Quote
“Widen Your Options. Reality-Test Your Assumptions. Attain Distance Before Deciding. Prepare to Be Wrong.”
— Chip Heath & Dan Heath, in Decisive (2013) · Decisive →
Why it was said
Chip and Dan Heath organise Decisive around these four steps, one part of the book each, and their initials give the process its name: WRAP. Each step answers one of the four villains of decision-making they describe at the start: narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion and overconfidence.
What it actually means
The Heaths do not ask for better instincts; they ask for a process that compensates for predictable errors. Widening options counters the habit of framing a choice as yes or no. Reality-testing counters the tendency to look only for evidence that agrees with us. Distance counters the pull of the emotion of the moment. Preparing to be wrong counters overconfidence about how the future will unfold. Used together, the four steps turn a decision from a single moment of judgment into a short routine anyone can repeat.
How to use it
- 1For your next important decision, write down at least one option beyond the two you started with.
- 2Ask what would have to be true for the option you dislike to be the right one, then look for that evidence.
- 3Set a tripwire: a date or a number at which you will review the decision.