Business

The Heath Bothers, authors “Made to Stick” and “Switch” deliver their latest work on how to make better decisions. They offer four major reasons why decisions can run afoul. These include inappropriate problem framing, confirmation bias, and emotional interference and preparation for being wrong. They assert that a process will significantly improve your decision making skills. That is, process plus data improves the odds of a correct decision over data alone. As is their trademark, they come up with a pity pneumonic for their solution WRAP.

I thought the book was pretty good, it had the appropriate level of details and background stories. Earthshaking it was not. The concepts provide a framework for decision making similar to knife skills give you a framework for successful food preparation – without these things, outcomes will be unpredictable and vary. If you are looking for a Tour de Force in decision making, read “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. The Heath brothers even said as much in the initial chapter -- I totally agree.

Certainly, this book is easy to digest and if their advice is implemented, WRAP will lead to better decision making. It is a worthwhile listen but don’t expect shattering new insights. It is solid and worthwhile.

Pink’s central premise is that most people sell in one way or another and that many of our conceptions about selling are not true or only barely so. For example, extroverts do not make the best sales people – ambiverts do. If you want to know what an ambivert is, you’ll have to listen to the book yourself. I have read dozens of business books and most of them can be condensed down to two or three central ideas and the rest of the work is really window dressing. Pink’s book is not packed with antidotal evidence and arcnae stories supporting his points; rather he attempts to support his opinions with research and a smattering of statistics or at least hinting that statistical evidence exists.

I purchased a hardcopy so I could make notes in the margin. On balance, I think this and Drive, his previous book, are pretty good and worth the listen. I thought Drive was better but To Sell is Human has a number of good tips that if practiced may increase your sales effectiveness.