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Business Articles
Do You Practice Active Decision Making?
© Copyright Martin Avis. All rights reserved.
Many years ago when I was young and callow, I received an
invitation to attend a 'Decision-Makers' conference. Trouble
was, I couldn't make up my mind whether to go or not. I
didn't.
As the French proverb says, "Between two stools, you sit on
the floor."
Like a great many people before and after me, I had to learn
the hard way to actively take control of my life.
Prevarication is a poor master, but one that will rule you
with a rod of iron if you don't chose to stop it.
Banish from your mind and your vocabulary the words, 'I'll
think about it.' You won't. Something else will take your
eye and divert your attention. Unless you make a positive
decision to do or not to do, right now, you are very
unlikely to revisit.
Nobody ever became a success by hesitating. Success comes to
those who jump in and have a go.
I am not by any means suggesting that you should embrace
every hare-brained scheme or half-baked idea that you come
across. Far from it. What I am saying is that you must
develop the skill to actively decide what to do in any given
situation and not leave the result to chance.
For example, I get about 200 emails a day. Whenever I go to
my inbox I have to make quick choices about all the emails
waiting to get my attention:
Send it straight to trash
Save it in a pending file
Read it immediately
Forward it to someone else
Act on its contents
There may be other choices, but the point is made. If I
don't actively decide between these options I would very
quickly get an inbox so full that I would never get the
chance to act on any of them.
Life and business is very much like that. In this
twenty-first century we live in, only those who have
mastered the art of 'keeping up' can survive and thrive.
There is no room for procrastination.
Very often the only decision you need to make is whether to
act or not. Once you have made that positive commitment to
yourself, the 'putting into action' part of the equation
follows naturally.
Don't over analyze.
Often, the biggest hurdle to cross in reaching a decision
one way or the other is the fear that you haven't considered
all the options. Forget it! Unless you are being forced to
decide something completely outside your field of experience
you already have all the information you need. Your brain
has spent years sucking in data from all over the place. Let
that incredibly complex computer weigh the options for you
in the background. Your subconscious moves much faster than
your conscious thought processes.
There are two kinds of decisions.
The first kind are those that cannot be reversed. You have
to take longer over these, but there is still no value in
putting off the inevitable. In these kinds of decisions, a
maybe is the same as a no. You will have decided by default.
If it all goes wrong then, you will be at fault twice - once
for not deciding at all and once for allowing the wrong
outcome to happen.
The other kind of decisions account for the vast majority:
those that can be changed, modified or adapted after they
have been made. There is never any good reason to put off
actively making these decisions.
Go with your gut instinct. 90% of the time it will be right.
Even in the times it isn't, you can reverse it pretty
quickly. Don't be frightened of losing a little face. In
business, someone who has the guts to make a decision, and
then, in the light of new facts, the courage to decide to
reverse it, is someone destined for the top.
Don't think too far in the future.
Some situations try to force you to decide based on the
outcome in the long term. This is rarely sound. Of course,
the long-term objective is valid, but if it bankrupts you or
the company in the short-term, that decision is flawed.
When to avoid making a decision.
After all I have said about the power of positive decision
making, it might seem odd to condone the opposite. However,
it is just as valid to decide not to do something as to
decide to do it. The important thing is to decide.
Some questions are unanswerable and sometimes you simply
don't have enough facts to make an informed decision. In
these cases, your active decision is to wait, gather more
facts, or seek advice. 'Do nothing' is not an option.
I leave the final words to two successful businessmen from
opposite sides of the Atlantic:
'If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager,
I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to
gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a
timetable and act.' Lee Iacocca, former Chrysler chief.
'A lot of companies I deal with seem incapable of making a
decision. It doesn't matter if the decision you make is
right or wrong. What matters is that you make it and don't
waste your company's time. If you make the decision, you
begin to distinguish the good from the bad.' Peter
Kindersley, UK publisher.
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About the author: More plain speaking business articles by Martin Avis can be found at http://www.kickstartdaily.com
This article, and any others you find on this website are copyright Martin Avis. You are welcome to use this article in your own newsletter or website providing you do not change it in any way and that the 'About the Author' resource box is included with its live link.
Keywords: active decision making, decisive
action, making decisions.
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