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In the article that introduced this series on decision making, I observed that rarely do we every get a chance to make a true decision. When we do have this rare chance, we generally miss it because we are not aware of what we should be watching for. I have observed that there are seven perspectives that can help us have the alertness, understanding and humility to be artful decision makers.
Admit that we have little control over our available options. This is the first perspective. This is a perspective that improves our decision making in three ways:
- It allows us to give to those events to which we must react only enough energy to react and nothing more.
- It frees us from deliberating on what we cannot effect and defending ineffectual deliberations.
- It allows us to devote our energy and attention to those events where we can truly act beyond reaction and make a difference. There may be only one of these events in a lifetime.
Earlier I spoke of a "true decision." What is this? A true decision is an act that expands or creates options beyond the available list of reactions. Recently I heard someone describing an experience he had while scuba diving. Apparently, he got stuck between some rocks. His first reaction was, "Oh my God, I'm stuck! I'm going to die," and he began to struggle. Quickly, he remembered what his instructor told him, "If you panic underwater, you will die underwater." He decided to calm himself. When calm he was able to remove his scuba equipment and free his body. When his body was free he pulled his equipment through the rocks, put it back on and ascended to the surface.
Think of all of the other different outcomes that we could say represent his options. It can be seen that he had little choice in the options available. He did not choose the configuration of rocks that snagged him. However, with the decision to be calm and cease struggling, he was able to see the one option available that made a difference. Because he was calm he was able to take off the equipment that made it possible for him to survive underwater. This most likely would not have been an option had he still been panicking.
Another situation illustrates what generally goes on when we think that we generate the options. Many years ago, when I was a systems engineer, I had a customer who decided that he was going to take all of his applications that ran on mainframes and convert them to fault tolerant minicomputers. This news caused great panic in my office since its principal reason for existence was selling mainframe computers.
My management's proposed reaction was to mount a full scale marketing program (debate) to save the mainframes. My view was that since the customer could not physically and financially do this, it was not a decision but a symptom of some irritation. Just because someone says that they have "decided" something does not matter if they in fact cannot do it. The converse is also true. Just because you realize that you are falling does not mean that you have any say in your rate of descent.
Again we come back to the question, "what are my true choices?" Recognizing the available choice(s) is the first skill of decision making. Frequently, there is only one choice. Playing devil's advocate is the one game that truly can undermine skillful decision making and obscure the few true choices available. The danger of devil's advocate is that it is a debating technique that throws up objections and pseudo-choices in opposition to what is perhaps your only choice. If the person or the part of you that likes to debate is good, the devil's advocate position can undermine your only available choices and leave you with pseudo-choices that were only constructed for analytic purposes. We should not forget that the history of the devil's advocate is the ecclesiastical courts, then the law courts, and finally debating societies.
Even if we do not make the pseudo-choice and decide with the devil, devil's advocacy is an immense waste of energy. In our culture, playing devil's advocate is a respectable form of tilting at windmills.
Let's summarize the main elements of the first perspective:
- Live in the moment, remember the past and anticipate the future. All three are required. The first perspective is threefold.
- Begin each day in thanksgiving. Acknowledge that you are the steward of your achievements, not their author.
- Remember that life and business consists of many choices and few decisions.
- Daily commit to being ever vigilant to a possible decision.
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