4 Ways to Make Better Decisions
Making decisions is hard.
Especially when there’s a lot on the line, when the data isn’t conclusive or we have too much emotion attached to the outcome.
Yet effective decision making is a crucial element to optimize for success, build confidence and sustain momentum in life and business.
Here’s four tactics for making sure you’re making the best decisions.
1. Find a Promoter Fidei
In the late 1500’s the Catholic Church appointed a Promoter Fidei, a promoter of the faith, to build a case against potential candidates for powerful positions in the Church.
This person acted as a kind of devil’s advocate, arguing against the appointment of the proposed candidate.
When making a big decision, often we’re too emotionally and intellectually close to the equation, so it’s important to find a trusted party to debate the validity of your stance.
2. “…asking for a friend”
What would you tell your friend to do in the same situation?
3. Conduct a Premortem
Assume that the decision you’re about to make has gone terribly wrong; ask yourself what information you’d want to gather to find out why it didn’t work… then go find out why.
Why didn’t it arrive on time?
Why did it cost more than expected?
What role and responsibility wasn’t accounted for?
What assumptions were made?
4. Select or Reject
Often when making decisions, we’re selecting the reasons we want something.
However, it’s good practice to also choose the reasons we don’t want something.
By focusing on what we want, we’re giving the opportunity for “confirmation bias” to creep in.
We see what we want to see.
By choosing instead to reject options, we flip the decision-making process, shaking up our natural, often-traveled routine which forces a different logic.
“I can’t decide if I want pizza, Mexican or a burger. Well, I know I don’t want to eat a burger because I already had one this week, and I have a frozen pizza at home, so I want Mexican.”
