THE WRAP ON ‘DECISIVE’, THE NEW BOOK FROM CHIP AND DAN HEATH

Every book by Chip and Dan Heath is worth reading. They’ve show us ways to make messages memorable (Made To Stick) and make difficult changes (Switch). In Decisive, they tackle the way we make decisions.

Decisive goes on sale today. I saw a webinar with Dan Heath yesterday and listened to a podcast with Chris Brogan. I saw Dan on the tour for Switch.

The Decision Process

Here is the four step WRAP process:

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

We’ll focus on widening options. This is difficult. We have limited time. Considering many choices is a recipe for indecision or substandard decisions. We also suffer from the confirmation bias.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is probably the 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.
— Dan Lovallo

You likely have opinions on

• the existence of global warming
• the attention spans of kids today
• the merits of fluoride in drinking water
• the need for guns at home
• whether iOS beats Android

We have our world views and find data that supports our thinking. Our blinders impair our thinking and decisions. We might not see what we're not looking for. In a recent Harvard study, 83% of radiologists failed to see a gorilla waving a fist in a stack of CT scans (Toronto Star, Feb 2013).

Thinking “outside the box” isn’t easy when we are the box. One way is to build a diverse network or team and consider differing opinions early in the process.

An Example

I've found there are strong opinions about the merits of social media marketing. For instance, “YouTube is now averaging 1 billion monthly users who are streaming a stunning 4 billion hours of content every month” (Forbes, Mar 21, 2013). Is that a call to create video or remain on the sidelines?

The ROI question also arises. Coca Cola finds that online buzz doesn’t lead to online sales — even now, television is more effective (Ad Age, Mar 18, 2013). That’s a “stunning admission” for the #1 brand on Facebook with 61.5 million fans. What conclusion do you draw? Are the results meaningful for what you sell? Is there a trend?

What we want to believe may not be what what's comfortable or true. For years, we’ve been told to Question Authority. Now it’s time to Question Biases too.

Decide

I’m confident that Decisive will have solid, practical content that’s easy to apply. It’s on my reading list.

Links

• Decisive: official, Amazon, Goodreads
• Decisively fun time with Dan Heath (Human Business Way podcast 57)
• Confirmation bias can get in the way of smart hiring decisions (ere.net, Mar 20, 2013)
• Confirmation bias: why both sides of the global warming debate are nearly always right (Forbes, Aug 2012)
• Confirmation bias (You Are No So Smart, June 2010)
• Do you only see what you want to see? (Pokhran)
• Confirmation bias (Wikipedia)

PS You might want to read Switch first.

BUILDING TRUST BEFORE MEETING IN PERSON

Your favorite songs: did you first hear them live in concert or as a recording? Your favorite  actors: did you see them live or on a screen?

Maybe your first impression was negative. Songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and Stairway to Heaven might take time to grow on you.

Repetition overcomes initial reactions. As your familiarity grows, doesn’t your desire for a live encounter grow too? The liking starts building trust even though you’ve never met.

Gone

Just because you want to meet someone doesn’t mean you’ll ever get the opportunity. Maybe you’d like to chat with Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain or Steve Jobs. They’re gone but live on because we still see what they did. And what they did mattered.

Easier Than Ever

These days, it’s easier than ever to reach out to people who were inaccessible before. We can follow them on Twitter and if they follow us back, we can send direct messages that might get a response. If they blog, we can leave comments, get known and start a private conversation. Maybe someone in our network can make an introduction.

“Regular” people are easy to reach via a quick web search.

The First Impression

Michael Apted’s Up Series (Wikipedia) says that if you look at a child, you see glimpses of the adult too. The past leaves clues about the future.

When you first meet someone, you see their public face. You can’t trust them unless you’ve seen them online before and they’re congruent with your expectations.

You can have an impact on others in the same way: create an advance expectation that you match in person. To do this, you need content online that improves with time. The visible evolution is important.

Your Body Speaks

Your visible body of work speaks for you when you cannot. If you're invisible, you're at a disadvantage to someone who has the courage and foresight to put themselves on display even when they knew they weren't perfect.

If and when you do meet your “pen pal” in person, you already “know” each other. There’s anticipation and more to talk about. Doesn’t that help solidify a relationship that already started?

Links

• Building trust with networking
• Building trust in a transparent world
• Building trust on Linkedin in 30 days
• Three tips to master networking events
• Adventures in networking without ever meeting
• Tips from two networking fumbles
• Image courtesy of Peter Baxter

PS Live encounters are important but expensive and limiting.

WHEN TO HIRE A COACH

You’re nimble and flexible. You can do much on your own — maybe more than you’d like to do.

Even if you have the time and budget, you can’t outsource everything. For example, you can’t hire anyone to exercise or diet for you. Well, you can but you won’t get results.

Say you want to build trust in our transparent world. You must do the weight lifting yourself. LinkedIn is an essential tool. I’ve shared my best tips via

• a 30 day action plan
• video and other resources
• presentations / workshops / 1:1 advice

That's plenty of help but may not be enough. Consider your own goals. You might need more support to reach them.

Personalization

Even solid content needs adjustments to suit your specific situation. Otherwise, you risk looking generic.

You might not know what to do. You might want to save time. Maybe this is when to hire a coach. The right coach makes a big difference. Much of my learning comes from learning, thinking and experimenting. I’ve still used coaches over the years.

Accountability

Habits take time to build. Bad habits take time to vanish.

You might need outside discipline until your new scripts are engrained. I participate in masterminds. A Pick Four goals group may help (and you can start one). A coach is another option.

Independence

When you’re paying for help, look for ways to limit the cost and duration.

As an example, we've been wanting to get physically fit for years. We couldn’t make sense of the conflicting advice and didn’t exercise consistently. At the end of a busy day, pizza has more pull than the gym. Our son is out of town, studying at my alma mater, Western University. He’s taken the initiative to get fit and he

1. Developed a fitness plan for us
2. Showed us the exercises
3. Guided us during  the holidays

We’ve been following the plan regularly for three months. We now have discipline. We no longer need him — but he’s still welcome back home.

If what you’re doing isn’t getting you to your goals, you may need coaching until you’re self-sufficient.

Links

• Building trust in a transparent world
• Three overlooked paths to a competitive edge
• Marketing to the lazy or overwhelmed
• How to hire a social media expert
• Signs of the wrong social media expert
• How can your clients find you?
• image courtesy of Paul Moore

PS There's no shame in using training wheels … as long as you take them off.