heartharmony.com.au

One of my favourite debates over the years has been with people who with hand over their heart tell me how to improve my decision making – or to put it another way,  how to become more rational and logical and therefore make more effective decisions.

What neuro-psychologists and other researchers of the mind are finding is that no decision is purely rational – that there is always an aspect of irrationality or emotion that colours our decisions. That’s the reason why smart people make some really dumb choices. Yes, we can attempt to reduce the variables and reduce the impact of emotions on our decisions, but at our core there will always be a little piece of humanness that can derail our best intentions.

Dan Ariely is a behavioural economist, and his book Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions sheds light on a number of examples where our brain gets in the way of our making good logical decisions.It is a must read for any manager, business owner or just anyone interested in why they make the decisions they do.

Dan spoke at TED about some of his findings and his talk is both funny and enlightening. If you want to learn how to get people to choose an option in a subscription form, or why certain people are chosen for dates,  these are all topics that he covers in a brilliant way in his talk.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter