4 Ways to Make Better Decisions

Whether you are an owner, manager or employee, you are faced with making decisions on a daily basis. When it comes to making up your mind about hiring someone or accepting a job offer, or making a decision that affects your personal life, there are a variety of approaches you could take. Depending on the situation, there is a pattern you typically will follow. In their excellent book, Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa, share some excellent insights on how to make better decisions.

One approach a person often uses to make up his mind about something is the “anchor” approach. What happens here is he will make up his mind based on information he received first. When he is ready to make a decision, this person will use the first comment he hears or initial data received to influence his decision. The best way to offset this influence is to research your options with an open mind before settling on one.

Another approach a person can use to make a decision is based on his “past experiences.” These memories will cause him to go in the direction of what worked before. Many times this can be a poor choice because the new situation will not be even similar to the past experiences. For example, a person compares the buying of a used car to that of purchasing a used guitar. In the past he may have had a bad experience with the used car. The car is much more complex than a guitar, so it may not be a good past purchase experience to use to purchase the guitar.

A third way a person uses to make a decision is keeping with the “status quo.” In other words, this is basing your decision on what everyone else is doing. This can cause problems when you are trying to do something that may be outside the perimeters of what most other people would consider doing. For instance, a friend invites you to take a class, and then to go sky diving. Most people would not even consider this kind of an activity. So, if you went along with the “status quo” you would not even consider doing it. This approach could limit your potential success with new opportunities that come your

Finally, the last way to make a decision that I want to share with you is the “confirming evidence” approach. What this means is a person will look for evidence that supports his existing point of view. One way to offset this limiting approach would be to again, keep an open mind to all input that is received, and not just go with the information that agrees with an existing view.

In summary, when making a decision, become aware of the approaches you use and give yourself the opportunity to try some of the other methods I have discussed. You just might find yourself making a better decision.

Tom Borg is a consultant in leadership management, team building and customer service. Please see more of his blogs at csjobsblog.com and manufacturingworkersblog.com. To view additional job postings at Nexxt