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<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickgray/4206389924/sizes/l/in/photostream/">flickr/nickgray</a></div>Whether it's over major business moves, career switches, or simply how to organize our days, we spend far too much time paralyzed by indecision, second guessing our decisions, and generally doing everything besides what needs to be done. 
Brothers Chip and Dan Heath (professors at Stanford and Duke respectively) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Decisive-Make-Better-Choices-Life/dp/0307956393/ref=la_B000APJJZC_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1364845176&amp;sr=1-1">recently wrote Decisive</a>, a book on overcoming that paralysis and making better choices at life and work. 
The book's major point is fairly nuanced, that confirmation <keyword id="94784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bias">bias</keyword>, emotion, and a narrow viewpoint all obstruct good <keyword id="68581" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Decision">decision</keyword> making, and that you need a certain distance and awareness of these issues to make better and quicker decisions. 
But in an interview <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/decision-making-for-the-indecisive/2013/03/28/9d8290f6-9692-11e2-9e23-09dce87f75a1_story.html">with The Washington Post's Lillian Cunningham</a>, Chip revealed that one of his favorite decision making hacks, which can help you make sure you've made the right choice, couldn't be simpler:
The closest thing to a <keyword id="100808" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="decision-making">decision-making</keyword> magic trick that I’ve found is the question, 'What would you advise your best friend to do if they were in your situation?' So often when I ask that question, people blurt out an answer and their eyes get wide. They’re shocked at how easy it is when you just imagine you’re advising someone else.
<div>
Something as simple as imagining you're making the choice for someone else whom you want to succeed can help sidestep hours or days of agonizing.
When you're been intensely engaged with all of the information and choices, it's easy to build a mental block and endlessly run through worst-case scenarios. Eventually, you have to be decisive.
</div>

How To Make Better Decisions: Pretend You're Giving Advice To A Friend

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.dailyadvance.com/node/362232">AP</a></div>The premise of legendary P&amp;G CEO A.G. Lafley's new book is that <keyword id="6363690" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="strategy">strategy</keyword> is actually pretty simple.
It should be made by answering 5 essential questions, according to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X">"Playing To Win,"</a> which Lafley co-wrote with Rotman School of Management Dean Roger Martin. 
Answering those questions requires deep knowledge of your business and market, and you have to make sure they're integrated, but the framework is extremely easy. 
People just avoid strategy <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ag-lafley-roger-martin-playing-to-win-2013-2">because they hate making real choices</a>. Hence the proliferation of advice that doesn't actually lead to anything concrete. 
"When I went on Google at 4:30 in the morning, there were 772 million business strategy references in their search engine," Lafley told Business Insider. "What Roger and I tried to do was to distill a simple but powerful approach to strategy that the two of us have seen work in 75 years of experience ... We tried to demystify this whole thing called business, distill it down to five choices for winning."
Here are Lafley and Martin's 5 essential questions every business has to be able to answer:
What is winning?
If you aren't trying to win, if you're just trying to participate, you are wasting the time of your people and the money of your investors. A company has to define its purpose strategically, decide what specific victories would lead to its ideal future. 
Where am I going to play to win?
You can't win the whole world or please everybody. Trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for failure. You have to strategically narrow the field to the geographies, demographics, and channels where your company is most competitive, and can get the best possible results. 
How am I going to win where I play?
This choice is intimately connected with the former. It's deciding how to create unique value, and how the company can deliver it over a long period to create a superior return. 
What are my core competencies that are going to enable me to win?
In order to make the above decisions work, they have to be based on and supported by the things that a company's best at. For P&amp;G, it was innovating quickly and understanding consumers. 
What management systems and measures are going to help me execute?
Strategies have to be measured and executed by people. Companies have to decide who they need, how to enable them, and how they can tell whether the strategy's succeeding. 
This framework helped Lafley make the extraordinarily difficult choice to completely change his company.
"One of the toughest choices we had to make was to abandon and eventually divest all of our food and beverage businesses, Lafley said. "We divested 7 or 8 billion dollars worth of leading food and beverage brands, the Folgers coffee brand, number one in America and Canada, the Pringles chips brand number 2 to Frito-Lay, the Jif peanut butter brand, the Crisco shortening and oils brand, number one." 
They did it because though they were profitable businesses, they weren't ones Lafley saw as winners in the long term, or where the business could continue to grow and win. 
 We chose for good strategic reasons to abandon and get out of those businesses so we could invest our resources, primarily our people but also our cash, in businesses like home care, personal care, beauty care and health care, all of which looked strategically more attractive." 
All of the above questions played a role in the <keyword id="68581" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Decision">decision</keyword> to divest; these were areas in which P&amp;G could win, Lafley said. "They were demographically more attractive, they were structurally more attractive, lower capital, higher margin, and frankly they were better fit with our core competencies, deep understanding of consumers, the creation of known brands, and innovation, they were just a better fit with where we wanted to go and where we were going."
It's a simple 5-step framework that's robust enough to make an $8 billion dollar decision. 
Find the full book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X">here</a>.

