Coming soon · Book Profile
Decisive
A practical guide to making better decisions by using a four-step process (WRAP) that counteracts the four biases that systematically undermine human judgment.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Drawing on decades of decision-making research and dozens of vivid real-world stories, Chip and Dan Heath argue that our decisions are sabotaged by four predictable villains: narrow framing, the confirmation bias, short-term emotion, and overconfidence. Because simply knowing about these biases doesn't fix them, the authors offer a memorable process—Widen Your Options, Reality-Test Your Assumptions, Attain Distance Before Deciding, and Prepare to Be Wrong (WRAP)—that wraps around your normal way of deciding and protects you from your worst instincts. Full of actionable tools like multitracking, the Vanishing Options Test, ooching, 10/10/10, premortems, and tripwires, the book teaches individuals and organizations to make choices that are wiser, bolder, and more decisive, not because they will always be right, but because a good process reliably tips the odds in their favor.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A thoughtful individual or leader who wants to make important life and work decisions with confidence and get them right more often.
- The problem
- Facing consequential choices—jobs, relationships, hires, investments, strategy—that too often turn out poorly or get abandoned and regretted. Feeling stuck, anxious, and flummoxed, agonizing over choices and doubting whether they are missing something.
- The plan
- Widen Your Options—escape narrow framing by multitracking and finding someone who's solved your problem.
- Reality-Test Your Assumptions—fight confirmation bias by considering the opposite, seeking base rates, and ooching.
- Attain Distance Before Deciding—overcome short-term emotion using 10/10/10, the best-friend question, and your core priorities.
- Prepare to Be Wrong—counter overconfidence by bookending the future, running premortems and preparades, and setting tripwires.
- The payoff
- Making decisions that are wiser, bolder, and more decisive with appropriate confidence. · Quieting the mind and ending the cycle of agonizing because you trust your process. · Being a better adviser to colleagues and loved ones and having the freedom to take smart risks.
See our guide
- Agriculture, Fishing & Forestry Leader →
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- Make Sound Decisions Under Uncertainty →
- Solve Problems And Think Analytically →
- Construction Leader →
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- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
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- Transportation & Logistics Leader →
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Additional reading
- Diseases of Workers · Bernardo Ramazzini
Cited as the foundational text of occupational medicine, written in the early 1700s, which describes many occupationally related diseases observed in farm patients that are still recognized today.
- The Triple Bottom Line · Andrew Savitz
Introduces the concept of sustainability resting on three pillars: profit, planet, and people. The book uses this to argue that the 'people' component (human capital/worker health) is often dangerously neglected in agriculture.
- The Omnivore's Dilemma · Michael Pollan
Referenced as an example of popular literature that reflects and advocates for the rising consumer voice and public scrutiny concerning sustainable food systems, which is a major trend impacting modern agriculture.
- Silent Spring · Rachel Carson
Cited as the landmark 1962 book that launched the modern environmental movement and fundamentally shifted public and governmental attention toward the potential harms of pesticides, shaping decades of regulation and risk perception.
- Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies · Charles Perrow
The book's theory of 'system accidents' and 'tight coupling' is used by Gonzales to explain how cascading failures, like the Mount Hood climbing disaster, are inevitable features of certain complex systems.
- The Emotional Brain & The Synaptic Self · Joseph LeDoux
LeDoux's neuroscience research on the amygdala's role in fear and memory forms the scientific backbone of Gonzales's argument about how emotion can hijack reason in a crisis.
- The Survivor Personality · Al Siebert
Gonzales cites Siebert's psychological research on the traits of survivors, such as their use of playfulness and humor to stay in contact with reality and manage threats.
- Touching the Void · Joe Simpson
This book provides one of the primary and most detailed case studies Gonzales analyzes to illustrate the psychology of a survivor, including managing pain, using patterns, and the will to live.
- Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea · Steven Callahan
Callahan's story serves as a textbook example of the ideal survivor mindset in action, demonstrating nearly all of the '12 Rules' Gonzales outlines, such as maintaining routine, finding beauty, and surrendering without giving up.
- All Quiet on the Western Front · Erich Maria Remarque
Gonzales quotes Remarque's novel to illustrate the development of instinctual, life-saving secondary emotions in soldiers, a key concept in how experience rewires the brain for survival.