I am not aware of any shortcut to good decision making. We all pay our tuition with many a dumb decision. But, that’s not my point – this post is all about preventing the extraordinarily dumb decisions.
When we make decisions, we typically default to the following question – ‘What decision can solve my current problem?’ This approach is excellent during rapid fire decision making because you can always make another decision that will correct the previous one.
The decisions we regret are those that are extraordinarily dumb that make us ask the “what the hell was I thinking” question. This happens because the default question has a very short term focus.
Prevention requires us to add one additional question to our decision making process – ‘What will the consequences of this decision be 5 years from now?’
Here’s an example – the high school I studied in had a stormy management change a few years back during which a very popular principal was replaced by another in the middle of the academic year. All sorts of protests followed from both students and alumni.
Students could easily be punished but controlling the alumni was going to be much harder. Someone in the management asked the default question – ‘What decision can solve my current problem?’ And the obvious answer that emerged was to make all alumni showing up at the school feel unwelcome. The watchmen at the gate treated alumni like criminals and teachers weren’t allowed to meet the alumni. I experienced this and it wasn’t pleasant. In time, I understand they upgraded the policy from being unwelcoming to banning alumni altogether.
Now, imagine if someone had asked the question – ‘What will the consequences of this decision be 5 years from now?’ Would the decision have passed the test? Nearly every school around the world works incredibly hard to keep great relations with alumni. There are many reasons – aside from fostering a culture of loyalty, schools inevitably reach out to alumni for all sorts of favors including donations and sponsorship. I realize I’m already referring to “them” as “the school” and not “my school” and I tend to be the fiercely loyal sort. I sincerely hope they reconsider..
When we make decisions this week, let’s pause for a moment and make sure we consider the long term consequences. One additional question to save many a future regret. That’s not too bad now, is it?
PS: For a related thought, check out Derek Sivers’ fantastic video – Don’t punish everyone for one person’s mistake
A Learning a Day 