjoying the fruits of previous decisions.

Life is full of choices--some of them easy, "Should I eat this chocolate??" Some of them a little more difficult, "Should I get out of the military and go back to college?"

In Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work Chip & Dan tackle the latter kinds of questions using a process they define as WRAP. (Widen your options, Reality test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, Prepare to be wrong)

In Decisive you can tell that these guys are smart--I mean, super duper consult with multimillion dollar businesses on decisions kind of smart. And this is definitely such a "meaty" book that it needs to be read half a chapter at a time just so your brain can process and digest all of the excellent information they're throwing at you.

That being said the book is also very easy to read and they have awesome and hilarious senses of humor which show up frequently--for example when quoting a Q&A section of Ask.com they put in footnotes which states "Note that we have corrected the punctuation and capitalization on these entries (though not the grammar). This diminishes authenticity but greatly enhances one's sanity in reading it."

Absolutely hysterical! I burst out laughing when I read that!!!

They also use funny-clever terms like "Ooch" when describing the process of easing into a decision by control testing it in a small way to see if it works first before leaping into it full scale.

I was continually impressed and enlightened by the points brought up in the book. An example of this is in the chapter about Honoring Your Core Priorities they discussed that for each new thing you decide that you want to do (spend more time with your kids, take a college class, exercise more) there is something that you will have to Stop Doing in order to make time for that. They suggest creating a Stop Doing list and gave an amazing example of a military Naval ship who used this process to fix and upgrade their ship so that they could stop spending hours and hours of re-painting it and move on to more important missions that the crew actually enjoyed (if only the rest of the government/military would take their example to heart!!!)

I found myself continually stopping while reading the book to read sections aloud to my hubby that were insightful, interesting, startling, or funny. It was great to read a book that really gave my brain a workout and taught me new things--whether you're running a small business or just your own home this is definitely a book worth owning!!

I received an advanced copy for my unbiased opinion-and I'm very glad I did!

Over the past few years I've read the Heath brothers' books Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Both books read similarly. This book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, follows the same template of a collection of other people's stories and other people's research to support the authors' theories. The formula works pretty well for the Heath brothers. But I found less in this book to admire than in the earlier books. Decisive seemed more derivative, less focused, and more forgettable. The books are getting worse, not better.

Decisive teaches us to use the WRAP framework to make better choices: W -- Widen Your Options; R -- Reality-Test Your Assumptions; A -- Attain Distance Before Deciding; P -- Prepare to Be Wrong. The mnemonics are easy to remember, but it's hard to put any substance on fluffy concepts like this. It's cotton-candy thinking, not anything meaty you can really dig into.

Decisive also seemed poorly organized and edited. It didn't flow from concept to concept, but instead seemed to be patched together. Some editing errors were made. One of the chapter summaries referred to a story that was not in the chapter. And one of the footnotes refers to an "unnatural exercise" quote on page 118 that I could not find. The brothers also got pretty wishy-washy on some of their points, like whether a lot of choices is paralyzing or freeing. Finally, many of the stories seemed contrived and lightweight -- some even corny -- hardly worth including in a book like this.

The Heath brothers have impressive careers in academics -- one a professor at Stanford and the other a senior fellow at a Duke think tank. But their books seem too anti-academic, too geared to a general reader, for them. They seemed to pitch a personal philosophy as much as a method for making decisions. It's almost as if they got caught up in trying to market a bestseller rather than write a book that had a deeply felt message they wanted to share.

That impression was heightened by the barrage of emails I got announcing the book, and offering some sort of toy for an advance purchase. While I had interest to start with, I wearied after three or four emails, and unsubscribed to any more. In the end, I did decide to read the book, and I'm not sorry that I did. It has some helpful hints, and is an easy read. It's okay, but I only wish that it had been better.

This book is about taking a systematic approach to decision making. Far too often, we make decisions while either on autopilot or we self-sabotage our efforts by limiting our options. This book seeks to correct this.

I can’t say this book was one I couldn’t put down. The reality is I started the book and got @ halfway through before putting it down for another book. After a period of months, I just picked it up and finished it.

With 225 previous reviews, I will not repeat the details of the book here. To learn the details, I suggest you read some of the other reviews.

Here is what I liked about the book:
• It points out the problems associated with the ways we most commonly make decisions
• It offers a systematic, conscious approach to decision making by providing tools and strategies that facilitate making better decisions
• Each chapter ends with a succinct chapter summary
• It is well documented
• It provides resources for further reading
• It provides sample clinics at the end so the reader can test out or apply the strategies presented in the book

For me, these are what made the book worth reading.

The biggest challenge I see with implementing their advice is taking the time needed during the decision making process to implement the strategies put forth in Decisive.

I read this book and was immediately able to help someone make a better decision. The brothers Heath have been on a roll of sorts, writing impact books like Made to Stick and Switch. In this work, they dissect the decision making process and provide a method that ensures that the best decision possible is made. Note that this does not mean you get your desired outcome; that is another matter. The best decision is one that is characterized by wisdom as exemplified in the Heath's brother acronym for decision making success: WRAP. Widen your options; reality test your assumptions; attain distance; and, prepare to be wrong. For each of these steps, the Heaths discuss in details the rationale, giving examples of how not doing the step can lead to problems and how following it can lead to better decisions. There is a lot of the latest neuroscience and behavioral economics woven into the text: the confirmation bias, for example, is addressed head on as a nemesis to good decision making. The brothers also provide good rules of thumb: for example, when a decision is framed as a "whether or not" decision, that is a red flag that only one alternative is being considered and that therefore real, viable options are being ignored. This is a gem of a book that should become a classic in the decision making literature.

In their previous books, Chip and Dan Heath tackled communications theory (Made to Stick) and habits (Switch). In Decisive, they tackle decision-making.

They start with the things that derail good decision-making. Carefully and insightfully, they frame the problem in a way that makes sense. I found myself saying "I do that" and "I totally do that too" as I was reading. When the time came to read their model to help us make better decisions, I was on the hook.

The model is simple:
Widen your options
Reality-test your assumptions
Attain distance before deciding
Prepare to be wrong

WRAP. (Those Heath brothers love their acronyms)

The Heath brothers do a wonderful job presenting their model in a way that makes it easy to apply to real life. They sift through tons and tons of research and boil it down to four very important nuggets. In that way, this book is remarkable.

Given the fact that I thoroughly loved Chip and Dan Heath's two previous books Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, deciding to read _Decisive_ was quite an easy decision to make! Just as was the case with the other two books, the Heath brothers' brilliant talents for writing, teaching, and captivating shined through on every page!

At the beginning of their book, they ask:
"Given that we're wired to act foolishly sometimes, how can we do better?" (p. 4)

_Decisive_ elegantly and effectively proposes a buffer for our all-too-human wiring woes by offering the WRAP process for making better decisions:
"At its core, the WRAP model urges you to switch from "auto spotlight" to manual spotlight. Rather than make choices based on what naturally comes to your attention--visceral emotions, self-serving information, overconfident predictions, and so on--you deliberately illuminate more strategic spots. You sweep your light over a broader landscape and point it into hidden corners." (p. 24)

First, they highlight the top four "villains" of decision making (p. 18):
1. You encounter a choice. But narrow framing makes you miss options.
2. You analyze your options. But the confirmation bias leads you to gather self-serving information.
3. You make a choice. But short-term emotion will often tempt you to make the wrong one.
4. Then you live with it. But you'll often be overconfident about how the future will unfold.

The remainder of the books shows how the WRAP process can address each of these villains in turn to help us make better choices:
1. *W*iden your options: Avoid a narrow frame; Multitrack; Find someone who's solved your problem
2. *R*eality-test your assumptions: Consider the opposite; Zoom out, zoom in; Ooch
3. *A*ttain distance before deciding: Overcome short-term emotion; Honor your core priorities
4. *P*repare to be wrong: Bookend the future; Set a tripwire

Reflecting on the WRAP process, the brothers explain that:
"Using a process for decision making doesn't mean that your choices will always be easy, or that they will always turn out brilliantly, but it does mean you can quiet your mind. You can quit asking "What am I missing?" You can stop the cycle of agonizing...Being decisive is itself a choice. Decisiveness is a way of behaving, not an inherited trait. It allows us to make brave and confident choices, not because we know we'll be right but because it's better to try and fail than to delay and regret...Our decisions will never be perfect, but they can be better. Bolder. Wiser. The right process can steer us toward the right choice...And, the right choice, at the right moment, can make all the difference." (p. 252)

And, deciding to read _Decisive_ is exactly one of those choices that can make all the difference!