P&G's Ex-CEO Used A 5-Step Formula To Make Billion Dollar Decisions

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://decisionmakerbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dennis-Bakke-e1355947988613.jpg">decisionmakerbook.com/press-kit</a></div>Today's <keyword id="70503" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="advice">advice</keyword> comes from <keyword id="1779296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dennis-Bakke">Dennis Bakke</keyword>, CEO of <a href="http://www.imagineschools.com/">Imagine Schools</a>, via his soon-to-be-published book <a href="http://decisionmakerbook.com/">The Decision Maker</a>: 
"Decisions have consequences — and decision-makers should be held accountable for theirs. At the same time nobody is right all the time. The most important part of any decision is that the decision-maker fully engages with the advice process, not just that he or she gets it 'right.' " 
Bakke believes that when it comes to making decisions, advice from others must be welcomed. If great minds think alike, then decisions shouldn't be left for one individual to make on their own. After all, when great ideas are combined, you lay the groundwork for better ones to flourish.
"The advice process isn't just about getting the right answer. It's about building a strong team and creating a process of communication that will improve all decisions in a company."
Want your business advice featured in <keyword id="1737653" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Instant-MBA">Instant MBA</keyword>? Submit your tips to <a href="mailto:tipoftheday@businessinsider.com">tipoftheday@businessinsider.com</a>. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.

INSTANT MBA: Decision-Making Is A Group Effort

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanfischer/2531469690/sizes/o/in/photostream/">flickr/jordanfischer</a></div></div>Last night, P&amp;G <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pg-ceo-bob-mcdonald-retires-2013-5">unexpectedly announced</a> that current CEO Bob McDonald was retiring, and that his predecessor, A.G. Lafley, would replace him.
<a href="https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3APG&amp;ei=18ufUZj6KOiy0AGbIQ">P&amp;G shares rose</a> 4% today on the news. 
Though <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/24/us-procter-ceo-call-idUSBRE94N0G420130524?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=businessNews">the company's CFO said</a> the <keyword id="68581" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Decision">decision</keyword> was just about Robert McDonald deciding to retire (at 59) and that there won't be any dramatic strategic shifts, there's a reason activist investor Bill Ackman pushed for a change. 
<div><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/140603970/A-Rising-Tide-is-a-Good-Gamble-Ira-Sohn-Conference-2013-Bill-Ackman">Ackman argued at a presentation</a> at the Ira Sohn Conference, that the company was "vastly under-earning" due to an inability to win in emerging markets, a poor organizational structure, marketing problems, and bloated overhead. </div>
Lafley, an in-house legend who increased company value by $100 billion during his past tenure, has his work cut out for him.
We spoke to Lafley a few months ago after the release of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X">his book, "Playing To Win,"</a> about why some executives and companies fail at <keyword id="6363690" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="strategy">strategy</keyword>. 
He argues that business fail when they don't make difficult choices about where and how they can win particular markets and put the full weight of the business behind them. 
P&amp;G's current restructuring and cost cutting program is not going quick enough for investors. During his time at P&amp;G, Lafley <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578501673304380076.html">cut more jobs</a> than any previous CEO, sold off the company's hugely valuable food brands, and carried out a $57 billion acquisition of Gillette. With Lafley, strategy isn't about small choices. 
Here are some of his key insights:
On when things go wrong
"When we made mistakes, when we had our failures, when we weren't delivering results that we were capable, almost there was almost always one of two problems. Either we had lost our connection with our consumer and what they wanted, needed, and valued, or our strategy needed to be changed because something had changed in the marketplace and we hadn't responded." 
Companies go halfway and don't fully develop a strategy
"This is probably most common at Fortune 500 companies. They do part of the strategy job, but they don't do the whole thing. What do I mean by that? They have a vision or a mission, they might go out and do industry, company and competitor analysis, they might even put together an annual plan and budget. Those are parts of strategy, or they're the output of strategy but they're not strategy."
So what's the solution? According to Lafley, it's about making difficult and specific choices, and putting the entire weight of a business behind them.
"Strategy is five choices," Lafley said. "What is winning; where am I going to play to win; how am I going to win where I play; where are my core competencies that are going to enable me to win where I play; and what <keyword id="13778" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Management">management</keyword> systems and measures are going to help me execute my strategies?"
Making tough decisions is essential
"A lot of human beings, don't like to make choices. Choices are difficult, we want to keep our options open, choices involve taking risks, and not only risk to the business but personal risk. So I think there's this sort of human resistance to making choices, and choices are the core of strategy."
People don't like thinking strategy, and focus on execution
"The second thing that goes on is I think that some people, maybe too many people ust don't like thinking strategy. They think that they know what their product and service is, they think that it's all about execution. 'If I execute better than the next guy, I'm going to win.' But the problem is that execution without the direction of a strategy is all over the place. You might win occasionally but you're probably not going to win consistently, reliably or sustainably."
When you need to, cut even successful brands
"One of the toughest choices we had to make was to abandon and eventually divest all of our food and beverage businesses, Lafley said. "We divested 7 or 8 billion dollars worth of leading food and beverage brands, the Folgers coffee brand, number one in America and Canada, the Pringles chips brand number 2 to Frito-Lay, the Jif peanut butter brand, the Crisco brand, number one." 
They did it because though they were profitable businesses, they weren't ones Lafley saw as winners in the long term, or where the business could continue to grow and win. 
"We chose for good strategic reasons to abandon and get out of those businesses so we could invest our resources," Lafley said, "primarily our people but also our cash, in businesses like home care, personal care, beauty care and health care, all of which looked strategically more attractive." 
All of the above questions played a role in the decision to divest; these were areas in which P&amp;G could win, Lafley said. "They were demographically more attractive, they were structurally more attractive, lower capital, higher margin, and frankly they were better fit with our core competencies, deep understanding of consumers, the creation of known brands, and innovation."

