Dan and Chip Heath's new book, Decisive is waking me up to issues in my decision making.
The biggest culprit is framing the problem too narrowly. So often our decisions are binary—should I quit this job or stay? Buy the car or not? In reality, choices are rarely black and white.
To widen your consideration set, they offer the 'vanishing options' hack. If you take away the options you are currently considering, what could you then do?
They tell a story of a manager deciding whether to fire a receptionist who was great at admin, but bad at greeting folks. Once the option to fire her was taken off the table, the manager realized they could hire a student aid for $25 per day and focus the current employee on admin.
What are you deciding today? Could taking away your options open up so many more?
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