Quick: what’s the best decision you’ve ever made? (I’m serious! Take a second to think about it.) . . . Now that you have an answer, think about what it was about that decision that made it a good one. Was it the impressive array of interlocking spreadsheets you amassed…

Okay, it’s more like a dozen not-that-weird tricks, but the point is… For a while now, I’ve been sounding the alarm about the social sector’s crisis of evidence use. To put it bluntly, the human race expends mind-boggling resources bringing studies, reports, and analyses into the world that are read…

The evidence-based (or if you prefer, evidence-informed/data-driven) decision-making movement is riding some rough seas these days. With the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Balsonaro, we are seeing a new crop of digital-age politicians around the world who view information not as a resource to be cultivated…

Practical advice for donors and institutions responding to COVID-19 Like many of you, I saw my world change dramatically in what seemed like the blink of an eye back in mid-March. Within a span of a long weekend, my older child’s preschool closed down for the day, then for a…

I first heard of the Heath brothers (Chip and Dan) years ago when I saw Chip speak about their first two books, Made to Stick and Switch. So I was pleased to discover that they’ve written a book specifically about decision-making called Decisive. I like Decisive primarily as an introductory…

Many nonprofit leaders express discomfort with attempts to translate their work into a statistic. For them, the notion of reducing a potentially life-changing experience to a number doesn’t just feel confusing, it’s kind of insulting. …

The most important decision is how to decide. For about a decade now, I’ve been geeking out hard on decision-making. To be fair, my fascination comes from an honest place: I’m a walking stereotype of a reluctant decision-maker. Back when I was a teenager, I was paralyzed by challenges as…

We aspire to let evidence drive our actions, but in practice it rarely does. In 2015, the Center for Evaluation Innovation and the Center for Effective Philanthropy surveyed evaluation and program executives at 127 US and Canadian foundations with at least $10 million in annual giving. …

Despite their importance, we barely pay attention to most of the decisions we make. Fortunately, there’s a better way. Decision-making is life. Over time, our decisions carve an identity for ourselves and our organizations, and it is our decisions, more than anything else, that determine how we are remembered after…