How do You Decide?

We all make decisions every day. Some are small, like what to have for breakfast and some are huge, whether or not we should marry. Sometimes we agonize and delay, other times, we make a quick choice. Everyone has wondered if they made the right choice at some time in their life. Some people are better at making good decisions than others. Parents spend a lot of time trying to teach their children good decision making. There is a lot of advice floating around to help you make decisions, some good and some bad. There are many courses, books, consultants, systems, etc. out there that claim they will help you make better choices.

Russo and Schoemaker reviewed a lot of the material on decision making in writing their book, Decision Traps. In all of this material, they have identified 10 different places where decision making can go wrong and they detail them in the book.

1. Tendency to Plunge in – The first question that you have to answer is; what is the basic issue?  You should not do a lot of research on the conclusion of the decision before getting to the heart of the matter and understanding it.  


2. Frame Blindness – We all tend to look at things from a particular point of view. If we are looking at the problem from the wrong perspective, we will have trouble making the right decision.


3. Lack of Frame Control – It is a good idea to try to see the problem from multiple perspectives and also to avoid letting others define the “right” way of seeing the problem and possible solutions.


4. Overconfidence – You may ignore important facts about your problem if you are too confident that you “know it all”.


5. Short-sightedness – Following “rules of thumb” and/or using the most convenient facts can prevent you from choosing the best solution.


6. Shooting from the Hip – This problem happens because people think that they can solve their problem by just “trusting their gut” and then rush to a decision without following a systematic process including writing down important considerations.


7. Group Failure – Sometimes groups of smart people can make stupid choices because they do not follow a good process of group decision making.


8. Fooling Yourself About Feedback – You need to be honest with yourself about feedback on past choices and not let your ego get in the way of admitting that you may have made a bad choice.


9. Not Keeping Track – It makes sense to keep records of past important decisions and to analyze your successes and failures or you may make the same mistakes again.


10. Failure to Audit Your Decisions. – Finally, you need really understand how you make decisions so you will not fall prey to any of the mistakes that are listed above.

There are no guarantees that you will always make the best decision but if you take into account the ten traps listed in Decision Traps, you will make better decisions.