Shop Harry Potter in 3D
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
Buy new:
-54% $14.78
FREE delivery Tuesday, January 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$14.78 with 54 percent savings
List Price: $32.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, January 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Thursday, January 9. Order within 4 hrs 25 mins.
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
$$14.78 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.78
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$13.35
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
A book that does not look new, has been read, but is in very good condition. Overall, a minimal amount of wear and tear. No obvious damage to the cover. No missing or damaged pages, no nicks or tears, no writing or highlighting in the margins. May have very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. A book that does not look new, has been read, but is in very good condition. Overall, a minimal amount of wear and tear. No obvious damage to the cover. No missing or damaged pages, no nicks or tears, no writing or highlighting in the margins. May have very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. See less
FREE delivery Sunday, January 12 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Thursday, January 9. Order within 12 hrs 10 mins.
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$14.78 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.78
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work Hardcover – March 26, 2013

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,289 ratings

Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.

Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$14.78","priceAmount":14.78,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"78","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"St9HYwGTZQhWfpH8oK1Ni88p5%2B4qbZOB0gIV5t6plE76vvfNF7O%2BRI%2F2z3Ce440NPmdjClzuVKzl%2BxeutevUYOQg%2B%2B%2BzBFjCzluneCMb8SiFLaVYcH0l7DDcxPZwf3jq%2BrAcqZMyoLOKo15C%2FivY7g%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$13.35","priceAmount":13.35,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"35","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"St9HYwGTZQhWfpH8oK1Ni88p5%2B4qbZOB9oyKekFT5l%2FNp5pNWZ6Ukoqo3kQPEXdstU3c5eT5craAR7a8Tdyd5vY%2Bh2Ct8dX3m8DzR8K3jJeCu286CrmPCPVhb3EmOL7LS7rqpACmBlw%2B767bkyWzpA4QvffqxSFeuUklQxgvwmy977dobsAzVDd9cOMCudY6","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

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.

Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Frequently bought together

This item: Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
$14.78
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jan 14
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$13.36
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 12
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$15.98
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 12
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Q&A with Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Q. People often feel overwhelmed by “Decisions, decisions, decisions …” What makes us so indecisive?

A. If you’re feeling indecisive, chances are you don’t have the right options yet. In the book we describe four key “villains” of decision-making—common traps and biases that psychologists have identified. One of them is called “narrow framing,” meaning that we tend to get stuck in one way of thinking about a dilemma, or we ignore alternatives that are available to us. With a little effort, we can break out of a narrow frame and widen our options. For instance, one expert we interviewed had a great quote: “Any time in life you’re tempted to think, ‘Should I do this OR that?,’ instead, ask yourself, ‘Is there a way I can do this AND that?’ It’s surprisingly frequent that it’s feasible to do both things.”

Q. You show that the same decision process can be applied to many domains—health decisions, career decisions, business decisions—but doesn’t a decision “process” take way too much time?

A. Not necessarily. In this book, we’re not interested in complex decision models or elaborate decision trees. Often the best advice is the simplest, for instance, the suggestion to “sleep on it.” That’s great advice—it helps to quiet short-term emotion that can disrupt our choices. But it still takes 8 hours, and it doesn’t always resolve our dilemmas. Many other decision aids require only a simple shift in attention. Doctors leaning toward a diagnosis are taught to check themselves by asking, “What else could this be?” And colleagues making a difficult group decision can ask, “What would convince us, six months down the road, to change our minds about this?”

Q. Why did you call the book Decisive?

A. Being decisive isn’t about making the perfect decision every time. That isn’t possible. Rather, it’s about being confident that we’ve considered the right things, that we’ve used a smart process. The two of us have met a lot of people who tell us they agonize endlessly about their decisions. They get stuck in a cycle where they just keep spinning their wheels. To escape that cycle, we often need a shift in perspective. We describe a simple technique used by former Intel chief Andy Grove to resolve one of the toughest business decisions he ever faced, one that he and his colleagues had debated for over a year. And what was this profound technique? Nothing fancier than a single, provocative question! In the book we also highlight a second question, inspired by Grove’s technique, that can often resolve personal decisions quickly and easily.

