Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

by Chip Heath

Maybe this advice sounds too commonsensical: Define and enshrine your core priorities. It is not exactly a radical stance. But there are two reasons why it’s uncommon to find people who have actually acted on this seemingly basic advice. First, people rarely establish their priorities until they’re forced to. Kim Ramirez didn’t decide hers until she confronted a job choice. Interplast had never resolved the tension in its mission statement until two values came directly into opposition. Furthermore, it’s easy to imagine how other organizational leaders, facing Interplast-style values conflicts, might escape without pinning down their priorities. A more egotistical CEO might have simply said, Here’s what I’ve decided, settling the issue by fiat without articulating anything about priorities. Or a more wishy-washy CEO might have resolved the issue politically, supporting whichever faction she needed to curry favor with that quarter. In short, while priorities are vital for making good decisions, they are also totally voluntary. You will never be required to articulate yours. Second, establishing priorities is not the same thing as binding yourself to them. In one series of interviews led by William F. Pounds of MIT, managers were asked to share the important problems they were facing in their organizations. Most managers mentioned five to eight problems. Later in the interview, they were asked to describe their activities from the previous week. Pounds shared the punch line ...