(Note: It's also one of those decisions for which step #4 of "Prepare to be wrong" can be omitted!)

Your decision-making approach is probably a variation of the Benjamin Franklin method: you weigh up the pros and cons and go with the winner.

But, argue Chip and Dan Heath, this approach rarely leads to the best decisions. Using the Benjamin Franklin method can still see you fall victim to the "Four Villains of Decision Making": framing your choice in too narrow terms, seeking out information that supports your biases, being influenced by short-term emotions, and being overconfident about the future.

Their decision making method addresses those areas. It shows you how to widen your options, reality-test your assumptions, attain distance before deciding and prepare to be wrong.

The Heath brothers are up front that making better decisions does not mean you'll always make the right choice. But choosing from a wider range of options, and using less biased information to make your choice, does increase your chances of a successful decision.

Indeed, most of the time it's better to make a decision, act, and be wrong, than to dither and delay.

You make countless decisions of varying importance every day. This book gives you tools to arrive at choices that you can implement with greater certainty.

Another must read! This was another good summer read. This book opened my eyes to the process of decision making. We all make decisions thousands of times a day so in many ways we are experts. However, what I like about this book is that it helped me to understand decision making process and what goes into our every decisions.

The authors go into the system on how to make valid decisions. They walk you through the steps of how to make a proper decision and how to identify the the issues that can cause us to make incorrect decisions.

I took down a ton of notes on my Evernote page. I look forward to having a Twitter chat on this book and the ideas. I have found this book to being pivotal at a time in my life when I had a major decision to make. Using the tools and questions provided I feel that I made the right choice.

If you have read the other books by these authors, then you know what you are going to get. Quality writing with useful ideas that anyone can implement.

Another solid read and will be using these skills and tools over and over and again!

The Heath brothers hit another homerun with their new book **Decisive**! Everyone can use more help making decisions -- especially when we have several choices that appear good.

You'll have to read the book to understand the Heath's WARP concept because it's got a lot of depth. Here is a short explanation of the WRAP concept:

Widen the frame of your options. Too often, we give ourselves too few options, or options that really aren't options, and we force ourselves into an either/or mentality. More quality (and new) options usually result in a better decision. You have to widening your focus.
Reality test your assumptions. In other words, many of us know what decision we want to make, and we find pieces of information that support it. Or, we seek out "experts" who will give us the advice we want to hear. Find some objectivity - get outside of your own head for some clarity.
Attain distance before deciding. Most all decisions (especially the important ones) are emotional. Am I the only one to ever get manipulated by a car salesmen to buy a car for nothing more than an emotional impulse? Avoid the car lot until you have solid criteria established for the car you NEED. If you own a business, ask yourself, "What would our successors do?" Think through the 10/10/10 principle: how will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes... 10 months... and 10 years from now? Diffuse the emotion.
Prepare to be wrong. Most decisions should not be set in stone. When they are, it leads to overconfidence and avoidance of change when we do make the wrong choice. Failure is not fatal. If we anticipate the problems, we will be better equipped to handle them. If we're right, we can also plan a time to celebrate!

Making good decisions in a big deal. How are you preparing yourself to make them? Do you have a strategy? If not, it might be a good idea to track down the book Decisive (no one is paying me to endorse the book). Share your decision making strategy.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher for my review. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Made to stick" and "Switch" are two of my very few all-time favorites. I am sorry that this book is far below the quality of its predecessors. The authors' theory of WRAP*, though simple, is not outstanding and insightful in the sea of smart thinking and decision making books. The stories the authors used to elaborate their concepts were not as catchy and mind blowing and memorable as those in their previous works. Readable, but will very likely disappoint their fans and veteran readers of the topic.

p.s. Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.

The core difficulty of decision making: What's in the spotlight will rarely be everything we need to make a good decision, but we wont always remember to shift the light. S9metimes, in fact, we'll forget there's a spotlight a t all, dwelling so long in the tiny circle of light that we forget there's a broader landscape beyond it. pg3
When the researchers compared whether process or analysis was more important in producing good decisions - those that increased revenues, profits and market share - they (Lovallo, a professor at University of Sydney, and Sibony, a director at McKinsey) found that process mattered more than analysis - by a factor of six. Often a good process led to a better analysis. Bu the reverse was not true. Superb analysis is useless unless the decision process gives it a fair hearing......The discipline exhibited by good corporate decision makers - exploring alternative points of view, recognizing uncertainty, searching for evidence that contradicts that beliefs - can help us in our families and friendships as well. pg5-6
There's a tool we can use to accomplish this emotion sorting invented by Suzy Welch. It's called 10/10/10....We think about our decisions on three different time frames: How will we feel about it 10 minutes from now? 10 months from now? 10 years from now?pg160
To carve out space to pursue our core priorities, we must go on the offense against lesser priorities. On the USS Benfold, the crew actively fought the List B items like repainting (e.g. by using stainless steel bolts that wouldn't leave rust stains). Jim Collin's stop-doing list: What will you give up so that you have more time to spend on your priorities. Bregman's hourly beep: Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now? pg192

*WRAP = Widen your options; Reality test your assumptions; Attain distance before deciding; Prepare to be wrong

Have you ever wondered if the decision you were about to make was the right one?

I know that I have almost on a daily basis.

In the book Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath ( Switch and Made to Stick) they open your eyes to a whole new way to look at decision-making.

We all make multiple choices on a daily basis with varying weights in both our personal and business lives. What Dan and Chip do in this book is give you ways to combat what they call the "Four Villains" of decision-making.

These Four Villains are:

1.) Narrow framing meaning that we limit the options we actually consider when making a decision.

2.) The confirmation bias in which we seek out only the information that boost our current beliefs or that support the outcome we are leaning towards.

3.) Having short-term emotions that will fade over time.

4.) Being overconfident by having too much faith in our own predictions.

After laying out these villains Chip and Dan present four ways in which your are to what these natural tendencies by using what they call the WRAP process that includes:

1.) Widening your options.

2.) Reality test the assumptions that you have.

3.) Attain distance before making a decision.

4.) Prepare to be wrong.

The book breaks down each of the steps in the WRAP process with several ways to attain better understanding before ultimately making a decision.

I personally thought the book was great and was very impressed with the thought and research that was done and put into this book. There are countless stories to support each step of the process that you would be unwise to not implement this process into your everyday life.

Knowing that as an individual I will be responsible for many decisions in both my personal and business career I think this book has opened my eyes to a better and more informed way at making decisions. For certain it will be hard to change the way I have been making decisions for years over night. Now, however, I have been informed of a better way and that will make me think and review these steps to in turn produce a more productive result of my decisions.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. being that we all make decisions on a daily basis it is a book that we can all benefit from and could possible change families and businesses if adhered too!

For those who have a fair amount of knowledge on behavioral biases and don't have time to read the whole book, you should get a copy of the 22 page book summary called Workbook after registration on the authors website!!!
[...]

However it really is a joy to read when I got hooked from reading the first chapter! Having read many other similar books such as Think fast and slow, the art of thinking clearly, sway, seeking wisdom, the black swan etc- this book is still really special - it simplifies and concentrates on the most important biases in the decision making process and tells you what tricks you should do to overcome them.

This is probably one of the few books that provide solutions to the biases and provide case studies to try and link up all significant biases together in one place. Most other books don't even give you case studies of how to use the new found knowledge except to say that you should just go through a checklists, let alone giving you examples of problems in applying the new found knowledge!

So please grab a free copy of the 22 page book summary called workbook right away - especially for those who are fairly knowledgeable in behavioral biases!
[...]
Definitely worth reading the book ! Either borrow from library or buy it from the store!

I have read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard The Heath brothers create a book every three years. The newest is Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. Each book is unique. Each book takes you in a new and creative way of thinking and doing. And there are always great stories and examples to follow.

Decisive I have found to be the most pratical and adaptable of the three books. One you can adapt to your own situation right now! One can make it happen in whatever situation one finds him or herself at the moment. It is an outstanding book.

And like all of their books, they also provide great resources on their web page to follow up on and use for free.

I highly recommend Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.

