IV. Revealing RIGHT

    Humans are selfish and lazy! And we commonly enjoy making decisions conducive to both! If the outcome to a decision seems self-serving in any way, the natural inclination among non-professional decision-makers is to run with it ... like a lion carrying prey in its jaws.

    Quite obviously, this sort of behavior finds no suitable place in the world of the professional. In the world of professional decision-making, the laws of the lion are replaced by the laws of RIGHT! Because we CARE for all our fellow beings, considerations of RIGHT (responsibility, safety, compassion) must enter into our decision-making deliberations — way ahead of time! — if we endeavor to avoid any potential for unwanted and unnecessary suffering or dread.

    But, it is that human tendency to overlook that sets us up for a potential for mental error in every decision we face. We simply cannot recollect and/or imagine e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g ALL of the time! Sometimes we forget. Other times we fail to conceptualize or consider. Our biological brains fail at providing us with an entirely error-free mechanism for consistently arriving at robust and sound decisions ... and sometimes even when we have ample time to reconsider our initial deliberations! So, we professionals must exert the appropriate concern directed at "checking and re-checking to make sure” our decision-making is indeed so robust and prepared for anything! Anything less would be less than optimal.

Even if you’re on the right track,
you’ll get run over if you just sit there. — Will Rogers

    Finally, where time may be short, perhaps the most effective means for going about achieving such a robust end to our decision-making would be to appoint a devil's advocate, a critic who, rather than seeking ways to solve a given problem at hand instead seeks ways to wreck the perceived solution so as to expose its weaknesses and other overlooked considerations (security and safety in particular)! Such an individual (better yet, a group!) focusing his/her mental energies entirely on "destruction" would more readily expose what those who are focusing solely on "construction" might be overlooking.³

V. BRAINSTORM!!

    There is no one best way to accomplishing a task if you don't know what the other possible ways yet are! The idea is to rack your mind and use your imaginative and analytical capabilities to the fullest to discover what those other possible approaches may be so that you may then compare and contrast their feasibilities and pros and cons before trying to do something that you may later regret.

    You need to seek different ways of observing the problem which in turn may result in different ways of solving it so as to produce alternate courses of action you hadn't initially considered.

    To illustrate with several examples, consider all the approaches to solving differential equations or all the various chemical processes used to extract and synthesize various chemicals. No single method works 100% of the time, but each method has proven itself useful either in solving countless differential equations or in cheaply and safely extracting and synthesizing tons of chemicals from what raw products and devices are available at a given time. Ever pause to consider how each method was discovered?

    As another example, consider the possibility that a survey of your customers' preferences and/or habits might help you in making your decision.

    Would a carefully controlled scientific experiment help you in making your decision?

    Could a series of experiments conducted now perhaps yield a new approach or possibility later?

    Don't rely on your personal beliefs to guide you through your decision-making. Instead, stick to the tried and true scientific method of formulating hypotheses and conducting carefully controlled experiments to test their validity.

VI. Conclusion

    Decision-making isn't always so simple an affair as we humans would like to believe.

    Although we may be fairly adept at recognizing possible solutions to particular problems, given that the necessary competence level(s) is(are) met, optimal solutions aren't so easy to recognize.

    In some instances, years or even decades may pass before a “better way” is accidentally discovered or concluded as a consequence of exhaustive research and analysis.

    The point here is not to “rest on your laurels,” as the adage may be, but instead to continuously

• seek out and solicit experienced opinions and
• work your imaginative and analytical abilities to their fullest

so as to test and pursue different possible approaches that may subsequently yield a hidden, optimal solution.

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References:

1. New World New Mind: Moving Toward Conscious Evolution, 1989 by Robert Ornstein and Paul R Ehrlich: Click here for more from these two authors.

2. A Practical Guide for Making Decisions, 1980 by Daniel D Wheeler and Irving Lester Janis: Click here for more from these two authors.

3. "Managing the Crisis You Tried To Prevent,” in Harvard Business Review, November-December 1995, by Norman R. Augustine.

 

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