Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

Hardcover

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780307956392
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/26/2013
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 69,792
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

CHIP HEATH is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He lives in Los Gatos, California. DAN HEATH is a senior fellow at Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Heath brothers are the bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch.

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Excerpted from "Decisive"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Chip Heath.
Excerpted by permission of The Crown Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Four Villains of Decision Making 9

Widen Your Options

2 Avoid a Narrow Frame 32

3 Multitrack 50

4 Find Someone Who's Solved Your Problem 68

Reality-Test Your Assumptions

5 Consider the Opposite 92

6 Zoom Out, Zoom In 115

7 Ooch 135

Attain Distance Before Deciding

8 Overcome Short-Term Emotion 156

9 Honor Your Core Priorities 175

Prepare to be Wrong

10 Bookend the Future 194

11 Set a Tripwire 218

12 Trusting the Process 239

Next Steps 254

Recommendations for Further Reading 255

Clinics 257

Overcoming Obstacles 267

Endnotes 273

Acknowledgments 301

Index 303

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