Coach Cerny

Does anyone really need a how-to book on making decisions? Since I enjoyed at least one previous book by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, I picked up their latest titled, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. They take some of the latest results of cognitive research and psychology and present a process for making better decisions. Their four-part WRAP process reeks of common sense: Widen your options; Reality test your assumptions; Attain some distance and Prepare to be wrong. If most of us used this kind of common sense, chances are we'll make better decisions. The prose in this book is always lively, and the examples interesting and entertaining. You may not think you need a how-to book on making decisions, but after reading it, you might internalize an idea or two that will lead to better decisions.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

I really liked this book, and already I have read it through at least twice. It contains a summary of very powerful and applicable decision-making strategies. It seems like if these principles were thoroughly applied as the authors suggest, it would be hard to make a bad decision (though of course I suppose it is possible). Some of the principles are covered in other business and/or psychology books, even if in a different form or using different terminology. However, the authors have nicely organized the principles into a stepwise, easy-to-apply scheme. I especially liked the chapter summaries ("chapter such-and-such in one page"). These were very helpful in keeping the most important points foremost. More business and self-help books should adopt this practice.

Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

The first thing that catches your attention in this new book by the Heath brothers is their writing. It captures your attention from the outset, and it holds it throughout the book. They are--flat out--terrific writers.

But it isn't just the writing, to be sure, it is their use of examples to make their points. The examples are engaging and not only are they interesting in and of themselves, they very effectively make the points the Heaths are trying to make. In other words, the examples are sales tools for their ideas.

In addition to the examples is the research. They weave research results into the narrative throughout the book so effectively, so judiciously, and so effortlessly that it is hardly noticeable. Incidentally, if you check out the resources published in their 26 pages of "Endnotes" you will discover a wide range of sources from Psychological Science to Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, from the Journal of the American Medical Association to the Academy of Management Journal, from the Quarterly Journal of Economics to Basic and Applied Social Psychology, and from USA Today to numerous online sources, too. The range is as broad as it is deep--and always impressive.

Let me mention, too, an outstanding addition to this book that I have not seen previously. The Heaths include a one-page summary of each chapter (point by point) in the page immediately following the end of the chapter. Not only does this offer a great summary and reminder of what you read, but it clearly demonstrates how beautifully organized each chapter is. Their tight outlines buttress their notable analytic skills.

As an aside, I reviewed their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die--which Time said was "A how-to for anyone with good ideas who wants to captivate an audience"--and that excellent book was the inspiration for my speech, "Sticky Ideas: Low-Tech Solutions to a High-Tech Problem" which was published in Vital Speeches of the Day (August 1, 2007, pp. 73-78), and then, with my permission, became one of the "Speeches for Analysis and Discussion" (along with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech) in one of the best-selling public-speaking textbooks, Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach, 8th ed., by Steven A. and Susan J. Beebe. I mention this as an indication of the power and effectiveness of the Heath's ideas. Decisive is no exception.

There are a number of new and excellent ideas in this book. Some are captured in this summary paragraph:

"Throughout the book, we've discussed ways of nudging, prodding, and inspiring groups to make better decisions. Seeking out one more option. Finding someone else who's solved our problem. Asking, `What would have to be true for you to be right?' Ooching [I love that word!] as a way to dampen politics. Making big decisions based on core priorities. Running premortems and preparades. Laying down tripwires. Using these techniques will improve the results of your group decisions" (p. 239).

This is an outstanding book for many reasons, and having written about small-group problem solving for close to forty years, it makes a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge that supports the process, offers specific methods for improving efficiency, and suggests a number of steps--with excellent supporting examples--of ways to increase decision-making effectiveness.

I cannot wait for Chip Heath and Dan Heath's next book. They seem to have their fingers on the pulse of issues that are important and make worthwhile contributions.

Chip Heath and Dan Heath surprised me. It is really hard for authors to turn out one good book, much less one that also reads well & sells well. They did that with Made to Stick. Then they followed up with Switch, which was also useful, solidly grounded in research, and very interesting to read. What amazes me is that they've pulled a Hat Trick--three in a row--with their newest book, "Decisive."

"Decisive" starts by noticing something important: people often make bad decisions, even if they use recognized methods like spreadsheets and checklists. The Heath brothers explain why that happens, and they offer us a memorable process to reduce the chance of making decisions that we regret.

Most research-based books on decisionmaking spend a lot of time saying "here's a way, and it doesn't work; here's another way, and it doesn't always work either." At the end you have to wonder, "what would work better?" The Heaths answer that question with a practical process anybody can use right away...no fancy training required. 5 Stars for "Decisive," another must read/must buy book from the Heaths!

By and large this book does what it says it is going to do. That is, put forward, explain, and support with evidence one approach that the authors believe has been proven to lead to better decision-making. The book is logically structured, clearly written and easy to read. The only quarrel I have with it is its claim to help its readers make better choices not only in work but also in life. However, most of the compelling examples the authors call on to back up their propositions are drawn from the corporate arena rather than the personal one. The examples they use to illustrate personal as opposed to business decision-making tend to be less well-proven and therefore a lot less persuasive.

I am listening to the audiobook version - it's well narrated, awesome examples (prepare to change your mind about why Van Halen asked for all the brown M&M's removed and other quirky and interesting stories). This is the key to the book: It's accessible without being watered down. It is practical without being simplistic. Every story is cool and comes from different domains. I can see the WRAP process applied to behavioral diagnostics (since I am an educator) and rather than label a child as either/or smart/stupid as unfortunately many educators do, it gives alternative perspectives. LOVE the book.

"But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;" -- Isaiah 11:4 (NKJV)

I didn't run into the decision literature until the end of law school. My reaction was to think that this was the first time I'd learned anything practical since elementary school. I still feel that way.

Much of what has been written about making decisions is hard to follow, has too many graphs, employs too many unusual methods, and requires too much math. The Heath brothers break through those limitations to spell out the key lessons in simple language, explain what they mean with easy-to-understand examples, and provide things to avoid and do that are easy to implement correctly. If you get a little lost, the excellent one-page summaries at the end of each chapter will soon set you right.

I've decided to use this book in the future as the starting point for teaching my business students how to make better decisions. This book will bless them. I started applying the book with one student this last week, and I was delighted to see how much he gained from beginning to apply the directions.

The book is built around four typical problems with the way most people make decisions:

1. The first choice encountered is studied in terms of do or not do, rather than looking around for what better alternatives might exist. Instead, force yourself to widen your choices (with many suggestions for how to do so), study a variety of options at the same time to get a better feel for the issue, find successful examples and people who have already succeeded in finding and choosing a good option and learn from them.

2. Whatever is considered is colored by looking for evidence that confirms a "gut" feeling about what to do, rather than looking objectively. The Heath brothers suggest you apply reality tests by considering the opposite of what you first liked, be sure to understand what typical results are with different choices, and use small experiments to test your conclusions before deciding.

3. Strong emotions you happen to be feeling at the time sway you away from a better choice. Decisive recommends a number of techniques for creating more emotion-free space. One of the most interesting methods is simply to imagine what you would recommend that a friend do: We are more objective that way than in considering what's best for ourselves. In all circumstances, test the possible choices in terms of what you personal values and priorities are.

4. Having made a decision, we march forward as though it will be perfect. Wrong! The Heath brothers suggest you consider in advance what a mistake (missing an opportunity or taking on a new problem) can cost you (and let that influence your choice), prepare for the biggest risks, and set some rules for under what circumstances the choice will need to be abandoned or modified.

In doing all of this, we will be more successful by focusing on the process rather than the initial question.

Having given all that praise, let me add a few cautions.

First, this is an elementary book. Its advice for finding better alternatives is at the simplest end of how to go about doing so. Consequently, you probably won't find the best choices by using what's described here. You'll need to master some other skills and processes that uncover great choices that no one has done before.

Second, Decisive is a short and concentrated book. If you don't "get" an example, you may miss an important point. I know quite a lot about decision-making, and the material on bookending seemed overly dense to me, for instance. I suspect most people will be quite confused in that area.

Third, math can help. Like most popular books, Decisive avoids math ... probably more than is good for the reader. Decision-making involves more than just dealing with the psychological issues that are the book's focus.

Is there a better beginner book? I don't think so.

Nice work!

Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath, encourages us to change how we make decisions. Although this book is primarily written from a business perspective, many of the principles can be applied to personal decisions as well.

The Heath brothers teach the reader to expand the approach to decision making using the four-step WRAP process - Widen Your Options, Reality-Test Your Assessments, Attain a Distance Before Deciding, and Prepare to be Wrong.

