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| December 2009 |  |
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aking consistently good, timely decisions is a life skill we can all
admire. But it’s not like learning how to ride a bicycle. Successful
decision-making is a dynamic, complex process. And because it’s
so important at the workplace (and also at home), a great deal has
been written on the subject. A 5-step plan Over the years, authors have come up with myriad approaches to help make us good deciders. In his book Decision Traps, marketing expert J. Edward Russo, Ph.D., of Cornell University offers a five-step approach: (1) Make a plan and give yourself a firm deadline. (2) Gather enough information to figure out your choices. (3) Weigh the options using pros and cons or a ranking system. (4) Make a selection, with help from others if needed. (5) Evaluate your decision but don’t fret over “the road not taken.” Accept it as the best you could do at the time—and move on. Wear different hats In his book Six Thinking Hats, business consultant and author Edward de Bono uses the metaphor of wearing a series of hats. With the white hat, you gather and analyze your information. With the red hat, you rely on your intuitive powers—what does your “gut” tell you? With the black hat, you go on the defensive and look for any weak spots in your reasoning. By contrast, the yellow hat helps you to think positively, the green hat creatively, and the final blue hat represents “process control.” In other words: putting it all together. The 10-10-10 approach Another approach is used by many life coaches and others in the helping professions, and it’s the subject of journalist Suzy Welch’s new book 10-10-10 (Scribner’s). Using this technique, we are encouraged to make decisions in terms of their immediacy: right now (10 minutes), the foreseeable future (10 months), or the distant, hazy future (10 years). But there’s nothing literal about each of these “10s,” Welch emphasizes. The first 10 could be a minute, an hour, or a week. The second 10 simply represents a future point when consequences start to play out in predictable ways. And the third 10 stands for a time so far off that its particulars are still vague. So, whether it’s “10-10-10” or “9-15-20,” the three-stage process is easy to apply—and you can go hatless. Welch’s advice is to: Start with the right question. Side issues, sub-issues and distractions can be messy and confusing. You need to be absolutely clear about the issue you’re trying to resolve. Take a job in another city? Go back to school? Stay in my relationship? Getting the question right is where to start. Collect your data. This part is getting easier to do. You can do it in your own head, on a computer, with pen and paper, and in conversations with your colleagues, family and friends. “The only real ‘requirement’,” says Welch, “is that you be honest and exhaustive in answering the following prompts: “Given my question, what are the consequences of each of my options in 10 minutes? In 10 months? In 10 years?” Analyze your information. Here’s where it gets more complicated. In this stage of the process, you need to take all of the information you’ve compiled and see if it fits your own personal values, beliefs, goals, dreams and needs. In short, says Welch, this part of 10-10-10 impels you to ask: “Knowing what I now know about all of my options and their consequences, which decision will best help me create a life of my own making.” If the truth hurts The process of asking questions and objectively analyzing information can reveal truths about ourselves that may be surprising, challenging, empowering and sometimes unwelcome. As Welch puts it, “Transformation doesn’t always come easy.” Facing a hard truth may involve confronting an old fear or moving along a path you’ve been trying to avoid in order to keep your world under control. And, sad to say, not all good decisions are happy ones—at least not in the first 10 minutes or perhaps even in the first 10 months. But if you have reached a solution that involves taking control of your life and your future, happiness awaits you—and that, says Welch, “is all 10-10-10 can promise.” Ten years can feel like forever To young people, 10 years can feel like a very long time. To older people, not so long. But in a fast-changing world like ours, why even try to see things long-term? For a very good reason, says Welch: because it heightens your awareness. “All too often, we make decisions just to avoid an immediate ‘ouch’—the sulking child, the disappointed family, the complicated logistics, the angry coworkers, and so on,” she says. “The third 10...helps us decide whether (or not) it’s worth it to endure short-term flame-outs in the service of our larger, more deeply held goals in life.” Even so, no one should make every single decision based on its long-term consequences. That would be pretty boring—but, even more importantly, it could be risky. We could lose the joy and spontaneity of living in the here and now. A choice-by-choice life Granted, it often feels like we’re watching the world go by at warp speed—and we’re only learning what we needed to know after the fact. But it is still possible to forge an “intentional life, choice by choice,” says Welch. The 10-10-10 approach she describes “adds reason where it is lacking. It inserts deliberation where there is only instinct. It replaced opaqueness with transparency.” And, as one confirmed practitioner says, it “hushes the noise so the mind can see what it needs to.”  |
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