In my sabbatical research on improving my decision making, I found a simple technique to make better decisions – have more than one option.
In a study of business decisions Paul Nutt found that only “29% considered more than one alternative” (Heath and Heath*, pg 37). The problem is that decisions with only one option, like “Should we buy this product or not?”, “failed 52% of the time over the long term, versus only 32% of the decisions with two or more alternatives.” (Heath and Heath, pg 37)
When we have more than one realistic option, we tend to ask better questions of all of them, and make better decisions.
What are your best practices of decision making?
*Quotes taken from Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath.