Upon finishing Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath, I did something I’ve never done before. I emailed the five other members of the Communications team at IBC and told them that I?d buy a copy for whoever was willing to read it. The book wasn?t available in paperback yet, so it turns out that my offer consituted something of an investment. (Those hardcover books are pricey!) Even so, I was convinced ? and remain convinced ? that Decisive has the potential to change the way our team thinks, solves problems, and leads the communication efforts of our church.
Decisive is a guided tour through a simple yet revelatory process for making decisions. The authors (known for their previous books,?Made to Stick and Switch) combine a truckload of cognitive research with helpful case studies to create a methodology that can influence every corner of our lives. Consider how many decisions we make in a week, let alone a month or year. We make creative decisions, career decisions, relational decisions, financial decisions, and the list goes on. Decisive‘s aim is to help readers make better decisions in each of those areas through a single process designed to open our eyes to the ways both good and bad decisions are made.
My team has book going through the book together, discussing one chapter at a time for about an hour every Friday. We?re comparing notes and reactions to the Heaths? WRAP process:
- Widen your options
- Reality-check your assumptions
- Attain distance before deciding
- Prepare to be wrong
But we?re not only discussing what?s on the page ? we?re also contextualizing the ideas, case studies, and process through the filter of the challenges and opportunities we?re facing at our church.
Don?t get me wrong, I loved reading Decisive?on my own, but working through the book with my team has been a unique pleasure, an eye-opening experience that is already paying dividends in the work we?re doing this year.
If at this point you?re still wondering whether or not you should get Decisive, let me help you with that decision: Yes, you should. Order a copy (or six) today.