Q. So how do I help my teenage son not to make a bad choice?

A. Unfortunately, no one has solved that problem. But we offer some simple tools that help people give better decision advice. (Often it’s easier to spot the flaws in other people’s thinking than in our own.) As an example, the phrase “whether or not” is often a warning flag that someone is trapped in a narrow frame. So if your son is debating “whether or not to go to the party tonight,” that’s your cue to widen the options he’s considering. (Horror movie? School basketball game? A head-start on trigonometry coursework?) For important decisions, even a little improvement can pay big dividends.

Review

“A leader's most important job is to make good decisions, which—minus perfect knowledge of the future—is tough to do consistently…The Heath brothers explain how to navigate the land mines laid by our irrational brains and improve our chances of good outcomes.” -Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Currency; 1st edition (March 26, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307956393
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307956392
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.71 x 1.25 x 8.53 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,289 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,289 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Customers say

Customers find the book insightful and helpful for making decisions. They describe it as a light, entertaining read that gets straight to the point. The concepts are easy to grasp and remember with concise summaries at the end of each chapter. Readers appreciate the well-told stories that illustrate the points. They find the material quality good and the book well-constructed. They appreciate the variety of ideas presented, which keeps them turning the pages.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

270 customers mention "Insight"261 positive9 negative

Customers find the book helpful for making better decisions. They say it provides an insightful process and a way to approach problems. The book helps with overthinking and ruts, providing new ideas like toggling promotion vs. demotion.

"...The Heaths also introduce several tools you can use to make the process work better. I found tools I was already familiar with, such as pre-mortem...." Read more

"Decisive is structured for clarity and accessibility. Every chapter ends with a one-page synopsis of high points...." Read more

"...walk away from this book with, at the very minimum, a handful of tools that will help you (or allow you to help others) make better decisions...." Read more

"...Brothers do a great job laying out a better and more memorable process for making decisions while illustrating the principles with a wide variety of..." Read more

176 customers mention "Readability"174 positive2 negative

Customers find the book engaging and worth reading for people who want to improve their skills. They describe it as a light, entertaining read that can help you understand how to improve your skills. The title hooks you to read it and the framework is immediately put to good use.

"...Readers are cleverly given a choice of how they read the book: fast or slow...." Read more

"...I was impressed - one of the most practical, entertaining books I have picked up in a long time...." Read more

"...Definitely worth the read." Read more

"...So, definitely worth reading but somewhat lacks the central connecting theory of texts like Duckworth's Grit and Dukes' How to Decide." Read more

148 customers mention "Ease of reading"140 positive8 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They appreciate the examples that make the concepts stick with them. The book provides a simple mental framework and specific practices for handling complex decisions. It gets straight to the point and provides real-world examples. Readers mention it provides both a mental framework and specific practices.

"...The Heaths created a simple process with an acronym to help you remember it. Then they present an array of tools to help you make the process work...." Read more

"...not entirely original, what sets it apart is its presentation and accessibility. After all, their previous book was called "Made to Stick"...." Read more

"...It's practical, entertaining, and easy to apply...." Read more

"...The Heath Brothers do a great job laying out a better and more memorable process for making decisions while illustrating the principles with a wide..." Read more

47 customers mention "Story telling"45 positive2 negative

Customers find the book's storytelling engaging. They appreciate the well-told business stories that illustrate key points. The author uses real-life examples to illustrate concepts and make the narration richer. The information is presented in anecdotal form, which customers find easy to understand.

"...The authors illustrate their points with relevant, well-told business stories, some of which you probably haven’t heard before...." Read more

"...BOTTOM LINE: This is one of the best business/psychology books I have read. It's practical, entertaining, and easy to apply...." Read more

"...This is an especially powerful concept in a business context where sides may be talking past each other - this helps reset the context to analyzing..." Read more

"...It’s understandable why the authors did this (because stories are memorable, impart knowledge and inspire to act)..." Read more

18 customers mention "Material quality"15 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's quality. They find it well-constructed, with effective reinforcement at the end of each chapter. The book arrived in perfect condition.

