Effective Decision Making - Often Goes Against Human Nature

photo by Dan Smith

People will pay a price to keep irrational options open when making decisions

Thanks to one of our favorite blogs - Lifehacker - for the heads up on this article from the New York Times. Today they looked at a new book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” by MIT researcher Dan Ariely. We’ll have a slightly different take on their reports.

Both Lifehacker and the Times open with the story of the Chinese General Xiang Yu in the third century BC who crossed the Yangzte River to attack his enemy. On arrival he burned his ships so that his troops would focus only on advance with no option remaining for retreat. Of course, the obvious message that most readers take away is that leaders must focus their teams to move forward - even if Xiang Yu was a bit over the top in his enthusiasm for the method!

The Chinese General closed the door on a very rational option, but the book points out that most of us are irrational in our unwillingness to let options close. Indeed, we will often keep them open, even when we know these pointless or even negative options are costing us. In simple terms how many of us as consumers have found it almost painful to pass up a particular model filled with features that we know we will never use. I once spent a pile of extra money on a video camera because I couldn’t let go of that way cool feature of shooting at night with that Green IR lighting. Why?

In the research or consumer contexts this fact of human nature is very different than the workplace. Still, there are two key messages for leaders in this information.

First - this natural human trait to not let options go can result in decision-making paralysis. Opportunities are lost because leaders cannot make decisions that “close doors” in order to move in a particular direction. Or worse, leaders tax their teams collecting and presenting more and more information so that a decision can be taken that should already be obvious. This is all too common even as leaders know that being a nimble organization that can make decisions and change quickly is a key to success today.

“…this natural human trait to not let options go can result in decision-making paralysis.”

Second, is the all too common danger of being an executive workaholic that can be the result of not being able to emotionally let go of things in the workplace. We follow up the 250th email of the day, we take on one more project for someone because we fear the opportunity that might be lost otherwise. All the while we may be seeing time with children or our spouses slip away because of all the hours spent at work. We pay a personal price - and much of it to keep irrational options open - options that by definition are irrational since most of us would list family as our number one priority.

Another blog I enjoy following is that of Tim Ferris - author of “The 4 Hour Work Week” who has a post entitled “The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen” in which he shares a number of bad things that happened while he went on a trip and chose not to check his email - but also the overwhelming list of good things that happened because he was able to let go. In order to have big things happen, sometimes you have to let go of others - let doors close.

You may have to let some options go, let some doors close, so that your career can advance. You may also need to let some career options go if you are to have the family life that you dream of.

Consider your work and home lives - are there things that you need to let go of in order to move forward?

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