Decision-Making Process (WRAP)
WRAP organizes decision making around widening options, reality-testing assumptions, attaining distance before deciding and preparing to be wrong. It offers practical checks against narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion and overconfidence.
THE IDEA
A decision process can help with ordinary choices as well as unusual ones. How do you decide on a job offer? How should you handle a difficult relationship? How do you choose a college, hire someone or get a better deal on a car?
The WRAP process asks you to find more options, check assumptions against reality, make choices based on core priorities and prepare for the possibility that you are wrong.
The process need not take a long time to be effective. Even if you’ve only got 45 minutes to consider an important decision, you can accomplish a lot: Run the Vanishing Options Test to see if you might be overlooking a great alternative. Call someone who’s solved your problem before. Ask yourself, What would I tell my best friend to do? (Or, if you’re at work, What would my successor do?) Gather three friends or colleagues and run a premortem.
It would be hard to find a less inspiring word in the English language than “process.” It’s like trying to get people giddy about an algorithm.
A useful process can nevertheless give you confidence that you have considered the decision carefully. Your choice may still be difficult, and it may turn out badly. But when you ask “What am I missing?” you have specific ways to investigate rather than another round of agonizing.
That preparation can also make a risk easier to take. A climber’s harness does not remove the danger, but it makes exploration possible. Similarly, considering alternatives and setting safeguards can help you act despite uncertainty.
When to use it
Evaluating a job offer or career change
Deciding whether to invest in a new business venture
Choosing a college or educational path
Resolving a difficult relationship or conflict
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Choosing a Job Offer
Instead of agonizing between two offers, use the WRAP process: Widen your options (consider a third path like negotiating a trial period). Reality-test your assumptions (talk to people who've worked in each company). Attain distance (ask what you'd tell your best friend to do). Prepare to be wrong (set up checkpoints to reassess after starting).
Making a Risky Career Move
When considering leaving a safe job to start a business, use the process to counter status quo bias. Run a premortem: Imagine the venture fails in two years—what went wrong? Then imagine it succeeds—what made it work? This helps you see both risks and opportunities clearly.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
What decision are you currently facing that could benefit from a structured process?
Think of a past decision you regretted. How might using the WRAP process have changed the outcome?
How can you incorporate a premortem into your next important decision?
Often confused with
References
- Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work — Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2013)
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Decisive How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work (Chip Heath)