Minority Career Network

Minority Career News
July - September 1998

Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!
By F. Stallworth

Managers make decisions frequently, and they are responsible and accountable for those decisions that affect their specific areas and the organization as a whole. Decisions play important roles in the profit, growth and development, and leadership within companies. This identifies decision-making ability as very valuable to the business process. How do your decision-making skills measure up? Have you ever taken a look at how you make decisions? Below is some information that will help you with your analysis, and heighten your awareness of the process as well.

First, take a look at how you decide to decide. At first glance this may appear to be a silly concept, but consider it again after you read further. Donald H. Weiss poses the following provocative questions in his book Making Tough Decisions:

  1. What happens if you do nothing?
  2. What happens if you take action?
  3. Is this decision really your responsibility?
As you can see, the process of deciding to decide is not as simple as it seems. It is a process influenced by personal and organizational values, beliefs, goals and motivating factors. Awareness of the complexities of the process at this basic level builds the foundation for better decision making.

Next, turn your attention to how you determine the true issues or the real problems. Do you examine whether or not you have reliable, adequate information that will allow you to pinpoint the right issue or problem? Do you consider the perspectives and opinions of others? Do you look into past situations for guidance? According to J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Shoemaker, authors of the book Decisions Traps, there are ten (10) traps you should be aware of at this point in the process. Their traps are categorized and summarized as follows:

  1. Plunging In - gathering information and drawing conclusions hastily without clearly identifying the problem.
  2. Frame Blindness - attempting to solve the wrong problem due to myopic perceptions.
  3. Lack of Frame Control - failing to define problem in more than one way.
  4. Overconfidence in Your Judgment - failing to gather information because you are certain of your assumptions and opinions.
  5. Shortsighted Shortcuts - relying solely on "rules of thumb."
  6. Shooting from the Hip - "winging it" by relying on personal recall for key information rather than using a systematic approach.
  7. Group Failure - assuming that good decisions will automatically materialize when the best and the brightest are involved.
  8. Not Keeping Track - failing to keep systematic records of past decisions in order to protect you personal ego.
  9. Fooling Yourself About Feedback - failing to accurately interpret past outcomes.
  10. Failure to Audit Your Decision Process - failing to adhere to systematic analysis of how you decided what you decided.
Trap avoidance is no easy task, but it can lead to better decision making.

Use caution and common sense as you begin to analyze and improve your decision-making habits. Every minor, day-to-day decision does not require an in-depth analysis. This type of approach could result in "analysis paralysis" - a condition of inaction.

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