Here's Why Wall Street Loves The Return Of P&G's Old CEO

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Annie Duke is a decision strategist, <keyword id="23385" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Poker">poker</keyword> champion, and bestselling author of "Thinking in Bets."</li><li>Her new book, "HOW TO DECIDE: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices," looks at how to make better <keyword id="74086" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="decisions">decisions</keyword>.</li><li>In it, Duke uses her expertise in poker and cognitive psychology to create a framework for making tough and overwhelming decisions rationally and strategically.</li><li>She shares a contrary perspective on the power of negative thinking when it comes to preparing for and addressing failure before it happens and why it's the key to success.</li></ul>Everybody remembers the scene from "Star Wars" when Darth Vader uses the Force to nearly choke to death the commander of the Death Star. Vader's understated line, "I find your lack of faith disturbing," made the scene so famous, but it also overshadowed a neat twist on an entire genre of self-help literature, the power of <keyword id="85982" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Positive-Thinking">positive thinking</keyword>.Measured by popularity, if the body of positive thinking literature were a movie franchise, it would be the equivalent of "Star Wars." Positive thinking was a self-help force back in the 1950s, when Norman Vincent Peale was close friends with Eisenhower and Nixon. It was an empire in the 1970s, when Peale officiated Donald Trump's first wedding. In the twenty-first century, it reawakened with books like "The Secret."<div type="image" title="HOW TO DECIDE_cover image" height="904" width="730" msid="78622605" hostid="261"></div>An explicit part of the positive-thinking literature is that imagining success will cause (or help) you to succeed. Implied — and occasionally explicitly stated — is that if you imagine failure, that will cause (or lead) you to fail. "The Secret" goes so far as to offer the causal mechanism for this relationship between thoughts and outcomes: Your thoughts have a magnetism that attracts the things you imagine to you. Imagine your partner proposing and it will happen. Imagine getting caught in a traffic jam and that, too, will happen (pro-tip: That's just wacky).Darth Vader's force-choke demonstrated a contrarian point of view: the power of negative thinking. And not just literally. Vader choked the commander for insisting that Vader's obsession with retrieving the stolen plans to the Death Star was a waste of time because the Death Star was impenetrable.What Vader was really doing was choking the guy for being a cheerleader for the power of positive thinking.Vader understood the power of negative thinking — that combing over the plans to imagine how the Empire might fail against the rebels, was the (actual) secret to success. (That was, of course, exactly how the rebels succeeded. They combed over the plans to find a single vulnerable point that Luke Skywalker launched a missile into, destroying the Death Star.)The broad decision lesson? If someone can make you fail by combing over your plans, you should be combing over your own plans in the same way.<h2>Premortems: Waze for your decision making</h2>Think about it like this. Would you be better off planning a route using an old paper map or an app like Waze? The paper map shows clear roads and no obstacles. Waze looks ahead to see where there is heavy traffic, road closures, or an accident, helping you navigate around the obstacles in your path. If you want to create success, that seems more sensible than using a paper map.What you need is Waze for decision making. You need a tool that harnesses the power of negative thinking to help you imagine the ways you might fail to achieve your goals in order to address those obstacles before you encounter them.A premortem is just such a tool.We usually conduct post-mortems, examining the patient after they've died to figure out why — or, in the business sense, trying to figure out why a decision failed after the fact. Of course, by then it's too late to prevent the failure.Wouldn't it be better to examine the patient before they've died? Premortems allow you to do just that. When you conduct a premortem, you imagine a future in which you have failed to achieve a goal or a decision has worked out poorly, and look back from that future to identify why that failure occurred. Research shows that this fresh perspective <a href="https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem">helps identify 30% more obstacles</a> that might lie in your path, allowing you to more successfully navigate your way to your goals.When you do a post-mortem you've already experienced the failure — you're already stuck in traffic — and now all you can do is how to deal with it and, possibly, figure out what you can learn from it. By doing a pre-mortem, you can spot the obstacle in advance, you can see the traffic before you get caught in it, allowing you to choose another route or leave extra time.You can't rewrite the past. That's the limitation of post-mortems. Pre-mortems allow you to rewrite the future.<h2>Addressing obstacles you've identified</h2>There are three main strategies that will help you prepare for and address those points of failure once you know they might stand between you and your goals. <ol><li>Identify choices and behaviors that will stymie your plans, then figure out ways to discourage making those losing decisions. If you are trying to eat healthier, a premortem might identify a likely point of failure — the break room. The break room is often filled with free junk food that you'll have trouble resisting. Having identified that obstacle, you can commit to avoiding the break room altogether. Or you can do something as simple as declaring to a coworker that you are trying to eat healthier to create accountability and increase friction on your way to the breakroom. You can also decrease friction by packing your lunch, keeping your desk stocked with healthy snacks, or by scouting the healthiest choices near your office and keeping those menus handy.</li><li>Avoid emotional reactions to negative developments. When things don't turn out as we'd hoped, the emotional parts of the brain get activated and we all know the types of decisions we make in that kind of emotional state are rarely good ones. Poker players call this going on tilt. In the wake of bad outcomes, we can all get emotional, increasing the chance we compound the problem by making bad decisions in reaction to the downturn. A pre-mortem gives you the chance to create an advance plan for how you'll deal with an obstacle when you encounter it. Planning ahead means that you are not only better prepared for those downturns but you are also less likely to go on tilt. It switches your mindset from, "I can't believe this happened" to, "I knew this was a possibility and I already have a plan."</li><li>Identify hedges. A hedge is something that you can pay for that mitigates the cost of encountering a potential obstacle. Buying fire insurance is a hedge. Paying for a tent to be set up in case of rain at your outdoor wedding is a hedge. A premortem reveals the bad luck that might lie in your path and frustrate your success. Having revealed that bad luck, you can actively look for ways to hedge against it.</li></ol>I'm not recommending Darth Vader's leadership style. Force-choking your employees is going to get you a lot of HR complaints. But as he rightly pointed out, imagining failure is actually the road to success. Be more like Darth Vader and less like Norman Vincent Peale. Whatever downsides there were to Darth Vader's leadership style, when it came to negative thinking he actually had it right.<div type="image" title="Annie Duke Headshot" height="3600" width="5400" msid="78622609" hostid="261"></div>Annie Duke is an author, corporate speaker, and consultant in the <keyword id="100808" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="decision-making">decision-making</keyword> space. Annie's book, "Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts" is a national bestseller. As a former professional poker player, Annie won more than $4 million in tournament poker before retiring from the game in 2012. Prior to becoming a professional player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Annie is the cofounder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is also a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute. In 2020, she joined the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative.

