Absorbing Data: To improve learning, use the information and make it stick through friction.Innovation: To improve innovation, connect old ideas in new ways through the lens of your personal experiences and allow intermediate disturbance to mix things up.Decision Making: To improve decision-making and intuition, forecast a spectrum of future scenarios, and use probability to logically decide.Managing Others: To improve managing others, create a culture of commitment and trust by decentralizing decision-making (giving more autonomy).Goal Setting: To improve goal setting, break big aspirations (stretch goals) into realistic steps (SMART goals).Focus: To improve focus, narrate future experiences so you are prepared when your mental model encounters real life, and you can direct your attention instead of just reacting.Teams: To improve team culture, build psychological safety through group norms of equality and empathy.Making choices that affirm your deeper values and goals improves your motivation. Motivation: To improve motivation, you must believe you have autonomy over your actions and surroundings.Foster a motivating culture of equality, empathy, autonomy, and trust by actively listening, supporting all ideas, empowering others’ decisions, asking for feedback, and encouraging friendly debate.Learn and use new information by connecting it to old ideas, applying it to personal experiences, teaching it to others, and being open to others challenging that information.Visualize the day/week/month ahead and set SMART goals to make focused decisions that affirm your “why” and align with your future forecasts.Be clear on your “why” and deeper values and break big aspirations down into realistic steps.Productivity emerges when people push themselves to think differently. I found the book very engaging as the author explains concepts from neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics through the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters.īy the end of the book, I understood how the most productive people, companies, and organizations view the world and their choices and take actions in profoundly different ways.

In Smarter Faster Better, Charles Duhigg describes eight key concepts-from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making-through the rich storytelling of why some people and companies get so much done.

Smarter faster better key concepts