MAKE SUCCESSFUL DECISIONS EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ALL THE FACTS

MAKING DECISIONS IS AS MUCH AS AN ART FORM AS A SKILL. BUT THERE ARE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS THAT CAN VASTLY IMPROVE THE LIKELYHOOD OF SUCCESS

Your mind is able to process vast amounts of information. Only a tiny percentage of it is ever noticed by your conscious mind. Your breathing is automatic, so is your balance.

In any given moment your mind is processing this information and allowing you to interact with your world as you see fit. Every time you see something your mind re-evaluates the situation. From the timing you make when crossing the road to the way you respond to something as a situation appears.

This is important to know because all through life you are evaluating things at such a rapid rate that you may not even be aware of the repercussions of those decisions. You may not be aware of all the “facts” in your daily life and this is significant. It allows you to focus on what is really important rather than focus on basic survival. This process expands as we gain more of lifes experience. For example, as a baby, balance and walking were more challenges than they are today.

Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink) calls evaluating vast amounts of information then generalising the principles as “thin slicing”. This is where you take a similar experience and apply the same basic logic to build a picture of the situation. For example, when you learn the word “garden”, every time you see an arrangement of plants in someone’s yard, you know it as a garden. Even though you have not seen every garden that ever existed, you can generalise and understand that all gardens essentially the same.

So how do you take all this information and make the best possible decision you can? There are multiple aspects you need to consider.

- The outcome required
- The time available
- The way you may evaluate the situation including the relevant facts

THE OUTCOME REQUIRED
Every decision you make MUST be made in light of the long term outcome you desire. It is vital to be crystal clear about what exact outcome you want. For instance, you could earn money in a vast number of ways but you may want to limit yourself to earning that income in a way that best suits your skills and interests. Then, ideally, you want to earn it honestly. Then you want to decide how quickly you want that income….and so on.

Getting more specific gives your mind the best possible criteria to manage your decision making. The more specific you can do that, the quicker you get to specific action AND evaluate the success or failure of your actions. The best decision makers have very specific outcomes they are looking for. They are also relentless at attaining that outcome. If you have vague outcomes you will get vague, non specific results. The more detail you can specify the better.

THE TIME AVAILABLE
Part of that specific outcome is deciding how soon you need the result. You could gather all the facts to the end of time but if don’t make a decision and act you may miss your opportunity. You need to be specific about the time you have to make a decision. Most people make a decision when they run out of time. The danger with that is if it is the wrong decision, you can’t change it. The best way to move forward is to make decisions quickly and change them slowly. Henry Ford was renknowned for this type of behavior. Quick decisions allow you to move to action and therefore get results, quickly. But to make quick decisions, you must know exactly what your outcome is.

THE WAY YOU EVALUATE THE SITUATION
To a degree the way you evaluate the decision is based on experience. A more experienced person can make a decision quicker based on past experience. As mentioned earlier, using your ability to “thin slice” comes in very handy at this point. If you can use your “unconscious” mind to evaluate the situation better, you can make better decisions. This is because your unconscious mind is taking on much more information than your conscious mind. Additionally, you are leveraging a resource in a way that you not have used much in the past. There is a number of ways you can leverage your unconscious mind like conscious streaming or even putting your mind into certain states. Thomas Edison was highly skilled at using his unconscious mind to generate new ideas. Personally, I think this is the most underutilized skills we have.

This is a skill that can be taught. You can learn more about this at an upcoming workshop I have. Contact me using the link at the bottom of this page.

Information at http://jonyeoandkellyjones.wordpress.com/