A poker champion says negative thinking can actually fuel success when it comes to decision-making — here's how

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="578885" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ray-Dalio">Ray Dalio</keyword> is tweeting advice on how you can make better decisions in life and work.</li><li>He advises people to think like Picasso: Move away from irrelevant detail.</li><li>We summarized Dalio's 4-part advice below.</li></ul>One of the factors that tends to unite those that have reached the very top of their game is how they approach making decisions - both in the short and long term.There is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/decision-fatigue-and-productive-mornings-2015-4">limited number of decisions that anyone can make in a day</a>, something psychologists term "decision fatigue". Apple cofounder Steve Jobs famously limited his wardrobe choice, choosing to wear the same black jumper and jeans everyday, to try and stave off decision fatigue.And Amazon's founder and now space chief Jeff Bezos once said that he only expects himself to make three good decisions a day - and also to get them all done before lunch time.Ray Dalio, the one of the world's most successful investors, has his own insights into decision making.Hailed by many as one of the most innovative investors of the modern age, Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975. Bridgewater has grown to manage $150 billion worth of assets, giving Dalio a personal fortune of an estimated $20.3 billion, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ray-dalio/?sh=4e3a4f44663a">Forbes</a>. His 2017 book "<keyword id="6793753" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="principles">Principles</keyword>: Life and Work" - in which Dalio offers his perspective on <keyword id="21796" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="success">success</keyword>, leadership and growing a business - is a New York Times bestseller. He reposts daily nuggets of wisdom, many from the book, to his 714,400 Twitter and 2 million LinkedIn followers under the hashtag #Principleoftheday. His recent tweets focus on making decisions, some specifically in relation to <keyword id="6354910" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="careers">careers</keyword>.All of the principles have been posted on his social media before, but remain helpful reminders nonetheless. <h2>1. Favor simplicity</h2><div type="image" title="Pablo Picasso " height="1988" width="2651" msid="85242226" hostid="261"></div>Dalio's latest thread, posted August 10, urges followers to simplify how they think about their life and career. "Get rid of irrelevant details so that the essential things and the relationships between them stand out," wrote Dalio who goes on to quote a popular proverb, commonly and perhaps mistakenly attributed to both Albert Einstein and the singer Peter Seeger.Pointing to Picasso, Dalio added: "He could paint beautiful representational paintings from an early age, but he continually pared down and simplified as his career progressed."Not everyone can think this way, but that shouldn't stop people from trying: "Just because you can't do something naturally doesn't mean you can't do it - you just have to have creativity and determination. If necessary, you can seek the help of others."<h2>2. Choose the great over the new </h2>Dalio also looked at the lens through which you should view a decision, like a short-term call."New is overvalued relative to great," he wrote. Dalio said when making a simple decision, like which movie to watch or book to read, to consider whether you're drawn to proven classics or the newest thing."In my opinion, it is smarter to choose the great over the new," he said.<h2>3. Your habits frame success</h2>Dalio's third principle, posted on August 8, refers to habits. They define your success - so choose them wisely. "If you do just about anything frequently enough over time, you will form a habit that will control you," he wrote."Good habits are those that get you to do what your "upper-level you" wants, and bad habits are those that are controlled by your "lower-level you"..." and stand in the way of your getting what your "upper-level you" wants." If you understand how this part of your brain works, you can form better habits, Dalio added.<h2>4. Radical transparency and personality tests are important </h2>Among Dalio's many management principles is the concept of radical transparency which encourages open and honest dialogue between colleagues and managers. Dalio recently developed a Zoom app based on the concept, designed to enable people to give their colleagues instant feedback - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ray-dalio-instant-feedback-tool-on-zoom-review-dots-2021-7">several members of Insider's careers desk gave "Dots Collector" a go</a>, and found that it was not for the faint of heart.While not everyone is convinced by their efficacy, Dalio is also a proponent of personality assessments, believing they can be useful in helping a person identify and shape for their strengths and weaknesses. He launched <a href="https://principlesyou.com/">his own free-to-use assessment in April</a>, after two years of development.

Hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio lays out 4 steps to making better decisions - and says think like Picasso

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanfischer/2531469690/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Flickr</a></div>Former P&amp;G CEO A.G. Lafley was one of the most successful executives in the history of the 176-year-old company. Under Lafley, the company's value increased by more than $100 billion, and more than doubled its roster of billion-dollar brands. 
In his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X">upcoming book, "Playing To Win,"</a> which was co-written with Rotman School Of <keyword id="13778" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Management">Management</keyword> Dean Roger Martin and was released today, Lafley breaks down the strategic framework that he used throughout his time at the top, which he says can be applied to a company of any size.
There are countless books, articles, and courses on <keyword id="6363690" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="strategy">strategy</keyword>. So why do people continue to get it wrong? We spoke to Lafley, who told Business Insider that there are three primary reasons. 
Businesses and people don't like to make choices
"In Roger Martin's and my view, the essence of strategy is making 5 integrated — sometimes difficult — choices; so 5 choices to win. And a lot of us, a lot of human beings, don't like to make choices, right? Choices are difficult, we want to keep our options open, choices involve taking risks, and not only risk to the business but personal risk. So I think there's this sort of human resistance to making choices, and choices are the core of strategy."
People don't like thinking strategy, and focus on execution
"The second thing that goes on is I think that some people, maybe too many people, at for-profit, not-for-profit, small, medium and large businesses just don't like thinking strategy. They think that they know what their product and service is, they think that it's all about execution. 'If I execute better than the next guy, I'm going to win.' But the problem is that execution without the direction of a strategy, without the choices of a strategy, is all over the place. You might win occasionally but you're probably not going to win consistently, reliably or sustainably."
Companies go halfway and don't fully develop a strategy
"This is probably most common at Fortune 500 companies. They do part of the strategy job, but they don't do the whole thing. What do I mean by that? They have a vision or a mission, they might go out and do industry, company and competitor analysis, they might even put together an annual plan and budget. Those are parts of strategy, or they're the output of strategy but they're not strategy."
So what's the solution? According to Lafley, it's about making difficult and specific choices, and putting the entire weight of a business behind them.
"Strategy is five choices," Lafley said. "What is winning; where am I going to play to win; how am I going to win where I play; where are my core competencies that are going to enable me to win where I play; and what management systems and measures are going to help me execute my strategies?"
Companies have to define an ideal future in strategic terms, limit the field rather than try to please everybody, decide on the best strategy for that market, discover and use what they're best at, and determine how to support and measure its people as they carry out the strategy.
Especially in a large organization, that can't be done by one person. It has to become a part of the culture and thinking of the company.
"What we were really trying to accomplish at P&amp;G was to help our managers and leaders become better thinkers and better doers, better strategists and better leaders," Lafley said. "The last thing I wanted to do was sit in my office and try to make strategy choices for 25 to 30 different industries in 90 different countries around the world. That made no sense, I wasn't qualified to do it, I wasn't capable of doing it. So what I wanted to do was help my managers and my leaders [who are] responsible for those businesses, those geographies and those brands, become better strategic choice-makers."
Strategy doesn't work unless everyone's aware of it, working together, and willing to make tough choices to support it. 
Find the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X">here</a>.
NOW READ: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/career-advice-from-top-executives-2013-1">28 Top Executives Share What They Look For In Hires</a>

