{"id":7110,"date":"2013-04-22T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2013-04-22T06:00:30","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T13:00:30","slug":"how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of <em>Made to Stick<\/em> and his latest book\u00a0<em>Decisive<\/em>\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making processes by using their fairly simple process.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7112 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/experiment.jpeg\" alt=\"experiment\" width=\"235\" height=\"214\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In my last article, I talked about the four major\u00a0villains\u00a0that get in the way of making good decisions and I also talked about the first step in the process &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/pzzgH-1QD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Widening Your Options<\/a>. \u00a0In this first step, the critical element is to expand your thinking beyond the first thing that pops into your head.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 2: Reality Test Your Assumptions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because emotion is a big part of our decisions, it&#8217;s critical to step away from the decision and get a reality check. \u00a0 \u00a0As an example, think about the American Idol auditions that they show at the beginning of each season. \u00a0How can people that suck actually think they are good?<\/p>\n<p>When we want something to be true, we try to make it so &#8212; it&#8217;s a confirmation bias. \u00a0If you&#8217;re a singer and you want confirmation &#8211; so you ask friends, mom, etc. \u00a0who will say that you are right.<\/p>\n<p>This confirmation bias is very destructive to so many decisions. \u00a0Dan Lovallo, a professor at the University of Sydney says that this may be the single biggest problem in decision making. \u00a0People are collecting data and literally cooking the books. \u00a0Data is not an inherent corrective. \u00a0More data doesn&#8217;t make decisions better &#8211; it makes it easier to make bad decisions because you can cherry pick the data to match the decision you&#8217;re trying to make.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to counteract this tendency<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.7;\"><strong>Ask &#8220;What would have to be true for each option to be the right one?&#8221;<\/strong> \u00a0This transforms the decision making process. \u00a0This\u00a0<\/span>doesn&#8217;t<span style=\"line-height: 1.7;\">\u00a0tell you what to do &#8211; but what to go learn and data to gather to make a decision. \u00a0This technique gets you out of the trap of &#8220;Here&#8217;s why you&#8217;re wrong.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Practice Leadership by Experiment.<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0Heath gave the example of a group of Intuit engineers approaching their CEO with this idea for an \u00a0application that would allow Indian farmers who had to decide on where to take their crops to market for the best price. \u00a0While these farmers were poor &#8211; they actually had cell phones. \u00a0Initially the CEO said it was a terrible idea. \u00a0But that&#8217;s when the engineers sheepishly admitted that they had already developed a prototype. \u00a0So they ran a pilot and it was an instant success and now 500,000 farmers use the service and it boosts their income by 20%!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When bosses make decisions they make decisions by Politics, Persuasion and PowerPoint &#8211; but experimentation, makes it real. \u00a0It escapes the confirmation bias &#8211; it forces you to go out into the world. \u00a0The answers are rarely in your head &#8211; they are out in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to experiment without losing your shirt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There was a time when the only way to get predictable data was to do research &#8211; either using focus groups or surveys. \u00a0But today, there are many creative ways to experiment and determine everything from whether there is a demand for your product or service or how to set the price for this product or service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Launch, aim, ready<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now, this is probably going to freak some of you out. \u00a0I get that, but just consider it for a moment. \u00a0This is a strategy that I use to launch consistently successful online products and services &#8212; I create a sales page FIRST.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you read that right. \u00a0I create a sales page first and launch THAT. \u00a0This gets the idea out there and people put themselves on a list that says &#8220;I&#8217;m interested in more information &#8211; tell me when it&#8217;s launched&#8221;! \u00a0This is a terrific process for testing demand and getting early interest for a product. \u00a0These days, it&#8217;s the way books are sold as well as training courses and other information-based products. Don&#8217;t just scrinch your nose at the idea &#8212; think about how you can adapt this strategy to your product or service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pricing by ebay<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another one of my favorite ways to test pricing is by posting the product up on\u00a0eBay\u00a0or Craig&#8217;s List. \u00a0I know, this is totally\u00a0guerrilla, but it&#8217;s so effective. \u00a0I simply post a picture and description of the product &#8212; and see what price point works best.<\/p>\n<p>Again, I know that these aren&#8217;t your traditional ways of testing and experimenting product launches or prices, but they are great examples of how you can collect data without waiting for responses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[284],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog1.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/experiment.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ivana Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ivana Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ivana Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244\"},\"headline\":\"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\"},\"wordCount\":781,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Best Practice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\",\"name\":\"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uncategorized\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/uncategorized\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"QuestionPro\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244\",\"name\":\"Ivana Taylor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ivana Taylor\"},\"description\":\"Ivana Taylor provides DIY Marketing advice, marketing trends and marketing how-to tips and strategies for small business owners and CEOs.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro","description":"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro","og_description":"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making","og_url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/","og_site_name":"QuestionPro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","article_published_time":"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blog1.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/experiment.jpeg"}],"author":"Ivana Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@questionpro","twitter_site":"@questionpro","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ivana Taylor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/"},"author":{"name":"Ivana Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244"},"headline":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making","datePublished":"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/"},"wordCount":781,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Best Practice"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/","name":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making | QuestionPro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-22T13:00:30+00:00","description":"Last week I attended a meeting where Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and his latest book\u00a0Decisive\u00a0talked about how to improve our decision-making","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-get-over-wishful-thinking-in-your-decision-making\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Uncategorized","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/uncategorized\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How to Get Over Wishful Thinking in Your Decision Making"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","name":"QuestionPro","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"QuestionPro","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","caption":"QuestionPro"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244","name":"Ivana Taylor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ivana Taylor"},"description":"Ivana Taylor provides DIY Marketing advice, marketing trends and marketing how-to tips and strategies for small business owners and CEOs.","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ivana Taylor","author_link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}