Redefining Decision-Making

Learning to evaluate ideas before they become decisions thereby ensuring good results
Almost every human being has predetermined notions of good and bad. The definition however of both the phrases greatly differs for each different individual. And, it is this distinction only that reflects the mindsets of people. This implies that anything, which is good for A, can be simply great for B and may not be OK to C. Same is the case with decision making. A particular decision may instigate three different opinions from three different individuals.

Therefore, evaluation of any decision must be done way before actually making the decision because once the decision is taken no evaluation of any sort can reverse the outcome. Now, the million-dollar question here is how can a decision be evaluated?
Evaluating a Decision
Decision evaluation is a very calculative process and there are two important tools that are required for it to be successfully accomplished. One needs to take care of the following things during the course of this evaluation –

Timing
While evaluating a decision, it is quintessential to figure out as to what time frame does it fall in or what stage of the decision making process has been reached. Many a times it happens that people start evaluating their decisions at a time when it is already too late to make alterations; and it is here that they start justifying their actions. Although decision-making traps do exist yet there are logical ways to avoid them.
Listing options
Most of the management experts endorse the idea of penning down all the options available and then choosing the best applicable amongst all of them. The modus operandi for selecting these options can range from a decision matrix to a spreadsheet and from decision trees to database analysis programs. This states that the main idea behind cogent decision-making is to ensure that your decision would be the best and would be completely devoid of any negative consequences what so ever.

To simplify, we can say that what we are doing is evaluation and not future prediction. Therefore, while evaluating a decision one must not bother about its result as lots of people complain of loosing themselves on ‘What will happen Next?’ It is here that a lot of time gets wasted in fearing the unknown.

In my opinion, such unproductive thoughts must be put at bay by all of us. What we should do instead is a fair evaluation of our decision by following the steps listed below:
a. Gathering relevant information,
b. Breaking it down significantly,
c. Analyzing all options,
d. Deciding and act.
This methodology proves to be effective in most of the cases and is hence advised by experts.
Klein’s View
Gary Klein, one of the renowned psychologists thinks that the above-mentioned process may not be the customary pattern for all humans. His research shows that about 95% of the humans approach their decision-making faculties in recognition-primed manner.

They mull over the information at hand in relation to their desired outcome. And their course of action is inspired by their past experiences as well. Moreover, they would warmly welcome any idea they think can result in an intended outcome, thereby shunning other ideas forever and choosing an alternate way is chosen. The most amazing part here is that they do not do this after conscious weighing of the positive and negative aspects of any idea or by comparing several options. They just do it for the sake of it.

But there is the other segment of people as well who think over their mistakes and try to improve upon them. Such people can be categorized as thinkers who strive hard to make all their decisions better than ever before. Such individuals thus have a distinguished personal aspect. This further affects their individual decision-making that is based on who the individual is. In such cases, the outcome of one’s decisions stands as a manifestation of him/herself on to the outer world.

This is because who you are decides what you would do in a given situation. Now, what you would do would strengthen your sagacity. And it is here that a feed-forward circle is created that regularly keeps on reinforcing self-motivation thereby easing out the complexities involved in the process of decision making.
Making Good Decisions
There is an oft-repeated question that people normally keep asking in discussions involving decision-making. It is ‘how can I take good decisions?’ This is not only a good question it rather is a great one!
Each one of us needs to take many decisions everyday. Right from the breakfast table to supper, we keep working on our decision-making powers. The fight between good and bad decisions goes on and on.

Good vs Bad
Sometimes, one may make excellent decisions. The person may feel that a particular decision was not that good by judging the effects of its outcome. But after some time, when s/he sits back and realizes, the said decision indeed gets recognized as the best one in that particular scenario. That is to say, good decisions do stand the test of time, as they remain good for eternity.

Similarly, there are other times as well when one makes decisions s/he may have felt uneasy about. Yet those decisions may be the ones that were the best possible choice during that given time frame. Therefore, one must understand that except some divine coincidences; every decision has a set of positive and negative consequences associated with it.

But there does exist a sense of conscience called the 'gut feeling' irrespective of all logic. This may seem to be an advice coming from within you or may even occur, at times, in the form of a visual cue. The signal is there; the form however may vary. It can be visual, auditory, or even sensory but the information does pass through. And it is this information only that helps us make good decisions for it is nothing but general awareness which actually enables us to distinguish between a good and a bad decision. This is a universal idea that translates over to all walks of human performance. Be it thinking, creativity, decision-making or sensing the outcome, the inner voice always guides us.

But, to all those who have never felt the existence of this signal, another tip may come handy. They can simply follow Mr. Perfectionist, Aamir Khan’s ALL IS WELL formula as depicted in his most talked about movie ‘Three Idiots’. And trust me it does work for our heart can be filled with astute optimism just by a single positive tap. Hence, when nothing seems to be working well, and you are weighed down heavily, either trust your conscience and go by the first instinct or just follow your heart. You would observe all the tensions would start fading away and your decisions would never turn bad.
This is the art of good decision-making is quite simple, isn't it?