In Chip and Dan Heath\u2019s book \u2018Decisive,\u2019 they lay out three ways to make truly excellent decisions that can have a very positive impact on your business and your life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1: The Vanishing Options Test<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1994, Quaker Oats made the decision to buy the drink company Snapple for a whopping 1.8 BILLION dollars \u2013 perhaps one of the worst business decisions of all time.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t consider any other options. Believe it or not, no one in the company even argued not to buy it or suggested an alternative.<\/p>\n
If they had simply expanded their choices by asking, \u201cWhat other options do we have?\u201d they would have been far more likely to make a better decision.<\/p>\n
Do you decide to do things without giving yourself multiple options first? Do you limit your choices before you even start?<\/p>\n
For example, instead of asking, \u201cShould I promote this product to my list?\u201d Ask yourself what other products you might promote instead that would be a better fit for your list.<\/p>\n
Instead of asking, \u201cShould I buy this piece of software or hire this person for my business?\u201d Ask yourself what your other options are to get the task done.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why it works: Anytime you give your brain a \u2018this or that\u2019 option, it\u2019s hemmed in by just those two possibilities and won\u2019t think any further.<\/p>\n
Instead, ask yourself, \u201cWhat options would I consider if my current options disappeared?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
By giving yourself multiple choices instead of just one or two, you greatly increase your odds of making a good decision and even the best decision for you and your business.<\/p>\n
The key is to expand<\/i> your choices before you narrow them down.<\/p>\n
2: The \u2018Tell My Friend\u2019 Solution<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1985, Andy Grove, President of Intel, faced a problem \u2013 should he end the company\u2019s line of memory chips, or not?<\/p>\n
Management was torn on the question and Andy didn\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n
So he asked himself, \u201cIf we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he or she would do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the answer was obvious \u2013 get out of memories.<\/p>\n
The right question made a tough problem easy.<\/p>\n
This question helped him to overcome the biggest enemy to making the correct decision: Emotions.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re angry at your husband so you don\u2019t talk to him. You\u2019re excited about getting the exact make, model and color car you want, so you overpay. And so forth.<\/p>\n
These decisions are clouded by emotion, and if it weren\u2019t for that emotion, you would make different decisions.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why it works: Your emotions cloud your logic. So instead of asking what you should do, ask, \u201cWhat would I tell my best friend to do?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
This helps you to look past your emotions and makes even the toughest decisions easy.<\/p>\n
3: The \u2018Test it Now\u2019 Solution<\/b><\/p>\n
In the late 1990\u2019s, Bill Gross wanted to sell cars on the internet. He was sure the idea could work, but at the time it was risky.<\/p>\n
Would people spend $20,000 on a car they\u2019d never seen, much less test-driven?<\/p>\n
Bill didn\u2019t try to guess. Instead, he engineered a test run by hiring a CEO for 90 days to do one thing: SELL ONE CAR over the internet.<\/p>\n
Usually we do the opposite. We go all in on a decision without having a clue if it\u2019s the right one or not.<\/p>\n
We spend all of our time and resources on this risk, when we could have gotten our answer with one small test.<\/p>\n
For example, why hire someone as a full time employee when you can hire them for one project and see what they do?<\/p>\n
Why spend six months creating a huge information product when you can create a small one in a day and see if there is a market for it?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why it works: We often get so fired up about a new idea, that we don\u2019t even take time to find out if it will work or not. But by running a small test, we can see if we should proceed or go in a different direction.<\/p>\n
Whenever possible, create a small test to find out if you\u2019re on the right track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy am I guessing when I can run a small test and know for certain?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s it \u2013 three techniques that can save you a load of headaches and money in your online business and in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Chip and Dan Heath\u2019s book \u2018Decisive,\u2019 they lay out three ways to make truly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1585,"featured_media":22141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2914,2919,2925,2926],"tags":[3410,3432,868],"class_list":["post-21917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-email-marketing","category-internet-marketing","category-online-business","category-online-marketing","tag-how-to-make-the-right-decision","tag-how-to-stop-making-lousy-decisions","tag-online-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002290,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21917\/revisions\/1002290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traffic-tap.com\/lifebeyondoffice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}