Use advice from best-selling authors Chip and Dan Heath in the Inc.com article “4 Tactics to Make Smarter Decisions” to improve your decision-making process and lead to better business outcomes. Recent data shows that poor decision making is rampant in business, but why? The Heaths believe it’s all about the process. One problem the Heaths point to is that people tend to “draw conclusions from whatever facts are illuminated rather than looking at the problem from other angles.” Here are the Heaths’ suggestions:

1. Widen your options. A Carnegie Mellon study of 168 business decisions found that in only 29% did the decision maker consider more than one option. Obviously considering multiple options increases your chances of success, but another reason it’s so important is because it reduces the chance that you will “rationalize away all the flaws” in the first idea. If you can’t think of more than one option, try the “vanishing options test.” “Imagine a genie makes your top option vanish,” Chip says. “What else can you do?”
2. Add distance before you decide. Avoid getting too caught up in short-term results. Try using the “10-10-10” rule: Consider the ramifications 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years down the road.
3. Prepare to be wrong. Overconfidence often leads to bad decisions because people tend to underestimate the broad range of possible outcomes. Make sure to consider the worst-case scenarios before coming to a decision.
4. Set tripwires.  “Wise decision-makers set alarms that go off when critical factors change,” Dan says. “As a result, they are never blindsided.”

Click here to read the entire article from Inc.com.