P&G's Legendary Ex-CEO Explains Why Everyone Gets Strategy Wrong

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><keyword id="794843" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Change-org">Change.org</keyword></div></div>If someone offered you a job where you could change the world, would you jump at it? What if you had to give up a great job at Google?
That was Jen Dulski's dilemma when Change.org recruited her.
Most people in the Valley know Jen Dulski from her long career as an Internet tech executive. She was one of Yahoo's first 500 employees and was later acqu-hired by Google when it bought her startup, Dealmap, in 2011.
In January, Dulski left Google to become chief operating officer at Internet petition site Change.org.
But what you may not know is that Dulski actually started her career as a high school teacher and an activist. In 1993, well before joining Yahoo, she founded a non-profit called Summerbridge Pittsburgh to help under-privileged kids go to college. It's <a href="http://www.sewickley.org/page.cfm?p=299">still going strong today.</a>
When Change.org called her, she saw the job as "a perfect way to combine both of my passions, scaling successful Internet companies and making the world a better place," she told Business Insider.
Even so, it was a difficult decision to leave a lucrative position at Google.
"I also have two daughters so it's not just me and my decision but a decision that affects our whole family," she says.
The tipping point was a conversation with her mom who was concerned about the new job in part because Change.org members tackle controversial issues. "There's a certain level of risk," in the world of <keyword id="761056" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Activism">activism</keyword>, she says.
"I could hear myself trying to win her over. And the fact that I was trying to convince her that this was a good idea, gave me the signal that I really thought this was a good idea," she says. One way "you can tell if you really want to do something, or not, is the way you describe it to other people."
That might just be the best tip ever on how to make a tough decision.
A few facts about Change.org:
<ul>
<li>Change.org is a for-profit <a href="http://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps">"B corporation</a>," meaning it's been certified as a socially responsible company.</li>
<li>Since January, registered users have doubled from 20 million to 40 million. It's growing by about 3 million users per month.</li>
<li>It makes money by selling ads. It also lets organizations "sponsor" petitions where users can opt to share their email address with the sponsor.</li>
<li>In May <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130521/change-org-raises-15m-from-omidyar-network-while-committing-to-never-sell-or-ipo/">it took its first investment, </a>$15 million mostly from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam's philanthropic venture firm Omidyar Network.</li>
</ul>

Change.org's Jen Dulski Shares The Best Advice On Making A Tough Decision

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:388px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html"></a></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulisrael/4132622506/">Paul Israel via flickr </a></div>Americans make 70 different <keyword id="185551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Choices">choices</keyword> a day on average, so it's easy to see why some people can be indecisive.
Columbia <keyword id="6355515" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Business">Business</keyword> School Professor Sheena Iyengar gave a <keyword id="66322" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="TED">TED</keyword> talk about <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html">how to make choosing easier.</a> 
The choices you make affect your purchases, your work, your business, and your saving and financial habits.
With so many decisions taking time out of consumers' and business owners' already busy schedules, a larger problem emerges: choice overload. 
Here are the reasons why having too many choices is a bad thing.

Cutting Down On Choice Is The Best Way To Make Better Decisions

New Delhi, About 66 percent <keyword id="56152" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Single-women">single women</keyword> say that they do not make their own financial decisions and 28 per cent depend on their fathers, reveals a new survey, adding that mere 5 per cent women said they depend on their mothers for money matters. The findings are from the LXME Survey 2020, which interviewed 1,250 women aged between 25-54, across cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mangalore, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkata, Indore, and Hyderabad, to assess money-related attitudes among women who were either single, married, or married with kids. When it came to married women, the number of women not making <keyword id="10397095" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="independent-financial-decisions">independent financial decisions</keyword> increased to 69 per cent with the fathers being replaced by husbands or joint decision making. Unfortunately, the dependency keeps increasing as women have children with eventually only 24 per cent making decisions independently. Also, the rise in husbands making all decisions saw an increase from 17 per cent to 33 per cent. A key takeaway here is that a woman's <keyword id="687914" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="marital-status">marital status</keyword> and motherhood influences her money decision-making status. As women evolve in their life stages, they become less independent in taking money decisions. Do they prefer to share the responsibility or pass it on? It is evident they do not depend on their mothers for money matters, it is either their fathers or spouses. <keyword id="961356" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-conditioning">Social conditioning</keyword> here plays an important role in shaping women's outlook towards <keyword id="25456" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-planning">financial planning</keyword>, says LXME, a financial planning platform for women. Additionally, only 7 per cent of the women surveyed mentioned their moms as financial decision-makers while 66 per cent of them said they do not make financial decisions. Yet, 91 per cent women teach their kids about money while 86 per cent said they inculcate good money habits in their kids. Almost 9 in 10 women have given their kids a piggy bank to save money. Ironically, only 24 per cent of these women actually take independent money decisions. Women form the early habits, but fathers become the role model for financial decision making, notes the survey. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/top-stocks-to-watch-ril-maruti-suzuki-nmdc-sbi-ongc-eicher-motors-likhitha-infrastructure-tata-consumer-and-others/articleshow/79600409.cms">Top stocks to watch — RIL, Maruti Suzuki, NMDC, SBI, ONGC, Eicher Motors, Likhitha Infrastructure, Tata Consumer, and others</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/petrol-is-less-than-a-rupee-away-from-being-more-expensive-than-it-has-ever-been-for-indian-consumers/articleshow/79601841.cms">Petrol is less than a rupee away from being more expensive than it has ever been for Indian consumers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/top-stock-movers-ongc-hdfc-bank-nmdc-pfizer-spicejet-indigo-irctc-tata-chemicals-and-others/articleshow/79602525.cms">Top stock movers — ONGC, HDFC Bank, NMDC, Pfizer, SpiceJet, IndiGo, IRCTC, Tata Chemicals, and others</a>