"...between the number of options considered and the quality of the decision were also an eye-opener. Definitely worth the read." Read more

"Quality Book." Read more

"...statements, or questions relating to specific points were effective reinforcers...." Read more

"The authors of this book continue to produce excellent material...." Read more

9 customers mention "Variety"9 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's variety. They find it helpful for widening their options and considering multiple options, asking probing questions, and gaining perspective. The book provides enough variety to keep them turning the pages, but the ideas are cohesive and pulled together.

"...The four strategies are W.R.A.P.: Widen Your Options, Reality Test Your Assumptions, Attain Distance Before Deciding and Prepare to Be Wrong...." Read more

"...Other crucial concepts are to avoid narrow choices, and to get perspective to reduce the impact of emotions on decision making...." Read more

"...This book helps provide ways to find good third options...." Read more

"...into the four “villains” of decision making, they use chapters on widening your options, testing your assumptions, distancing yourself from..." Read more

9 customers mention "Wrap concept"9 positive0 negative

Customers like the WRAP concept. They say it helps them make better decisions and avoid making egregious errors. The book provides an excellent review of the WRAP process, which helps them avoid making mistakes while optimizing choices. It helps them revisit past decisions periodically.

"...By reading this you will learn the WRAP system to make better decisions, which will help you overcome the four villains of decision making: narrow..." Read more

"...were excellent: the Decisive Workbook provided an excellent review of the WRAP process...." Read more

"Love the WRAP concept and love how it can be applied to business and personal decisions. Have recommended to many, many people" Read more

"...Decisive is different. You can understand the WRAP concept and start applying it the same day in personal or business situations...." Read more

7 customers mention "Humor"7 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the witty humor from the books.

"...They brought the same witty humor found in Made to Stick and Switch to Decisive which for me makes the subject matter easier to digest...." Read more

"The Heath Brothers have a very nice writing style: they add humor to break up a serious topic while basing their ideas on current research...." Read more

"...excellent job of bringing the content to life in a relevant, yet humorous manner." Read more

"...You also get some wry humor and just plain great story telling. Decisive is decidedly great!" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018
    Chip and Dan Heath open their book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work describing a woman considering whether to fire her firm’s IT Director. They ask you to reflect on your mental activity as you read their description. Next, they tell you what you probably did. They nailed that part for me. Finally, they show you why what you did, and what most people do, may not lead result in good decisions.

    Here’s a summary of the book’s subject in two quotes from the introduction.

    “Kahneman says that we are quick to jump to conclusions because we give too much weight to the information that’s right in front of us, while failing to consider the information that’s just offstage. He called this tendency “what you see is all there is.” In keeping with Kahneman’s visual metaphor, we’ll refer to this tendency as a “spotlight” effect. (Think of the way a spotlight in a theater directs our attention; what’s inside the spotlight is crisply illuminated.)”

    And

    “And that, in essence, is the core difficulty of decision making: What’s in the spotlight will rarely be everything we need to make a good decision, but we won’t always remember to shift the light. Sometimes, in fact, we’ll forget there’s a spotlight at all, dwelling so long in the tiny circle of light that we forget there’s a broader landscape beyond it.”

    Decisive describes how you can make better decisions by following a simple process. The Heaths share research that shows that process is more important than analysis when reaching effective decisions. In fact, a good process can lead to better analysis.

    They describe what they call the four villains of decision-making. The villains are: narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion, and overconfidence. They share a four-step process you can use to lessen the effect of the four villains.

    I like the simple process represented with a few letters. The military does the best job I know of in teaching people how to decide. One key to their method is to define a simple process for analyzing an issue. The Army uses an analysis tool called METT-TC. That stands for: Mission, Enemy, Troops available, Terrain, Time, and Civilian concerns. The simple process helps a decision maker consider all the important factors.

    The Heaths’ tool is a little different. They use the acronym WRAP. Each letter of the acronym represents a way to deal with one villain of decision-making. W is for “Widen your options.” R stands for “Reality-test your assumptions.” A represents “Attain distance before deciding.” And P is “Prepare to be wrong.”