The Heath brothers' start off by describing four "villains" that impede good decision making. They point out that when we make decisions, many of us are asking the wrong questions. For example, instead of answering the question "I wonder whether or not I should apply for that promotion out of state?" we should ask farther-ranging questions, such as "What are the opportunities for promotion in my company, and which one is the best path for me?" Sometimes our focus is too narrow, and we miss the best choice because of this.

Another common pitfall is that we consciously or unconsciously favor one choice. Thus all of our decision-making research is geared toward proving that choice is the right one. The Heath brothers provide suggestions on how to avoid this and other pitfalls.

I found this book to be very helpful in making a career decision that I had previously felt ambivalent towards. Now I am curious to see how I might use these principles in the workplace.

"Made to Stick," also by the Heath Brothers, is one of the very few business books that I recommend to friends and colleagues. The S.U.C.C.E.S. process provides readers with a very helpful checklist to consider for how to get your idea to stick (i.e. remembered).

In Decisive, their new book, the Heath brothers outline the 4 villains of decision making:
1) Narrow framing, which causes people to miss options
2) Confirmation bias (e.g. self-serving info)
3) Short-term emotion
4) Overconfidence/hubris

Then, they provide readers with a 4-step process or acronym to help people make better decisions, which spells W.R.A.P.:
1) Widen your options
2) Reality Test Your Assumptions
3) Attain Some Distance
4) Prepare to Be Wrong

I am a fan of these guys work ( SWITCH & MADE TO STICK) and this book is another treasure. First several examples about how bad we really are about making decisions. Then they provide lots of clear examples to illustrate using their process (WRAP):

Widen your options
Reality-test your assumptions
Attain distance before deciding
Prepare to be wrong.

The notes and clinics are very valuable - (The book has high value add ons) Add their clear writing and breezy style and this will make that cross country air trip go rapidly by. I recommend this to anyone at any time in their life. Like the Mastercard commercial. Priceless.

The simple skills recommended in this book, like adding another option to my consideration set before making a decision, setting up a trigger point to review a choice I have made, and thinking about my alternatives in advance if a decision doesn't go as planned have made a huge difference in my life already. It is a great way to tame impulse buying!

As a business owner I have much more confidence in the decisions I am making without taking a lot more time to make them. I just got the Audiobook so I can listen to the book a few more times and really cement these new skills into my life practice. Decisions create my life, so it is definitely worth getting better at making them.

Those who have read one or more of Chip and Dan Heath's previously published books already know that they are master raconteurs as well as keen observers of human nature in general and of the business world in particular. I also view them as anthropologists whose scope and depth of knowledge enable them to create a multi-dimensional context for the information, insights, and counsel they provide. In this instance, as their latest book's subtitle correctly indicates, they share what they have learned about "how to make better choices in life and work."

All of those who read this book make several dozen (sometimes several hundred) decisions each week, most of which are based on past experience, custom, habit, etc. However, there are some decisions that are very challenging, perhaps even daunting. What to do? The heaths recommend and explain what they characterize as the WRAP process: Widen Your Opinions, Reality-Test Your Assumptions, Attain Distance Before Deciding, and Prepare to Be Wrong. "We want to make you a bit better at making good decisions, and we want to help you make good decisions a bit more decisively (with appropriate confidence, as opposed to overconfidence). We also want to make you a better adviser to your colleagues and loved ones who are making decisions, because it's usually easier to see other people's biases than your own." The Heaths succeed brilliantly in achieving those objectives.

They ensure that the insights they share are especially sticky by making skillful use of several reader-friendly devices that include a "Chapter X in One Page" section in Chapters 1-12. Also, three Clinics on decision making ("Should a Small Company Sue a Bigger Competitor?" "Should a young Professional Move to the City?" and "Should We Discount Our Software?", Pages 257-266), each a mini-case study based on real-world circumstances in which the material is provided within this format: Situation, Options, Process, Verification/Authentication, and Reflection/Evaluation. Readers will also appreciate the "Overcoming Obstacles" section following the Clinics in which the Heaths provide eleven Q&As (Pages 267-272) about the common roadblocks to using the WRAP process effectively as well as extensively annotated Endnotes (Pages 273-299) and

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of coverage in the material. All of them explain one or more dimensions of the aforementioned process by which to "make better choices in life and work."

o How to collaborate to generate and consider options simultaneously (Pages 50-67)
o How to find someone who has solved the given problem (68-89)
o How to consider alternative, even opposite options (92-96)
o Roger Martin and the Copper Range negotiations salvaged by evidence-driven decision making (97-101)
o When and how to "construct small experiments to test one's hypothesis" (135-153)
o How to overcome short-term emotions (156-174)
o How to honor one's priorities (175-192)
o How to identify and prepare for probable outcomes of a decision that range from success to adversity (194-217)
o How to determine when to increase allocation of resources or cut losses? (218-238)
o How to earn and then sustain trust for a decision making process (239-253)
o How to overcome obstacles and resistance to a decision (267-272)

Recall Chip and Dan Heath's expressed hopes that the material they provide in this book will help their reader to achieve two objectives: to make better decisions, and, to help others to make better decisions. The key is to master each of the four steps of the WRAP process.

I presume to add two points of my own. First, although you'll never have too much of the best information, there are times when you have to make a decision based on what you do know. No process such as WRAP is infallible because no one who uses it is infallible. Expect to make mistakes and learn from them. Also, more often than not, if at all possible, when in doubt, DON'T. Making no decision is itself a decision. To repeat, if at all possible, continue the WRAP process: consider other options, test your assumptions more rigorously, create a wider/deeper context for the given decision, and finally, embrace each mistake as a precious learning opportunity.

Reading Decisive quickly brought to mind a "decision drama" from the past. My wife and I had borrowed a really nice tent to go camping. It was a "clear span" tent, with no center pole. Instead, precisely bent poles held it up from the sides. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the campground the poles were missing.

What to do? Try to cut down branches and form substitute poles? Not likely to work and likely to garner a citation from a ranger. Drive 50 miles to a city and try to buy poles? Also not likely to work and buying another tent was out of the question.

Fortunately, Decisive-like inspiration struck. I realized my need wasn't for tent poles. My real need was to hold up the tent, or as the brothers Heath put it, I widened my options. I had about 100' feet of ½" rope in my truck and lots of trees. The tent looked like it was pitched by a spider, but it worked fine.

Decisive provides a number of ways to look at the decisions we make. Sometimes it's about asking the right question: "What would have to be true for this option to be the right answer?" Other times we must "zoom in" or "zoom out" to take advantage of the experience of others or evaluate the details for ourselves.

Improving our results in making the decisions we face every day is what this book is about. Is this a new subject? No. Are there more complicated books on the subject? Probably. The strength in the Heath brother's books is their accessibility. Decisive is another example of the Heath brothers providing usable information in a manner that allows the greatest number of people to use it.

(Disclaimer: This review is of an advance copy received for reviewing the first chapter. I would have bought it anyway based on their first two books!)

I have just finshed reading the book right now. I will not go into the details or the outline of the book. I would like to say that this is a book to read and read and read. It has very promising insights, and triggers creative and critical thinking.
I said read and read and read since this book is not a "Good to Know" but it entails concepts that will change your perspective of decision making, will help you at least to be more assured taking bold decisions. It will break the hesitation cage.
And still having informed background for decision analysis.
Moreover, I could while reading the book analyse and understand why and my close acquaintances made bad decision what we missed. What'd should we do.
Highly recommend along with the master piece "Thinking fast and slow".

(This review is based on advance copy provided by the publishers through NetGalley)

It is increasingly difficult to add to the behavioral psychology literature when the 'father of the domain' - Kahneman has covered the entire space well in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Moreover, various authors have attempted to narrow that discussion in the context of decision making (Jonah Lehrer's take on this field in How We Decide and Sheena Iyengar's take in The Art of Choosing) and even more narrower treatment by Thaler (Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness) and Ariely (Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions). While the material covered in this book is not necessarily new or offers a different interpretation - it succeeds in encapsulating the information in a broad framework that could potentially aid the reader as a decision making checklist. That is the contribution of the authors and the book is well-worth the investment.