66% single women do not make own financial decisions, new survey reveals

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><a href="http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/detail/359369412249240370_272384207">jujunosh/statigr.am</a></div></div>There's a fine line between calling positive attention to yourself at work and seeming like a braggart.
In the business world, you need to learn how to walk this line or risk limiting your chances of success.
In her new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Essentials-Business-Etiquette-Success/dp/0071811265">"The Essentials Of Business Etiquette,</a>" Barbara Pachter offers six suggestion to promoting yourself successfully:
<h2>1. Be visible </h2>
"Get involved at your company. Join any company clubs or activities that interest you. Use the work gym, if there is one. Volunteer for assignments. Offer to make presentations, and volunteer to train others."
There's a simple reason that being visible is important: If you're at the forefront of your boss' mind, he'll think about you when there's an opening in the company. Visibility also makes you seem available and approachable, meaning you'll have more chances to discuss your accomplishments and responsibilities with others.
<h2>2. Enter competitions and apply for awards</h2>
"A lot of people avoid doing this — they say it’s too self-serving. Yet, winning awards is a way for people who know you, but especially those who don’t know you, to find out about your talents. It builds your credibility. And make sure you promote your successes."
Many of us were taught to be humble so entering competitions and applying for awards seems like we're telling the world we're great. However, in a professional setting, you do have to tell everyone that you're great or they might never know.
<h2>3. Post your accomplishments on your social-media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter)</h2>
"However, be careful not to mention the same accomplishment over and over. You can overdo it and make yourself sound like a braggart. There is a balance. You must speak of other things, not just about what you do well."
A trick to this is to thank other people for your award on your social media accounts. This way, you're not announcing your accomplishments outright, even though you're mentioning them by thanking others.
<h2>4. Have a prepared self-introduction</h2>
"You may find yourself in situations in which you have to introduce yourself. Being prepared will allow you to be comfortable speaking about yourself. Make sure you say your full name and add a few brief comments about yourself."
Have your story prepared ahead of time because you'll have to repeatedly tell others this story for the rest of your professional life. Be able to discuss your passions and career goals with confidence.
<h2>5. When asked, do tell</h2>
"If someone asks you how you are doing at work, it is your opportunity to mention your accomplishments. Without going into too much detail, tell the person about any recent promotions, new projects, additional responsibilities, and so on."
This is also a great time to discuss any new projects or positions you want to try out in the future. This way, you will be remembered if an opportunity does come up.
<h2>6. Weave your accomplishments into conversation, when appropriate</h2>
"For example, when I talk in seminars about how men tend to interrupt more than women during meetings, I mention comments from my seminar participants in Oman, in the Middle East. These remarks add to the discussion, and they also highlight my international experience."
Always start small and subtle when weaving your accomplishments into conversations. You can ask your boss for help or seek advice from others. This way, you're letting them know what you're working on without actually screaming that you're a superstar.