    Each of those elements of their process gets several chapters’ worth of coverage. The authors illustrate their points with relevant, well-told business stories, some of which you probably haven’t heard before. The Heaths also introduce several tools you can use to make the process work better. I found tools I was already familiar with, such as pre-mortem. There were tools I knew about but which had slipped away from the front of my memory. An example is Suzy Welch’s 10/10/10. And there were tools I never heard about such as book-ending.

    In A Nutshell

    Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work is one of the best books I’ve read on decision-making. The Heaths created a simple process with an acronym to help you remember it. Then they present an array of tools to help you make the process work. If you want to improve your decision-making, or even if you think you don’t need to, this book is a must-read.
    60 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2013
    Decisive is structured for clarity and accessibility. Every chapter ends with a one-page synopsis of high points.
    End notes offer more depth on studies. Readers are cleverly given a choice of how they read the book: fast or slow. Decisive can be scanned by the impatient or read in depth by the reflective.

    Readers of other popular books on decision making such as Barry Schwartz's excellent "Paradox of Choice" will notice the Heaths use some of the same research. It's disappointing to read about the supermarket jam story yet again.However, if this book is not entirely original, what sets it apart is its presentation and accessibility. After all, their previous book was called "Made to Stick". And they have sensibly followed their own advice.

    We meet the authors' four villains of decision making:
    1. narrow framing blinds us to options
    2. confirmation bias focuses attention on self-serving information
    3. short-term emotion
    4. over-confidence.

    Primary points are made "sticky" with the acronym WRAP:
    * Widen your options
    * Reality-test your assumptions
    * Attain distance before deciding
    * Prepare to be wrong.
    Each of these areas is fully unpacked over several chapters.

    Widening options shows us how making choices with only an on-off switch keeps us from seeing that we can have this AND that. The object is to create more options.

    After initial selections have been made the next stage is reality-testing assumptions. These include sniffing out any tendency for the confirmation bias. Validity testing includes examining initial assumptions, seeking out conflicting opinions and taking time to explore them. The tripwire is a warning mechanism preventing straying too far from the topic.

    Decisions are based in feeling. Individuals who suffer from autism can find it particularly hard to make decisions. They fail to recognize and respond to some emotional cues. Unemotional analysis has its place, yet analysis alone is not enough. In the reality testing stage we check in with how we feel about each incremental change.The next stage addresses the tendency for our emotions to run away with us.

    Attaining distance before deciding is the act of stepping back. This is easier said than done. The idea here is to distance ourselves from our emotional biases. The goal is to take a wider, deeper view. Our choices need to be aligned with our stated priorities.

    Prepare to be wrong (which I've already mastered). The Heath brothers show how we are often wildly overconfident about the future.

    They suggest these three fixes to get closer to what actually happens:
    1. Book-ending the future is a technique for getting closer to the bulls' eye by setting low and high parameters.
    2. A tripwire is a boundary beyond which you won't go before checking in and correcting course.
    3. Trust the process: "Trusting a process can permit us to take bigger risks, to make bolder choices. Studies of the elderly show that people regret not what they did but what they didn't do."
    Concepts are clearly explained, and illustrated with persuasive examples. Who knew that David Lee Roth's fixation with brown M&Ms was all about security?

    We all need to decide. Deciding to read Decisive shouldn't be a difficult choice.
    15 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Neil
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
    Reviewed in Canada on August 11, 2022
    Extremely helpful framework for personal and business decision making. I would say these principles are especially useful for evaluating the “big” decisions in life.
  • Pablo Rios
    5.0 out of 5 stars Think different
    Reviewed in Mexico on February 1, 2022
    A good book to think about deciding.
  • arjun varman
    5.0 out of 5 stars Truly transformative!!
    Reviewed in India on February 4, 2024
    The book presents a highly actionable process for quality decision making. Definitely was worth the read!

    PS: Chapter notes and one-page summaries are already provided by the authors, making it super comfortable for readers to refer back.
  • Lina
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fatto regalo
    Reviewed in Italy on January 5, 2024
    Bello
  • Kindle Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars I wish I read this before..
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on July 13, 2022
    As decided to improve the skills of decision making, this book provided me with the right insights that I noted down and use dailly every time I need to make a decision, and I can say that really works..!