Decision Deadfalls (part 1 of 3)
By Tom Davidson
As the saying goes, “Hindsight is 20/20,” which helps to illustrates an important point about the difference between “good” and “bad” decisions. Here are three of the deadly decision deadfalls that await all managers but especially inexperienced, unaware or naïve managers just trying to do their jobs:
A “deadfall” is a trap sometimes used in wilderness survival to catch or kill large game for food by arranging for heavy objects to fall on the unsuspecting prey. A decision deadfall is also a kind of trap; however, this happens when unsuspecting managers have bad results fall on them and injure their results, reputations and careers.
Here are three of the deadly decision deadfalls that await all managers but especially inexperienced, unaware or naïve managers just trying to do their jobs:
– Good Decisions – Just because a decision gets bad results, doesn’t mean it was a bad decision.
– Group Decisions – It’s a common error to assume that group decisions are most likely to be good decisions.
– Snap Decisions – Because of the sheer number of decisions you’ll have to make as a manager, you’ll sometimes have to make snap decisions you’ll live to regret.
Today’s blog post is about “good decisions,” and the other two will be covered in the next two postings.
“Good” versus “Bad” Decisions
As the saying goes, “Hindsight is 20/20,” which helps to illustrates an important point about the difference between “good” and “bad” decisions. In short, a good decision is one where resources, time and repercussions are effectively considered, even if the results – in hindsight – were negative.
As the comparison chart illustrates, the quality of the decision is not determined by the result but by the process used in arriving at the decision. Many factors will affect the results of your decision, a large number of them being out of your control or unpredictable.
What you can control is the decision-making process itself, so put your efforts there and don’t blame yourself (or others) for bad results if good decision-making processes were used.
What else differentiates “good” from “bad” decisions?