How To Toot Your Own Horn At Work Without Seeming Obnoxious

LinkedIn recently published a series featuring a wide range of things that can provide <keyword id="6387628" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Inspiration">inspiration</keyword>.
In the series titled "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/channels/inspiration?trk=tod3-chn-cta">What Inspires Me,</a>" LinkedIn Influencers shared what keeps them working, from a harsh rejection they received at the beginning of their career to the hard-working people they see every day in the office.
The people who didn't believe in her
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723111146-1291685-what-inspires-me-please-tell-me-i-can-t?trk=cha-feed-art-title">Naomi Simson, founder of RedBalloon</a>, will never forget the pet name given to her by classmates during college: "Num" because it rhymes with "dumb."
"I had an idea that I was not the smartest academic in class – and that there were definitely cleverer students on campus. In fact my own father said to me as I was finishing my degree: 'Just in case your university education does not get you a job – let me send you on a touch-typing course, at least you will have that to fall back on.'"
"At some point I said to myself 'you just wait – I will show you, I will be a success.' I have never thought that people took me seriously. It is as if my need to 'prove' myself has fueled my relentless pursuit to create a best work place, for growth and for being 'world-famous' for what we do. To show all those people that said to me 'you can't' – that in fact I can."
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723111146-1291685-what-inspires-me-please-tell-me-i-can-t?trk=cha-feed-art-title">LinkedIn</a></div></div>
Game-changing people
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130722225611-204068115-what-inspires-me-game-changing-people-everywhere?trk=cha-hero-art-title">Richard Branson is inspired</a> by something Steve Jobs once said: "The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
"My professional inspiration has no separation from my personal inspiration: it is people who will stop at nothing to make a positive difference to other people's lives," Branson writes. "I am fortunate to come across quite a few of these game-changing people, and the desire to help (and keep up with them!) is what drives me.'"
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130722225611-204068115-what-inspires-me-game-changing-people-everywhere?trk=cha-hero-art-title">LinkedIn</a></div></div>
A harsh rejection letter
In the winter of 1976, CNBC's Herb Greenberg interviewed for a job with the Detroit Free Press, but was <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130722225531-29478030-what-inspires-me-there-is-no-greater-motivator-than-rejection">rejected because the city editor believed</a> the newspaper could find "somebody better."
"Those words inspired one of those, 'Well, I’ll show them!' moments. Being told 'we can find somebody better' is crushing. But at the same time, those words resonate and continually inspire me."
"I keep that memory in my hip pocket and pull it out whenever anybody questions or criticizes my work — or whenever I feel I’m stepping out of my professional comfort zone."
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image">Screenshot CNBC</div></div>
Dreaming the Disney way
BuzzFeed's Jon Steinberg was once a high school intern at Walt Disney Imagineering and hasn't stopped <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723111003-900547-what-inspires-me-it-was-all-started-by-a-mouse?trk=cha-hero-art-title">dreaming on building the impossible</a> since then.
"When I'm faced with a challenge or a project that seems too large, I swivel my desk chair and look at the picture of Walt or my badge from my days at Imagineering: It makes me realize that anything can be built, and that decades ago, people with far less technology built things that seem even daunting even today. One day at a time, brick by brick, anything can be built."
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723111003-900547-what-inspires-me-it-was-all-started-by-a-mouse?trk=cha-hero-art-title">LinkedIn</a>Jon Steinberg's old Disney badge continues to inspire him.</div></div>
Reading 200 books each year
"Reading has been my favorite pastime since my earliest memory, and in my adult years books have become some of my greatest inspirations," says Twitter head of social innovation Claire Diaz-Ortiz. "I read more than more than <a href="http://clairediazortiz.com/about/what-im-reading-150-books-in-2013/" target="_blank">200 books a year</a>, and most of these books are non-fiction. Business, inspiration, and leadership top the charts in terms of what I spend most of my time reading, and I the reason I put so much of my energy into reading these particular categories is because books in this genre, again and again, have changed the way I think."
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image">YouTube</div></div>
Doing something unsafe
While on a "solid promotion track within academic health care administration" in the 1990s, Steven J. Thompson followed a <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723113539-37102839-what-inspires-me-doing-something-unsafe?trk=cha-feed-art-title">unexpected opportunity in the emerging biotech sector in Singapore</a>, which he knew nothing about. It worked out, and today he is the senior vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine and runs Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
"What the leader who gave me the assignment knew, and that I didn’t, is that people with leadership potential often don’t discover it and tap into it until they are faced with a truly difficult challenge, one that pulls them out of their comfort zone and makes failure a real option."
<div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/international/about/leadership/steven_thompson_ceo.html">Screenshot courtesy of hopkinsmedecine.org</a></div></div></div>
The curiosity of his co-workers
"<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723103214-205519992-what-inspires-me-the-curiosity-of-my-coworkers?trk=tod-posts-art-">Curiosity is not found on the resume</a>," says Bloomberg anchor Tom Keene. " You have to drag it out somewhere between the first and fifth interview. You would be surprised at the low pass/fail rate on curiosity."
<div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723103214-205519992-what-inspires-me-the-curiosity-of-my-coworkers?trk=tod-posts-art-">LinkedIn</a></div></div></div>
Donald Trump
VC <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130723111710-10878085-what-inspires-me-donald-trump-really?trk=cha-feed-art-title">Richard A. Moran says</a> that a "consistent and reliable source of inspiration" for him is Donald Trump.
"On the one hand he is a bold decision maker and risk taker. He is clear in his communications and uses the media in ways others wish they could. All good. His success could be a source of inspiration and should be considered. But there is that other hand. As a CEO and leader, Donald Trump inspires me to behave in the opposite ways he behaves."
<div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">Getty Images</div></div></div>
Flawed people
Shane Snow, co-founder of Contently, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130722225542-7374576-what-inspires-me-flawed-people-and-underdogs?trk=cha-hero-art-title">isn't inspired by Superman</a>, because "he can't lose" and "that's not inspiring."
"Personally, I'm inspired by people who overcome bad fortune or circumstance to fulfill their dreams. Professionally, I'm inspired by people and businesses that do incredible things despite glaring flaws or environmental disadvantages," Snow writes.
"I like flawed people and underdogs. They can't just work hard to overcome their obstacles, they have to work hard and smart. And that leads to amazing things."
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acHvrObN08Q">Mashable/YouTube</a></div></div>

9 Sources Of Inspiration For Highly Successful People

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://live.wsj.com/video/ryder-chief-toughest-part-of-being-ceo/E0395E37-C3BA-40DD-884B-932B7805AEE2.html#!E0395E37-C3BA-40DD-884B-932B7805AEE2">Screenshot/WSJ</a></div></div>There's a downside to being at the very top of the food chain: you have no boss.
In a recent <a href="http://live.wsj.com/video/ryder-chief-toughest-part-of-being-ceo/E0395E37-C3BA-40DD-884B-932B7805AEE2.html#!E0395E37-C3BA-40DD-884B-932B7805AEE2" target="_blank">video interview</a> with the Wall Street Journal, Robert Sanchez, the CEO of transport and supply management company Ryder, discusses how the biggest challenge of his first year in office was having no superior.
"Throughout my entire career, I've always had somebody to go to when I have a decision or something that I'm working on," he explains. "And when you're the CEO, people come to you, and you have to work with those groups and learn that the buck stops with you."
Sanchez says the transition was "unsettling" at first but that he's adjusted in recent months. He also notes that he's always made a point of pushing himself beyond his comfort zone. In his 20 years at Ryder, he's held 14 or 15 different jobs that all taught him new skills.
"In each of them I learned a lot," he says. "I was forced into <keyword id="34454" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="leadership">leadership</keyword> positions and into situations that I had to learn quickly something new about the business, and I think that helped me grow."

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