The authors, true to their direct, pithy and entertaining style evidenced in earlier books, provide an informative and entertaining look at the various biases that inhibit rational decision making ("four villians") and the known psychological approaches to address them. Discussions on prevention/promotion focus, framing, confirmatory bias, etc will be familiar to most readers of this genre. The authors have provided a clearer "storyline" of the decision making process and then discussed the key issues in each of the four steps and suggested solution approaches. The examples and specific studies forming the basis of the framework are well presented and typically at a depth not covered by other authors. This approach of fewer but more detailed examples is likely to enable a reader grasp key concepts in a more systematic way.

The authors have provided a detailed set of notes for the more curious reader along with a list for suggested reading. Despite the inevitable duplication of information, the systematic classification of the key issues in decision-making and suggested framework to resolve them makes this book worth the investment. 4.5*

Leaders who are reluctant to make those truly hard choices will find Decisive a Must Read.

The Heaths open by laying out what they describe as the "four villains of decision-making: narrow framing, the confirmation bias, short-term emotion, and overconfidence in the outcome." I might argue that "fear" of making a decision during times of great change or challenge could also have made the list but that's a quibble.

But these are authors whose names alone are reason for me to read a book, blog post, or article. In a world flooded with business books these days, how do I define a great one?
-- Stories that resonate (i.e., memorable and sticky)
--A few concepts that you can latch onto and turn into a habit.
--Takeaways that can be crystallized into a one-page summary sheet or business card and shared with teammates.

I waited a while to write this review to see if I could turn a few of their concepts into a habit and I was...so here you go.

The structure of Decisive builds on Made to Stick and Switch, with the welcome enhancement of end-of-chapter summaries. The framework is laid out efficiently in the first chapter. Why should I read the book and what am I going to get out of it? The answer is the "WRAP" process, defined as:
--Widen Your Options.
--Reality-Test Your Assumptions
--Attain Distance Before Deciding
--Prepare to Be Wrong

The Ah-Ha moment for me came with the statement that "the goal of the WRAP process is not to neutralize emotion...all we can aspire to do with the WRAP process is to help you make decisions that are good for you.

The book offers interesting stories and statistics to support their template for decision-making. There's a nice one-page summary of the basic principles but I do believe that readers will find the book validates some of their existing decision-making strategies and offer some new ideas that they can try. I kept finding myself comparing their approach to the one that Ron Shapiro takes toward negotiations preparation with co-author Mark Jankowski (first and foremost, in The Power of Nice).

A book like this works best when you try out a strategy and turn it into a habit. Apply "ooching" to a current decision within 24 hours of reading the book. Asking yourself what your successor would do or what you'd advise a friend who faces the same decision. Setting a tripwire to get your attention at the right time. Doing a pre-mortem to prepare for a bad outcome or a pre-parade to anticipate a good one. The point is that you need turn only one of the strategies into a habit to make the book a phenomenal value -- and I suspect every reader will find a few.

Are there times when the book feels it could have been edited more aggressively? Perhaps. But it's designed to let you skip around (or ahead) if a section isn't totally grabbing you. I also liked the suggestions for additional readings that are provided at the end, and thought the Heaths did a nice job of creating a few case studies that show you how to apply the WRAP framework to your own decisions.

There's no question that this is a great book for people who are empowered to make decisions and those who can influence others, but as I wrote in my blog, I asked Dan what you can do if you're in an organization that struggles to make decisions.

"At a certain point, these issues become less about decision-making and more about culture," he quickly responded back by e-mail. "When people have decision-making phobia, as you describe, I almost think the Switch framework is a better fit for thinking about the problem, because it hinges so much on behavior change and herd behavior. I wish there was an easier answer."

There are no easy answers when it comes to decision-making. But Decisive makes the process much easier and manageable.

If you ever find yourself struggling with decisions and are looking for strategies to move off high center, this is a great place to start.

It presents a number of viable strategies and techniques and provides terrific examples of how and when they can be used.

For example, one technique is to widen your options, which sounds counterintuitive at first. But it helps you focus on solving the problem at hand rather than just an either or scenario.

The key takeaway is that it helps you to build a process that you can use to tackle the tough decisions.

An enjoyable read and very informative. Well worth it to help build a framework for making better decisions.

The Heath brothers' previous books Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard are mainstays on my book shelf, and now "Decisive" joins them as a worthy companion. It is pretty shocking to think how little education most of us get on the art of how to make decisions. This book arrived at a very opportune time for me, as it immediately helped think about two major life decisions in new ways. First, my family was thinking of buying a new house, one of a family's biggest purchases. When my husband and I were touring the home, the real estate agent said, "make a list of pros and cons as you think it over." As she said that, I thought how inadequate that seemed as a decision-making strategy. Later that day, I cracked open "Decisive" and the Heaths immediately offered novel alternatives to the "pros and cons list." These solid, research-tested ideas laid out in their "WRAP process" helped me realize that the costs of moving, both financial and opportunity costs of time, were too great, and we should learn to love our current home. Second, I am thinking about applying for a new job in a new field, and the advice to "ooch," to take a small step and experiment and try out the job (by shadowing someone who is already in the role), was right on target. Take a series of small steps before you leap into a major life change.

As "Decisive" can help us make decisions more wisely and thoughtfully, it proves its worth over and over again. For me, this book was literally worth its weight in gold as it helped me save the expense of a major move! Time will tell what happens with the new job, but I will definitely face it better prepared, thanks to "Decisive." This is another hit by Chip and Dan Heath, and serves as a great resource for individuals, organizations, and would be an engaging college textbook, too.

Good book. Very much like their others, which I also enjoyed (Switch and Made To Stick). I took a bunch of notes, and I'll just hit some of my favorites here:

Multi-tracking keeps the ego less involved and the designers enjoyed it more.

"What has to be true for this to be the best option" analysis of all options.

Deliberately break assumptions/rules to see what happens and test if they are correct. And also to see how your processes handle an assumption/rule being broken.

10/10/10 perspective...10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years. Is this really going to matter in 10 years?

Assume this employee we're about to hire quits in 1 year. Why did he quit?

Realistic preview of a tough job (telemarketer). Toughest moments "vaccination".

When confronted with an opposition to a decision you made, point out MORE flaws of YOUR preferred option to give the questioner confidence that you have considered everything.

Career choices are often abandoned or regretted, business decisions are frequently flawed, and on the personal front we are not much better at making decisions, according to Chip Heath and Dan Heath in this book. We suffer from biases and irrationality, and when it comes to making decisions our brains are flawed instruments.

So, what steps can we take to improve the quality of our decision making processes? The authors identify four "villains of decision making" (narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion and overconfidence), and then propose a four-step process to reduce the effect of these flaws and improve the likelihood of better decisions:

* Widen your options: Instead of focusing on current options, generate more options, consider multiple options simultaneously, and find someone who has solved a similar problem in an analogous field.
* Reality-test your assumptions: Instead of looking for information which confirms your assumptions, ask questions which might tend to disprove your assumptions, "zoom out" to consider how things generally unfold in similar situations, "zoom in" to examine specific precedents, and run small experiments to test your theories.
* Attain some distance: Imagine your future emotional reactions as well as your present ones, look at your situation from an observer' perspective, and identify and follow your core priorities.
* Prepare to be wrong: Rather than predicting a single future, identify a bad outcome and a good one and prepare for both, use deadlines and tripwires to limit your exposure and create a safe space for risk taking, and when making decisions that affect others use a process that incorporates procedural justice.

As is the case with other books written by the Heath brothers, this book is well researched and filled with engaging stories. The authors' suggestions for improving decision making seem fairly simple and obvious when viewed in isolation, but together they constitute a useful framework for decision makers. Most people who have made a lot of decisions have become aware of their fallibility, but they lack a language and framework for understanding and addressing the most common weaknesses in their decision processes. That is why this book will be a very helpful resource.

This book should be a cracked.com article "5 sure-fire ways to make better decisions"--not a book. There's some decent advice, but nothing innovative, and it's buried in anecdotes and studies that are mentioned in many other books like this, what I like to call "management-grade self help books". If you've been given this book for free, all of the wisdom can be found in the end-of-chapter summaries. If not, don't bother buying it, just read the other the store reviews that break down their methodology. The content of the book is mostly filler borrowed from other books to take up space and justify the full-length cover price. I've just saved you a couple hours and $15.

What I dislike about books like this is that they're offensive to the reader's intelligence. The advice is at a 5th-grade level at best. The book feels like it was researched on wikipedia by using secondary and tertiary sources, and the allegories are contrived. The authors lazily rely on studies and material from other business books. It's worrisome that business people find deep wisdom in books like these.

