Welcome to my new website dedicated to the AREA Method. Each month in this space I will write about my work as a consultant, journalist and teacher, how the AREA Method has played out for others and about research articles that discuss aspects of decision making, process, cognitive biases, learning, perspective-taking and more.
Why spend time on decision-making? Because even though on any given day we make around 35,000 decisions, we make most of them unconsciously. We aren’t taught how to make careful, methodical, high conviction decisions. While we certainly don’t want to be methodical about putting our shoes on, we all know that there are decisions in our lives that deserve to be made deliberately. Yes, trial and error is a good teacher, but I believe the AREA Method provides you with a research tool for making high-stakes decisions well, enabling you to make your mistakes before you make them.
One of the critical ways that AREA does this is by moving you through the decision-making process one perspective at a time. The framework not only reduces your bias by making it easier to see insights and understand experiences someone else is having, but also by helping you imagine how others faced with the same question would respond. The AREA process helps you check your ego, enable you to better judge the incentives of others, and explore a situation more objectively. In so doing, it builds both self-awareness and empathy. Thus, it’s not just a process that you apply, it’s a muscle that you build and will become second nature. It can be part of the frame you bring to the world around you. And in so doing, it may allow you to live your life more mindfully.
So be sure to visit the ‘Cheetah Sheets’ page. When you sign up to receive the sheets, I’ll add you to my monthly blog list, and we can navigate our gray AREA together.