It's easier said than done. Can you even learn to make the right decisions - especially when time is short?
Decisions are part of everyone's life. Some decisions have great consequences for both you and your surroundings - others have almost no consequences. Some people make decisions with ease and others find it very difficult.
Making the right decision has always been important. Empires have fallen, wars have been lost, companies have gone bankrupt due to bad decisions. Conversely, many have followed their intention and found their way to ground-breaking inventions and experiences. So it is definitely worth working on your ability to make good decisions.
The process can roughly break it down into the following elements:
How important is the decision to you?A career choice is of course more important than whether you choose sugar in your coffee. The more important a decision is, the more considerations you should make.
How much time do you have available? On your way into a traffic accident, you may have a second or two to decide whether you want to stay on the road or rather drive into the ditch. If it's a career choice, you usually have more time.
What is the consequence of the decision? It may well be that the decision has almost no consequence for you, but what about your children, your spouse or your colleagues? They must also be considered in your decision-making.
Which resources does the decision require? Can you handle it all yourself? If not, who do you need help from? What resources do you need? Money, material, space? Do your helpers have the time and resources to give you? Do you trust them and their unbiased advice? It's always a good idea to ask.
Do you have any influence to make the decision? I see a lot of people get stressed out over things they have no control over. The climate crisis takes place on many levels, where we as individuals can act in some areas we find important, while others are out of reach. We can demonstrate and seek political influence. We can make sure that we ourselves live #climateneutral.Sometimes it doesn't help to let yourself be influenced by things that you have no influence on in order to instead focus on the things that you can change.
A question of life and death
As an old officer, I am used to making decisions under severe time pressure that can have major consequences. I once experienced, as a young sergeant in training, lying bewildered on an autumn wet road with my group which had been fired upon from a hill. It took too long to think, so the officer in charge of the exercise calmly asked:
“Young Majgaard, what are you up to?”
He then commented: “They have three choices; attack straight on, attack right about, attack left about.Staying here is not a choice because it is certain death. You will only know what was right when you stand on top of the hill up there. Put into action.”
The learning from here has been a valuable gift that I have taken with me in my career.
If a decision is needed, it is better to make one, than not doing it.
Break the decision down into something manageable. Use the data you have available. And then get started. Evaluate your decision when you can see the results of it. It can be boiled down to:
Look, Think, Plan and Do - with a final Evaluate.
In the Armed Forces, there is rarely time for the big chrome-plated considerations, because you cannot ask the enemy to respect your planning or lack thereof. This is one of the reasons why you work with simple aids, such as to-do lists, standard recommendations and school solutions. Together, they provide a strong basis for making a decision - and because they are well thought out, they leave room for improvisation. The 75% is given in advance, so you only have to fill in the last 25% of the plan yourself.
In reality, it's not that difficult at all
As a leader in business, where your decisions do not always have to be made with a militaristic mindset, we are often influenced by many other factors when we have to make decisions. Therefore, many companies have worked to get their #CodeOfConduct in place, so that all employees have a framework for how we behave here in "every imaginable situation".
But it is difficult to foresee all the details of pandemics, hacker attacks, logistical breakdowns, terrorist attacks and other critical conditions, so it is more about your own condition in the given situation.
Be clear about your goals and your values
If you have made clear what you want with your life and how you want to be while living it, it will be much easier for you to make decisions that bring you closer to your goals and ensure that you remain in full integrity with your values. And in those cases, you will always find that you have made the right decision based on the information you had available at the given time.
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