Since you're reading this review, you're probably having trouble making decisions. Let me help you out with one at least: don't buy this book.

Understanding the process of decision making, how to make great choices depends in much more than what its evident by our knowledge and experience (gut feeling), providing tools (real, useful, simple) to make decisions, to avoid the decision making traps such as bias, focus and emotion. If you're facing a difficult decision in life, pick this up, read it, use it and you will find a number of possibilities you didn't have available before.

Having already read Switch, I was very excited to read an advance copy of Decisive. The Heath brothers have a way of making ideas easy to understand. They also organize the ideas well, and do things to make the ideas easy to remember. In addition, they use many stories and examples to illustrate their points. Who wants to be like Quaker and make a very expensive ($1.5 billion!) mistake? And you can go to their website and download free handouts to go with the book (like a one-page summary sheet to hang on your wall).

One of my favorite phrases in the book is "bargaining yields buy-in," in Chapter 12. Bargaining is the art of compromise - when multiple parties disagree they horse-trade until they find a solution that most people can live with. It takes longer upfront, but then implementation is faster and easier. If you've ever been a part of a quickly made decision with little input, that people resisted so that it was slowly or never implemented, you'll recognize that fast decisions are not always the best decisions.

Another of my favorites is the question, "What would have to be true for this option to be the right answer?" in Chapter 5. That question really focuses the discussion on the facts and the context in which the decision is being made, and away from the opinions of the people making the decision.

I've been using the information in Chapter 3, Multitracking, to help me widen my options when making decisions. I consider multiple options simultaneously, and think about doing both "this AND that" rather than "this OR that." I've even combined some features of one option with features of another option as a way to have more options.

This is a really great book, and is both useful and fun.

I read the advance copy of this book. This book provides some different perspectives on decision making. It is appropriate for anybody who wants to apply some kind of structure to a decision they are considering. This means, really, that I recommend it to anyone who wants to add more rigor to their decision making process. The structure is given right at the start of the book, and the rest of the book provides the "why".

There are four big ideas in the book, supported by multiple entertaining examples and plenty of research. The footnotes each lead into a whole new area of study. At the end of each chapter, there is a useful summary.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I have cited some of the stories in the book in recent conversations, which I think is a good sign that I'm processing the ideas and thinking about them.
Additionally, I gave up my beloved copy of the book to a friend who is making a big career decision, which shows how useful I think it is. Bravo, Heath Brothers, you've done it again!

Chip & Dan provide an easy to understand, easy to replicate process to improve your decisions. Many ideas expressed seem common sensical, but that is part of the strength of the book. The recommended decision making changes are natural and easy to institute if you set tripwires (tripwires will make more sense once you read the book) to depart from automatic thoughts or reactions.

Such an incredible book. The break down of the decision-making process and the in-depth research that flies in the face of assumptions we make was eye-opening. Not going to make big life/work decisions the same.

Vital for leaders, project managers, parents and anyone contemplating a decision with far-reaching implications.

Again, the Heath brothers have managed to not only compile the best of cutting edge research on an important field, they've created an overarching framework that adds real value on top of the brilliant insights from others that they've uncovered. This book will be in my list of best books to read of all time and genres. Everyone should read this book for a better life/organization/family/etc.

The content has good and practical methods to assess a decision requirement, by following a procedure as opposed to " following your gut"
I will have to re read to pick up on some of the how to make " fast " decisions as from the first read I could only relate the information to long term or contemplative decision making.
I think the tripwire concept can be put to use in need to make quick decision based on variations of data being received day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.
Overall a good read... though somewhat stuffy and dry to get through.

This is the first of the Heath brother's business books I've read. I found it interesting and informative. Even when writing of concepts that I was already familiar with they presented the material in a way that held my attention.
I would recommend reading this book for not only business purposes, but for insight in making personal decisions as well.
Purposes of Disclosure of Material Connection: I received an a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion of it in a review on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

I am a huge fan of Switch so the bar had been set high. Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath lived up to my expectations.
The Heath Brothers took the worry out of decision making. I found myself applying their principles by page 20. The WRAP framework is hanging in my office (free from their resource website)to bring to light many options when I begin to feel trapped with an 'either/or' decision.
This is a great read for both personal and business application.

This book was packed with useful, easy-to-apply principles and tactics to improve the quality and ease of decisions. It seemed quite well-researched and persuasive, and is also written in an interesting style that kept me wanting to read further. Each chapter ends with a summary of key takeaways, which helps boil down the main points for later reference. I found the book both an enjoyable read and very helpful when I was making an important decision at work a few weeks after finishing it. Highly recommended.

What is so remarkable about this book is the way the authors thoughtfully interweave stories and anecdotes to support the major premises around decision-making. I've already read Switch and Made to Stick, so I am a great fan of this style, which keeps you constantly engaged. Honestly, I've already been applying the information supplied in the book (e.g., think of another option, broadening the questions, asking the question "What would need to be true in order for this to be the right answer?") in my work life. I found it impossible not to talk to other colleagues about some of the ideas I had gleaned from my first reading.

This is a fun and fascinating read, and it has ideas that you will use, as opposed to other books that might simply offer interesting or entertaining material.

The best-selling authors of Switch and Made To Stick have given us another usable, readable, and practical book that we can use in business and our personal lives. They call it the "WRAP" formula. "W" stands for widen your options. "R" stands for reality-test your assumptions. "A" stands for attain distance before deciding. And, "P" stands for prepared to be wrong. We all have choices to make and making better decisions when we are required to make them can sometimes prove costly. "Decisive, How To Make Better Choices In Life And Work" provides a wonderful tool to analyze and more strategically make better decisions. Chip Heath and Dan Heath make the principles come alive with great storytelling with real-life examples. This book is a must read if you want to be more confident in your work and personal choices.

Such an incredible book. The break down of the decision-making process and the in-depth research that flies in the face of assumptions we make was eye-opening. Not going to make big life/work decisions the same.

Vital for leaders, project managers, parents and anyone contemplating a decision with far-reaching implications.

Again, the Heath brothers have managed to not only compile the best of cutting edge research on an important field, they've created an overarching framework that adds real value on top of the brilliant insights from others that they've uncovered. This book will be in my list of best books to read of all time and genres. Everyone should read this book for a better life/organization/family/etc.

The content has good and practical methods to assess a decision requirement, by following a procedure as opposed to " following your gut"
I will have to re read to pick up on some of the how to make " fast " decisions as from the first read I could only relate the information to long term or contemplative decision making.
I think the tripwire concept can be put to use in need to make quick decision based on variations of data being received day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.
Overall a good read... though somewhat stuffy and dry to get through.

This is the first of the Heath brother's business books I've read. I found it interesting and informative. Even when writing of concepts that I was already familiar with they presented the material in a way that held my attention.
I would recommend reading this book for not only business purposes, but for insight in making personal decisions as well.
Purposes of Disclosure of Material Connection: I received an a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion of it in a review on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

I am a huge fan of Switch so the bar had been set high. Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath lived up to my expectations.
The Heath Brothers took the worry out of decision making. I found myself applying their principles by page 20. The WRAP framework is hanging in my office (free from their resource website)to bring to light many options when I begin to feel trapped with an 'either/or' decision.
This is a great read for both personal and business application.

This book was packed with useful, easy-to-apply principles and tactics to improve the quality and ease of decisions. It seemed quite well-researched and persuasive, and is also written in an interesting style that kept me wanting to read further. Each chapter ends with a summary of key takeaways, which helps boil down the main points for later reference. I found the book both an enjoyable read and very helpful when I was making an important decision at work a few weeks after finishing it. Highly recommended.

What is so remarkable about this book is the way the authors thoughtfully interweave stories and anecdotes to support the major premises around decision-making. I've already read Switch and Made to Stick, so I am a great fan of this style, which keeps you constantly engaged. Honestly, I've already been applying the information supplied in the book (e.g., think of another option, broadening the questions, asking the question "What would need to be true in order for this to be the right answer?") in my work life. I found it impossible not to talk to other colleagues about some of the ideas I had gleaned from my first reading.

This is a fun and fascinating read, and it has ideas that you will use, as opposed to other books that might simply offer interesting or entertaining material.

