Nathan Magnusondecisions – Nathan Magnuson

Make Better Decisions Using WRAP

Nathan Magnuson — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:00:31 +0000

How exciting is decision-making?? I’ve always enjoyed the logic that goes into navigating the personal and professional crossroads of life. Sometimes things work out. Other times it’s a disaster. Did we make the right call? How can we know for sure?

I read a book a couple years ago that took decision-making to a whole new level. It was Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath. I don’t think I’ve heard as comprehensive (or creative) a thinking process as it relates to decision-making. And the best part is that is applies to nearly all circumstances, from business (should we sue a bigger company? offer a discount on our products?) to personal (should I break up with my significant other? let my adult child move back home? buy a new TV?).

Here is a brief summary of the WRAP decision-making process the Heath brothers use:

W – Widen Your Options

The first decision-making mistake we often make is assuming a situation is binary – we chose between only two options. In reality, there are so many more possibilities.

Expand your options – Find several alternatives, not just one. Instead of deciding whether to stay or quit a job, come up with several options for making the best of a job without leaving.

Consider the opportunity cost – Determine what you give up by making a certain decision. What else could you have instead? For instance, by choosing to attend a private school, you may be choosing to not attend a public school AND buy a new car. Which would you rather have?

Benchmark – Instead of rushing out to make a decision, find someone who has already solved your problem. What did he or she do and how did it turn out? What do the experts say to do in this situation?

R – Reality-Test Your Assumptions

Once we’re leaning a certain way on a decision (and especially after we’ve made the decision), we’re often imprisoned by our confirmation bias. We want our decision to be “right,” so we look for confirmation and discount or ignore evidence to the contrary.

Consider the opposite – Look for reasons why the decision you want to make could very well be the wrong one. In other words, look at it from the standpoint of someone who disagrees completely and be willing to acknowledge the weaknesses from that side. (Maybe this could come in handy in politics).

Zoom in/out – Zoom in by asking for the real-world experience of others in the exact situation as you. (What did your friend think of the restaurant you are considering visiting?). Then zoom out by looking at the macro data (What is the overall Yelp rating for the restaurant?). Why guess when you can know?

“Ooch” – According to the Heaths, to “ooch” means to experiment on a small scale. Instead of investing tremendous effort and resources toward a decision, look for ways to test a decision before actually deciding. Hire several firms to do one project before awarding one with the big contract. Sell your pies at the farmer’s market before starting a baking business.

A – Attain Distance Before Deciding

Deciding and executing don’t need to happen at the same time. Better to take a “cooling off” period.

Overcome short-term emotion – Give yourself some time before acting on a decision. Use 10/10/10 – ask yourself how you will feel about the decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. Ask what decision your successor would make in this situation (especially for high profile ones) – or how you would advise your best friend.

Honor your core priorities – Remind yourself what is most important to you. Then consider the options in light of those priorities.

P – Prepare to Be Wrong

Being “right” about a bad decision just isn’t worth it. Politics aside, remember Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere? At least she had a jumping off point. Opt for a correctable slip up over a colossal failure.

Bookend the future – Anticipate the future given your desired course of action. If everything goes right, what will you do? If everything goes wrong, how will you respond? Ask yourself what could go wrong and improve on it.

Set a tripwire – Decide at what point you will change course. What would make a job so bad you would finally have to leave it? How much will you invest toward a failing business (or a hobby) before you throw in the towel?

We’ll never outlive the necessity to make decisions. As stressful as it can be, it is immensely rewarding as well. Decision-making is a function of leadership. The more willing we are to make decisions (and live with the consequences), the more opportunities we’ll get.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

Why Do We Even Have Core Values?

Nathan Magnuson — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 10:00:26 +0000

Most organizations have core values. Somewhere anyway. They’re usually posted on the website and probably printed on a brochure somewhere. But do people talk about them individually? Does anyone know them? Are they specific and meaningful enough to make a difference?

At the end of the day, the organization is going to do what it’s going to do, right? So maybe a better question is: why do we even have core values?

We’ve probably all come across sets of core values that were easy to make fun of or were too vague to impact anyone. But well constructed, specific core values can add tremendous benefit both to organizations and individuals. In fact, here are three ways I’ve seen this happen.

