I have always pondered on this sentence whenever I felt that my decisions have gone wrong or backfired but never could seriously contemplate on the subject further. May be the wisdom of thinking and contemplating depreciates after a sense of failure or maybe it is lost in the labyrinth of damage control and justification of your failed decision.
Hence, where should we begin with? We are here to discuss the Decision Making as a whole, means general and not to ponder upon any specific decision of yours or mine, so we start it as a subject.
So, can Decision Making be considered as the Art or Science?
Let us evaluate, discuss and research on both the aspects. For that we need to understand the difference between Art and Science, though I know that most of you would be aware of the difference but it is customary to recall it.
The SCIENCE’s objective is to establish a theory or formula predicting for the behaviour of an entity based on the data available concerning the attributes of the entity whereas ART doesn’t have any objective and its objective is to complete the artwork. ART knows no boundaries and demands for the creation of something new all the time and it’s unique in its own way.
I think I have refreshed your knowledge on the difference of Art and Science.
I would not be discussing here as how to and what to think, but how much to think before taking a decision. I generally ponder on the fact that whether we think too little or think too much before taking a decision. Which is better? It is a matter of discussion and research as to what is the optimum amount of thinking that should be done before concluding upon a decision.
What kind of a decision maker you are?
Impulsive, Thinker or somebody in between.
Sometimes the same person can be of any type of the above mentioned decision maker depending upon the conditions available. Certain situations drive us to decide impulsively and sometimes we mull over things so much that we never arrive at a decision altogether. Hence, it is really hard to conclude upon the quantity (I don’t how to quantify thinking) of thinking for the best possible decision.
Generally, researchers have given two approaches of decision making. One is the impulsive one, where one takes decision hastily and hence they are susceptible to biases and mistakes. It implies that if they thought more, they’d do better.
Then there is another approach where one thinks more carefully in more logical ways like making decision trees and maps, listing out the pros and cons of each decision and finally going with the longer list.
However, there has been a little or no research that considers the notion that over thinking can lead to wrong decision. Nor there has been any model that explores how to determine when we are over thinking a decision. It is said that Bill Clinton got so deep into the intricacies of a policy that no decisions were made. It is good to have leaders who take notice of every minute detail but if it is a hindrance for the final outcome then there is a concern. How often when we make such lists and then out of frustration crumple the paper and throw it away because they are not helping us make the decision?
For example, an IT executive while choosing Laptops for sales executives may get caught up in comparing the visual graphics or audio options available, where the only attributes that really matter may be are size, weight and security features. Worse yet, even if they finally zeroed on the attributes to be considered, they may get further caught up on the Laptop models available in the market. Further, citing a more general example that I think we all are quite familiar with is that we are less likely to buy at all if we are given an option of 25 different styles and make than those shoppers who are offered only 6. It says that it hard to choose when options are many.
Impulsive Decision Makers
There are people who swing to the other far end of the decision making thinking range - they don't think at all. There are time crunched managers who feel that they don't have time to consider every single scenario or segment that may take months. Generally, such decisions which cite the reason "We didn't had time to do that" are actually decision made by gut feeling.
While all good managers should have the ability to take snap decisions in high pressure situations, but they may miss out on good opportunities, and fall into ruts even, when they take hasty decisions out of habit or gut feeling. The reason generally given are “ We always do the same way”
For example, a manager might hire or disqualify a candidate during an interview based on how they were sitting on the chair, just because past candidates who sat on the edge of their seats attentively performed well in the company. Hence, this criterion has been set because it worked in the past. Did you ever considered the candidates who sat more comfortable and in a relaxed way during an interview. They might have performed better than who didn’t.
When we make habitual decisions, they work out fine, but they are not possibly the best ones. If you have done something the same way for a long time, then it might be the time to reconsider, to think a little more.
When we do things habitually we tend to the overlook the minute differences in the conditions that have crept up all these times and may be after a long gap the difference is enormous but we are not able to see it.
Take for example, when my brother who was an overweight once decided to reduce and started to work out regularly. We used to share the room. After a month or so when he asked me about his health, he was furious with my answer because I hardly noticed any difference, whereas his friends had complimented on his reduced look and even the weighing machine also proved the same.
In a study conducted where certain movie goers were given fresh popcorn and some were given stale popcorn to munch through the movie. It was seen that the people who habitually munched popcorn while watching movie, less likely complained about the stale popcorn.
No research will give you the exact answer to this question as to how much to think before coming up with the best possible decision. It depends on so many conditions and may vary so much from person to person that a clear conscience is difficult to be made.
To me more important is thinking, clear thinking rather than too little or too much . Clear thinking is the collection of attitudes, beliefs, skills, strategies, and habits of thought that take a lifetime to develop and refine in addition to our specialized expertise and general education. We are not able to think clearly in some situations because we have developed so little our resources of clear thinking because we have mostly relied on our intelligence, education and technical expertise to solve problems, and they generally don’t ensure the best ones.
What I have personally observed that most decisions are impulsive and are taken at the beginning of our thinking process or decision making process by our subconscious mind and rest of the time is spent in finding out reasons and points to justify it. And to many of us this decision becomes our possession in the due course and makes us possessive about it which blinds our analytical insight and in turn rejects any wise criticism. This leads us to loose the real focus that is the final result, the outcome for which the whole process is undertaken.
Hence, the art of Decision Making is the art of clear and conscience thinking around the expected outcome.
The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. ~David Russell
........to be contd.
No comments:
Post a Comment