The best-selling authors of Switch and Made To Stick have given us another usable, readable, and practical book that we can use in business and our personal lives. They call it the "WRAP" formula. "W" stands for widen your options. "R" stands for reality-test your assumptions. "A" stands for attain distance before deciding. And, "P" stands for prepared to be wrong. We all have choices to make and making better decisions when we are required to make them can sometimes prove costly. "Decisive, How To Make Better Choices In Life And Work" provides a wonderful tool to analyze and more strategically make better decisions. Chip Heath and Dan Heath make the principles come alive with great storytelling with real-life examples. This book is a must read if you want to be more confident in your work and personal choices.

please up date the binding on this book for it is a paper back . thank you
0307956393
FNSku X000NHMQ03
Title Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
Binding Hardcover
Publisher
Vendor Code CNBP9

Very clear and insightful book about how to approach difficult problems.

The authors are quite good at sussing out the nuances of the various situations one might find oneself in.

All-around, a great book to stimulate your mind and come up with new approaches to old problems.

I had the pleasure of hearing Dan Heath speak about this book recently. This book has so many great ideas to improve your decisions but the book takes time to absorb. Start with one idea at a time and take your time.

I have found myself going back to this wonderful book time and again. The Heath brothers offer advice that can help readers both in professional and personal matters in chapters that include "Widen Your Options" and "Prepare to Be Wrong." At the end of each chapter is a smart one-page summary, which like the entire book, I found to be essential reading.

Reading this book will change the way you make decisions. First, you will look back at past decisions and see where you went wrong in your process and see what you did right. Next, you'll think about current decisions and start applying what you're reading immediately. This caused me to read the book more quickly as I wanted to make the best decisions right away. Then--I won't say "last" because it doesn't end here--you'll apply your new skills and knowledge to future decisions. This book is my reference every time I face a big decision, and I get better at making them each time.

About the Book:

Chip and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, tackle one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives: how to make better decisions.　

Research in psychology has revealed that our decisions are disrupted by an array of biases and irrationalities: We're overconfident. We seek out information that supports us and downplay information that doesn't. We get distracted by short-term emotions. When it comes to making choices, it seems, our brains are flawed instruments. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn't fix the problem, any more than knowing that we are nearsighted helps us to see. The real question is: How can we do better?

In Decisive, the Heaths, based on an exhaustive study of the decision-making literature, introduce a four-step process designed to counteract these biases. Written in an engaging and compulsively readable style, Decisive takes readers on an unforgettable journey, from a rock star's ingenious decision-making trick to a CEO's disastrous acquisition, to a single question that can often resolve thorny personal decisions.

Along the way, we learn the answers to critical questions like these: How can we stop the cycle of agonizing over our decisions? How can we make group decisions without destructive politics? And how can we ensure that we don't overlook precious opportunities to change our course?　

Decisive is the Heath brothers' most powerful--and important--book yet, offering fresh strategies and practical tools enabling us to make better choices. Because the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.

My Review:

Overall this book is a good one to help with business type decisions especially if you tend to fail at decisions regarding business and the like. The authors in writing this book are trying to convey that a lot of our decisions can be based on many psychological factors. I for one would of not chosen this book for myself because I'm not really business minded but if you are trying to rationalize the decisions you have made regarding such than this is the book for you.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review by Waterbrook Multnomah through the Blogging for Books program.

The Heath brothers strike again with this rational and clearly articulated lesson on effective decision making. The process is logical and sound and just about everyone can stand to benefit from this application in their daily lives.

Lots of good advice on making better decisions with plenty of anecdotes and references to research on decision-making. Their acronym (WRAP, for widening your options, reality testing your assumptions, attaining distance before deciding, and preparing to be wrong) isn't particularly helpful, but their chapter summaries are. A reasonable overview of the subject.

Chip and Dan are very good at expressing in a short space very good information that helps the reader to change the way he makes decisions. And it is filled with applicable examples that increase the value of the book.

This book has a very clear way of outlining a decision making process that is comprehensive and with great potential to create winning scenarios in many situations. the examples given are very illustrative of the principles. Using this method helps in finding a new way to frame situations.

Having read both "Switch" and "Made to Stick," I was prepared for a great read when I picked up "Decisive" for the first time. I was not prepared to be completely mentally challenged. This book provided me with considerable insight into the flaws and biases that have crept into my thought processes over the years. While I still have a ways to go in terms of applying all of the principles in the book, I have already started to see some significant change. I will refer to this book for guidance again and again.

The book will make you more confident in making your decisions. I know I sometimes agonize over major life decisions, and this book has given me the tools to not get so stressed out about whether I am making the right choice or not. Everyone who thinks pro/con lists are the only way to make decisions, or the best way to make decisions, is seriously misinformed and needs to read this book.
I'm not sure "ooching" is always practical, but I like the word. I love the idea of setting trip wires, and asking yourself "what would you tell your best friend to do?"

Another winner from the Heath brothers. I haven't even finished reading the book and am already able to apply what I've read. I'm using this book in a management book discussion group and everyone in the group agrees it is well worth the time to read this book.

I look forward to reading books by the Heath brothers and this new one is no exception. Their book "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" is a book I return to often. Their new book "Decisive" is one that adds important information to the area of decision making. Not only is the book fun to read, it is packed with useful information about how to make critical decisions. They also provide additional notes and supplementary material that makes this book a must buy. Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Like all of their books, the stories illustrate and make memorable key points. I also liked the concise summary at the end of the chapters. There was a lot of info to absorb so it is nice to have reminders of the various points (along with the illustrative story). Funny and entertaining... No small feat for a non fiction book.

The Heath brothers outline four deceptively simple steps toward making better decisions in their latest release. Widen your options; Reality-test your assumptions; Attain distance before deciding; and Prepare to be wrong. Underneath those four steps lie concrete suggestions and an intentionality and focus that helped me look at decision making in a new way. As usual, they write with humor and respect for the reader.

Great book to evaluate and examine your decision making processes and protocols. The WRAP formula is simple, easy to remember and sensible. I must admit, after reading the book, I often reflected to the protocols in many of the choices made during the day. Heath and Heath do a great job and their writing style is easy, interesting. The book is practical, yet powerful.

Decision making is an absolute skill to have in a world filled with choices. CnD gives grat insight in the way we make decisions and what we can practice to make better ones. I recommend this to people who want to be wiser when it comes to making tough calls. Great for leaders and ordinary people alike!

This book is a must for leaders and those that coach them. Not only do Chip and Dan show us the anatomy of good decision, but they have filled this book with excellent examples which will help you coach your team. The outline sounds basic - Widen your options; Reality-test your assumptions; Attain distance before deciding; Prepare to be wrong - but the information that fills out the points will change the way you make decisions.

This book is for anyone who has faced complex decisions or waffled about easy ones. With the Heath brothers usual style and use of clear examples, the book opens the door to new ways of handling decisions large and small. Learn how to take little steps, dipping your toes into new waters if you're unsure. Find out the value of thinking "and" instead of "either this or that." Long story short - read it.

Reading this book will make you an expert in practical decision-making in a few hours and can have immediate positive consequences in your life and work.

I was attracted to this book because I faced important, professional decisions at the time (and I like the Heath Bros' other books). I read the book cover-to-cover on 2 plane rides. It exploded my perspective on how to think about my choices, and then helped me reassemble a step-by-step plan to quickly get a new handle on what I could do. Based on just taking some of the steps recommended in the book, I've begun to go about a pivotal, life decision differently: considering angles I never considered, taking steps that have brought out new information, and helping me to allow both the emotional and analytical sides live together in the process.

One of the best things about the way the Heath Bros. write, is you remember the core messages long after you've read their work because they put the key messages into a bite-size, memorable acronym. I may not remember the details of this book 5 years down the road, but I can remember WRAP (their acronym for the 4 key steps in a solid decision process). If I just remember BIG Decision = WRAP, I honestly think this can have life changing consequences for me.

And if I can remember it 5 years from now, I can also explain it to family, friends, and coworkers easily so they can apply it themselves.

This book should be required reading in college, MBA programs, and companies at large.

If you've read some of the other Heath Bros. works, I'll tell you that Decisive delivers 100% on what they've done so well in their other works. As non-fiction authors, they're becoming one of the best brands in the world in my opinion.

Decisive is a Must-Read.

Start this book anywhere, even read it from the back. Spill coffee on it, use a french-fry for a bookmark, it's all worth it. These are the guys who wrote "Made to Stick" so it's not surprising that their own stuff does. What is surprising is the wide variety of decisions it applies to. Don't miss it.