Drive Culture

Every organization is driven by a number of things. Hopefully there is a clear purpose that all stakeholders know by heart. Customer value creation ought to drive action. If your organization is a company, earning a profit ought to be at least one of the drivers. But none of these should come at the expense of core values. Each driver should align and core values should empower the organization to move forward.

Wouldn’t you prefer to work in a values-driven organizational culture? Imagine what could happen in an organization without values. A quick look at the news and you’ll see many examples.

Influence Mindsets and Behaviors

As most of us have observed, nearly every organizations have a set of core values. Sometimes they even get talked about, which a great step. But how often are they referenced or recalled? To take it a step further, how often do they invoke personal change?

If your organization has core values, they need to be part of the corporate conversation. Then you’ve got to relate them to the way people think and act in the context of everyday situations. Point out when the values were present. “Our team did a great job demonstrating ________.” Use values-oriented language to assess future work. “Here’s an opportunity for our team to demonstrate _________.”

Over time, common language begins to turn into common mindsets and common behavior.

Guide Decision-Making

In any organization, there are many leaders who operate at many levels. The temptation for new or risk-averse leaders can sometimes be to push the difficult decisions up to the next level. Once this happens enough times, the leaders at the top start wondering why they have to solve every problem and make every decision that comes their way. What’s the point of having leaders if they don’t take responsibility, they wonder.

That’s where organizational strategy comes in. That’s where training comes in. And that’s also where core values come in. These are the tools every leader ought to be able to use to make the decisions appropriate for his or her level.

Core values enhance leadership responsibility by helping to guide decision-making.

So the next time you look at your core values, ask yourself what difference they make in your organization. If that answer is “not much,” it may be time for a refresh. Or it may be time to simply speak up.

What difference do your core values make?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

The Courage to Lead

Nathan Magnuson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:00:15 +0000

The more time I spend with military and national security leaders, the more I’m convinced of the magnitude of a certain leadership quality: courage. That might not surprise you; everyone knows military service members need courage to put their lives on the line every day. There’s no debating that, but the courage I’m talking about applies to all leaders everywhere, whether your organization is made up of hundreds of thousands of people, or just a handful. Let me explain.

The Courage to Accept Responsibility

It’s not hard to find folks who are willing to accept a title, but it is pretty tough to find individuals willing to accept responsibility for the performance of a team. By definition, these leaders aren’t just accepting responsibility for themselves, but for the collective individual performance of each team member, regardless of their individual level of ability. If the team’s objectives are not achieved, the leader is the one whose neck is on the line. This is why empowering leaders are so rare; most either blame an under-performer on their team, blame changes in the environment, continually cite the need for more information (as a tactic for delaying making a decision), or micro-manage as a way to control the outcome (at the expense of the team).

The Courage to Make Tough Decisions

The larger the organization, the tougher it is to negotiate tough decisions. For many leaders, accepting risk is just too tall of a task. They would rather pass the decision – and the risk/responsibility for failure – up the ladder for the next leader to make. Eventually the executives at the top wonder why it takes so long for anything to get done and why everyone needs them to fix every little problem. Unfortunately, punishing failure (instead of promoting learning from past successes AND failures) helps to reinforce this negative behavior. Everyone makes mistakes. Making a single wrong decision rarely breaks any organization. Having the guts to make what could be a wrong decision can net an incredible amount of benefit long-term both for the organization and the individuals involved.

The Courage to Initiate Difficult Conversations

This one may require the most courage of the three. It’s human nature to shy away from difficult conversations, whether they are simply uncomfortable, intrusive, or unpopular. A team member needs to be confronted on a poor performance issue instead of shuffled through another annual review. Or a group of executives who are all in agreement need someone to speak up about the cold hard facts everyone else has been ignoring. It’s never easy to be the one to say what needs to be said when no one else is willing to say it. But the cost to the organization is great: continued poor performance, politicking, and ineffectiveness.

Fortunately, some organizations are reversing the trend by highlighting the need to lead at a new dimension counter-cultural to the status quo. And the quality their leaders must possess is not so much a skill as it is a doctrine. Courage is much more about who you are as a person and your willingness to put yourself in tough and messy situations than it is about your performance ability.

The bad news is that many organizations continue to hinder courage because they tend to reward maintaining the status quo more than they reward progress, which makes it all the more difficult to embrace. The great news is that as YOU start putting courage to use in your leadership community, you give your influence the chance to grow by leaps and bounds.

You may have the ability. Do you have the courage the lead?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.