Every day we make 10’s of decisions. Some are of trivial nature as it is just about choosing which dress to wear or which route to take to office vs, some complex of decisions of deciding to work on a new project, hiring new staff, starting a new career each of which can have a long-lasting effect.
Now when it comes to making decisions which can impact our future significantly, what do we really seek? When I ask this question, there are 2 broad categories I see,
- The first set of people who say they wish to have a positive outcome.
- Second, a set of people prefer that they would not like to regret after making the decision.
This expectation of a positive outcome or the aspect of not to regret can have a major impact on our decisions – negotiating a deal or hiring a new candidate, buying a new house, car, etc.
The psychological studies have shown, compared to positive effect emotion, the emotion of regret is much powerful and people want to avoid experiencing regret.
Because of this, most people are quite cautious when it comes to any decision making.
Now if you are a leader running your own company or managing large teams, decision making is a very critical mental skill. Unfortunately, this skill is not taught formally and for the majority of people, it doesn’t come naturally.
That is why it is very important to learn what goes on in decision making and keep learning by developing a framework to make crucial decisions.
Mental Framework of Decision Making
The mental framework means a process or a series of steps we can use to do the decision making. Generally, when we are confronted with decision making, it is a natural tendency to make impulsive decisions without following a process.
The reason for doing impulsive decisions is, we tend to focus too much on the outcome. When it comes to outcome, there are emotions related to fear of feeling regret or expectations of having something positive to happen. Emotions drive us to act impulsively.
But in the real world, there is no way we can decide on the outcome of any decisions. Instead of yielding to our emotions, what top leaders do is to rely on the process of decision making. It is developing the habit of the following framework over impulsive decision making.
Let us take an example, you are now 40 years young (I don’t like to use old!!:-)) and working in a big company. Now you get a thought that it is time to take do something new. You aspire for more challenges in life and feel it is the best time to join a startup or start your own company or join some course so you can move to a different domain.
You have seen a few other fellow friends jumping the ship and have made a successful transition. This gives you motivation!
But how do you make the decision and how to decide which of the options works for you?
Along with the thoughts of a nice future, you also get a fear of the making of the wrong decision! You don’t want to regret later in life about the wrong decision you made during this course of life.
The moment you fear which is natural, what generally one end up doing is to consider the decision as risky and defer!.
Of course some of the decisions, you have the flexibility to defer, postpone. But what if the decisions are timebound. You must make the decision or you end up regretting not making the decision itself.
Not taking a decision is also a decision
That is why the decision framework is so critical. Before we jump into the decision framework, let us also understand another crucial topic, i,e mental barriers to making the decision.
2 Biggest Mental Barriers to Decision Making
Mental barriers mean the way we observe things. It is formed out of the collective beliefs we hold. For making good decisions, we need to be able to reflect on our mental barriers.
As per Ray Dalio, the 2 biggest mental barriers to decision making is our Ego and Blind Spots. This subject itself very deep, and would not delve too much in this blog. But would like to bring your attention to the context of the decision framework.
The two biggest barriers to good decision making are your ego and your blind spots. Together, they make it difficult for you to objectively see what is true about you and your circumstances and to make the best possible decisions by getting the most out of others.
If you can understand how the machine that is the human brain works, you can understand why these barriers exist and how to adjust your behavior to make yourself happier, more effective, and better at interacting with others.
Ray Dalio, Author, Bridgewater Assosciates
3 things to consider in making decisions
The first thing in your mental model is to help you overcome the inaction. Make a clear point that inaction is worse than the fear of making mistakes.
The anticipation of feeling regret for making a mistake due to our decision shouldn’t lead us to inaction. Because most suffer not just from the regret of mistakes but also from the regret of inaction!
The second important thing is to start following a systematic process for making decisions.
When it comes to the systematic process, Peter Drucker, the Guru of management gives us 6 sequential steps to follow are as below,
1. Classify the Problem
Is it generic? Is it exceptional or unique? Or is it a manifestation of a new genus for which the rule has yet to be developed?
2. Defining the Problem
What are we dealing with?
3. Specifying the answer to the problem
What are the “boundary conditions”?
4. Deciding what is “right”, rather than what is acceptable, in order to meet the boundary conditions
What will fully satisfy the specifications before attention is given to the compromises, adaptations, and concessions needed to make the decision acceptable?
5. Building into the decision the action to carry it out
What does action commitment have to be? Who has to know about it?
6. Testing the validity of effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events
How is the decision being carried out? What are the assumptions on which it is based appropriate or obsolete?
The third important thing is of following your own intuition or gut feeling or understanding your emotions.
Many times it is not easy to logically conclude or rationalize any decision, because the available data cannot give us a clear picture of how the future unfolds. Hence many successful leaders, rely on tapping into their own inner Self when it comes to making those crucial decisions.
Learn to listen to inner the Self, your sub-conscious mind which unlimited, infinite knowledge to guide us. The meditation, any of your favorite activities like listening to music, nature walk, running will help to arrive at the final decision to be taken.
Conclusion
Effective decision making is a complex mental process. As top executives, business leaders it is not in the best interest to make too many decisions. Also since decision making consumes a lot of mental energy, it is best to decide the right time to make decisions. It can be a morning time or whatever time where you are at the peak of energy.
Hope the article gave you a new perspective on decision making and helps you develop positive work habit of following a process in decision making in your personal and professional life.
Do share if you have any comments.