Decisive is an excellent look at why certain decisions succeed and others don't. If you liked switch, this is very much in the same vein. However, it looks how in your personal and professional life, you can learn to make better decisions. Ooching was my favorite part of the book. Definitely read the free first chapter, gives great insight to the rest of the book

I have read other books by the Heath brothers and always enjoyed them and found them helpful. This is another good one based on good sound research as well as real world experiences. Their style is engaging and humorous and very helpful with present world decisions. Thanks guys!
Doug Brown

I got this book for my husband who runs a smalll business. I am a social worker who is a big procrastinator when making decision so I decided to read some of the book and could not put it down. There is a lot about current business we know and how they make decisions, the good and bad and out comes. I found that so fascinating. They gave some real out of the box suggestions for decision making.I'm trying a few now.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the first two books by the Brothers Heath, but this book is definitely their best. Great topic that we can all benefit from. Important subject where little is written. Terrific story telling. Solid research to back up the ideas. Easy and fun to read. Great model of how to make good decisions - WRAP. Put it on your reading list now.

Based on various books i have read or heard about psychology of decision making , i would rate this book as one of the best book to read on decision making. Their message is sticky and concise with punch. Just reading this book you will learn a lot about our irrational behaviors that hinder us making right decisions. Moreover, you will be able to use their frame work or methods right away into your daily life. Most importantly when ever you are in a dilemma about making right decisions you will also go back to the book for references.

I'm not quite sure how I wound up on the authors' marketing list, but when I was offered a copy of a book on making decisions, I accepted because my daughter is making decisions about colleges and majors: One of the most consequential decisions with lifetime implications that any teen is faced with.

For those of you in the same boat: Don't bother handing this to your teen. They will not appreciate reading about how bad teens are at making decisions.

On the other hand, the underlying messages: Think about how you are deciding, approach your decision from different angles and approaches, and remember that the decision making process is an important part of a good decision, are good things for a parent to keep in mind during this time. It's good background for me, even if the business-oriented slant of the book isn't directly applicable. And, as I said in the title, the writing is lively and entertaining as well.

Yes, Dan and Chip would want to read this.

Because it provides the counter-view...
Their first book was truly a wonderful book. The second got more complex. This one goes round in circles forever. I would recommend you read this book and judge for yourself, but I found it terrible. I thought it was just me, but speaking with others in my group, the decision was unanimous.

Are there nuggets in the book? I'm sure there are. But I had to abandon the book despite buying the audio version as well, at a much higher price. I even bought it sight unseen (without any reviews and in advance).
I hope Dan and Chip take this well. I recommend "Made to Stick" as required reading for all our clients. But this one, I'd recommend they pass.

I'm more than disappointed. And I do hope that Dan and Chip listen to this lone dissenting voice and find out how they can make their books a lot better.

=====
I wrote the post above and didn't elaborate. Here's the long version.

So why was the book so hard to read?
1) It doesn't understand isolation.
2) It doesn't use stories and examples as a binding device.
3) It keeps hemming and hawing (using references to Gary Klein etc).

===============================
1) Why Isolation Matters
===============================
If you read a very management-driven book like "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, it may kinda put you to sleep, but surprisingly it doesn't. And this is because of the way Jim managed to isolate the chapters. So if you read about "the Hedgehog Principle", it's different from "Level 5 Leaders" which is different from the other concepts. Even though Jim jumps several topics (which could be books in themselves) he stays and drives home the point long enough for you to understand the importance of the point.

This is the concept of isolation.
This is what a writer has to learn to do. That in any book, report, article etc. the chances are that you're not going to run out of information. Rather, the opposite occurs. You know too much. And you get lost in the information, and it's your job to find your way out of the 'information spaghetti'. But the Heath Brothers never do.

After going through chapters in their new book, Decisive, it's a struggle to isolate facts that will help me make a better decision. And that's not on. A book is probably the best place to create isolation, because it has the natural boundary of chapters. So your chapter should signal what you want to talk about and then it should connect to the next chapter.

A book should move from chapter to chapter without too much of a problem. That's because a topic in any chapter goes through a systematic, what, how, why, examples, stories, objections etc. and then finally connects to the next chapter. Without that comprehensive skeleton or outline, you're just jamming in the facts. And facts, impressive as they are, tire the mind.

Articles can have the same problem
You might think an article is easier to write, but it's not. Again, like a book, your article can bloat in a matter of minutes, unless you keep to a very clear outline. And the way to contain your article is to have a solid outline. You as a writer need to know this. But you also need to know that facts can be boring after a while. Which is why stories and examples have to keep being brought back time after time.

Which takes us to the Heath Brothers' second mistake.

===============================
2) The stories need to bind the concept together
===============================
The stories and examples are what help you remember the lesson. If you were to listen to an audio book or read a book for the second time, you'll find something very interesting. You'll find that you almost want to skip over the stories. Why? Because once the story rolls a bit, you know what's coming next. It's a bit like the story your grandma told you everytime you visited. In a few minutes, you knew what was coming.

So stories are boring the second time around, so why have them?
Because they're amazing the first time you learn something. The story helps you encapsulate the information and make sense of it. When you remember the story, you tend to remember the rest of the information.

Stories also help relax your brain
The brain loves a great story, and facts tire the brain. The moment you start telling a story, the brain calms down and is able to pick all the detail. So it's a great way to just relax the reader.

The story binds the concepts together--and guess what? The book by the Heath Brothers have stories but they don't help to bind the facts. Instead they keep coming like a series of waves, relentless. I can remember some stories, like the Van Halen "M&M" story, but not many others. This dooms a book, because now you're now asking the reader to slog through stories and case-studies. The very thing that should be a friend to the reader, now becomes an onslaught.

Which would be fine if the facts went somewhere. And that's the third problem.

===============================
3) They keep hemming and hawing
===============================

I listened to the book on audio, and almost about an hour into the audio, the book still seemed to suggest that we're getting somewhere. It kept saying, "This book is about..."

Oh come on!

I need to know what this book is about in the first 5-10 minutes. Not way down the line, with constant reminders what the book is supposedly about. And then they keep suggesting that their system is not THE system, which is fair enough, but be the experts. I'm counting on you to be the experts. Show some spine!

But they never do.
Well, not until the point I've reached at least. They keep going back to some study on decision making, quoting this person and that, but never really telling me what to do.

As I was listening to the book, my mind kept wandering away
And I thought it was me. I thought I was over-occupied. I thought the reader (of the book) was not so good. Until I spoke to my wife too. She struggled he book too. I spoke to several of my clients. So it wasn't me. It was a very difficult book and I had to learn to trust my judgment better.

And so the book suffers on many fronts, but in the sprit of isolation, let's summarize:
1) Not enough isolation.
2) Not enough story telling and analogies
3) Hemming and hawing, never leading me with confidence.

I have to say I'm writing this review with a heavy heart.
Read it and judge for yourself.

I was reading "Decisive" and came upon a story of David Lee Roth using a "tripwire". Roth specified on his concert tours that he wanted a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones taken out at every venue for him. He went on a rampage when he did not get them one time. The Heath's claimed this was a tripwire to see if the venue was following his contract and not a diva. I still say he's a diva. I read about other rock stars that have similar contracts.. All the ones that have these types of A"tripwires" are usually claimed as divas before they have any inkling of the contents of the contract. I would name names but that is not necessary. If they want to include a tripwire, then make a non conspicuous one that does not demean the consumer, who does not make outrageous demands.

The Heath's talk about decisiveness. One of the ways to do this is "Widen your options", which is the most important. I went to the Heath Brothers website to inform them of this. There is no way to get in contact with them. To me this shows they do not want customer feedback and are lessening their options. They need to practice what they preach. Some of the other things in the book are useful though.

Paid subscribers to the NYT were subjected to an unbelievably obnoxious flashing ad for this book in today's digital edition. Please join us in refusing to buy or read this book. Any author or publisher who would condone such an ad probably is self reporting the reviews here anyway. Obviously, a book that requires such obnoxious promotion must not be able to stand on its own value.

I've read each of their books, I've noticed they are getting farther from the answers the book brings up with each new book. The book and their conclusions about the subject are difficult to incorporate into real life.

This book is very well researched and well written. Lots of excellent examples. This book represents the best research on effective decision making by leading social science scholars Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I recommend this book without qualifications.