500 Words a Week - Three Things to Improve Decision Making

From Shane Parrish on The Tim Ferris Show.

There are three aspects that Shane highlighted as being useful for us to think about or consider when making the decisions.

1, The position you are in at the time you make the decision.

Can you manage your emotions, your temperament? Are you hungry, angry, tired? While some of these might sound a bit comical, I believe they are true. When you catch yourself feeling this way, can you seek some time to bring yourself to a more rational mindset before attempting to make a decision.

2, Outcome over Ego.

You don’t want to make a decision when you are focused on proving yourself right rather than focusing on getting the best outcome. In times like this, it’s useful to question ourselves: Am I focused on getting the best outcome, or on satisfying myself and proving myself right? The minute I’m proving myself right, I ignore all the information that says I’m not right and then I’m not focused on the outcome. You need to look for the best idea, no matter where they come from, to get you to the outcome you want. Something else I heard, and I’ve reflected upon myself, was around how poor decisions are made. Poor decisions are made when all the information present isn’t available to the decision maker. We have blind spots, and unfortunately, we can’t always tell where those blind spots are. We must open ourselves up to incorporate all perspectives.

However, I’m reminded of a quote by Gurwinder Bhogal on asking people’s opinion:

“Many don’t have an opinion until they’re asked for it, at which point they cobble together a viewpoint from whim and half-remembered hearsay, before deciding that this two-minute-old makeshift opinion will be their new hill to die on.”

You must open yourself up to all opinions to avoid the blindspots, but must keep the above in mind also.

3, Thinking independently.

Are you thinking independently of the circumstances or are the circumstances thinking for you? Are you thinking independently of what the crowd is doing or is the crowd thinking for you? If those are happening, if the circumstances or crowd are thinking for you, you are not really thinking at all. To think independently, you must be well positioned so that you can identify when you might find yourself drifting towards circumstance or crowd thinking.

Shane also discusses that in moments when we know we are making a decision, we are more rational. We are more thoughtful and are able to consider the three aspects above. However, sometimes without thinking that we are making a decision, we make decision. This decision tends not to be so rational or well thought out. How do we recognise the moments throughout the day when we are making decisions and become more rational in our thought processes. Shane talks about an example with his kids, when before they respond he asks them "do you want to poor water or fire on this situation?". In turn, either defusing or escalating the situation. This is something that might be useful for us to consider at times when we want to react. When we aren’t thinking rationally.