The basic approach is relatively straightforward: you encounter a choice, analyze the options, make a choice, and then live with it. However, do you realize there are four "villains" that cause this approach to be ineffective?
- You encounter a choice. But narrow framing makes you miss options.
- You analyze your options. But the confirmation bias leads you to gather self-serving information.
- You make a choice. But short-term emotion will often tempt you to make the wrong one.
- Then you live with it. But you'll often be overconfident about how the future will unfold.
So what's the solution to these cognitive biases and behavioral challenges we face? Try the WRAP framework to deal with each of the four challenges:
- Widen your options when framing the problem (to avoid narrow framing that makes you miss options).
- Reality-check your assumptions (to avoid confirmation bias)
- Attain distance from your emotions to see the choices more clearly
- Prepare to be wrong (to avoid overconfidence), because the future is uncertain
I didn't make this up, actually, this "WRAP" framework - Widen frame, Reality-check, Attain distance, and Prepare to be wrong, forms the core of the book "Decisive". If you want to know the strategies to implement in each category, I recommend you getting this book from Amazon to read by yourself. It's worth it, just read the reviews posted at Amazon!