| Volume
6, Issue 2 - February, 2007
“Half of all decisions fail.” These are the findings
from twenty years of studying decision-making at Ohio State. After
writing “Taking Aim for Better Decision-Making,” I decided
to build a list of things that anyone could use to improve their
performance.
- When faced with a decision, think about your desired
outcome rather than facing the decision as a problem to be solved.
Problems are negative almost by definition and negative thoughts
invoke the constricting “fight or flight” response
in us rather than helping us to relax and be inspired and creative.
Good decisions need a creative thought process.
- Don’t think you are Superman or Wonderwoman.
Enlisting the aid of others has been proven to improve decision-making.
First, multiple voices means more options to choose from. Second,
involving others in the process facilitates parallel processing
versus sequential processing by the lone decider. Multiple inputs
also reduce potential unintended consequences. I am not suggesting
that you delegate the decision, rather get as much help in the
process as possible. The decision is still yours.
- Consider the Golden Rule. Over the last few
years, ethics has become a hot topic in our society. There are
all kinds of initiatives being undertaken in our schools to address
this issue, but the easiest and quickest solution is to teach
decision makers to, “Do unto others as you would have others
do unto you.”
- Sleep on it. There are few times in life when
instant decisions are required. Most decisions can be considered
before any action is taken. There are some who will take this
as my approval to put off the decision indefinitely which is not
what I recommend. Rather, I would encourage you to sleep on a
decision before taking any action. This allows your subconcious
a chance to participate in the process and possibly provide you
with new insights.
- Always state your decision in a positive frame.
Since we have been trained to approach decisions as problems to
be solved, it is not surprising that our decision is to not have
the problem. There are two things at play here. First, we get
what we focus on. Second our mind doesn’t recognize the
word “not”. As an example, an organization I know
had a check list of reasons for why an order was delivered late.
This only compounded the problem until they changed their focus
to measuring and rewarding when orders were on time or ahead of
schedule.
- Trust your gut. This is a tuff one for some
of us fact based people to accept, but the truth is that when
your gut tells you something is wrong you need to pay attention.
At the very least, think about the words of Henry Ford when he
said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can't
do a thing, you're right.” Something in you doesn’t
believe you can make this decision work.
- Tell me why. Traditional decision-making focuses
on how to make decisions and it results in only a fifty percent
success rate. I am convinced that you will make better decisions
if you focus on why you are making a particular decision. There
is research that suggests you will have better results if you
can explain your decision-making process for each decision.
- Begin Now. Aristotle said, “Well begun
is half done.” Begin the implementation of your decision
immediately with the one small thing you can do right now to move
you toward the desired outcome.
If you would like to learn more about decision-making, check out
“Taking Aim for Better Decision-Making” at www.cannonadvantage.com
(Available February 26, 2007).
Before the end of the month, my new book, “Taking Aim for
Better Decision-Making” will be available as well as a new
store on www.cannonadvantage.com
where you can buy the book and other products. The store has been
modernized to include a shopping cart to allow us to add products
as they are completed. If you haven’t visited the “Products”
area on the site, I would encourage you to take a look later in
the month when all of the changes have been implemented.
If you have a subject that you would like to see covered in future
issues of “Taking Aim,” please send me an email at aim@CannonAdvantage.com.
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Robert E. Cannon
Management Consultant
13985 Aquilla Road
Burton, OH 44021 USA
866.598.8450 phone/v-mail
440.834.1052 facsimile
aim@cannonadvantage.com
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