Decision-Making

If you’ve taken the opportunity to review your year so far, you probably have some decisions to make about how you’d like to move forward. This month we’ll be exploring decision making – why it can feel so hard, some strategies to make it easier and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

To get you started, this classic article by Peter Drucker for HBR summarizes the steps of an effective decision-making process.

And here are some great quotes to ponder:

Visionary decision-making happens at the intersection of intuition and logic. ― Paul O’Brien, Great Decisions, Perfect Timing: Cultivating Intuitive Intelligence

“Decision-making and problem-solving are not the same. To solve a problem, one needs to find a solution. To make a decision, one needs to make a choice.” ― Michael J. Marx

On an important decision, one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision no matter how much one spends or how long one waits. And, if one waits too long, he has a different problem and has to start all over. This is the terrible dilemma of the hesitant decision maker. ― Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader

“Accepting trial and error means accepting error. It means taking problems in our stride when a decision doesn’t work out, whether through luck or misjudgment. And that is not something human brains seem to be able to do without a struggle.” ― Tim Harford, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

While all the data we have is about the past, all the decisions we make are about the future. – Alex Hagan

One more recommendation…research shows that process is more important than analysis when reaching effective decisions. Read Chip and Dan Heath’s book Decisive to learn the 4 villains of good decisions and how to overcome them to make better choices in life and work.