Provocative ideas about decision making
Lets play with your thinking.
Here's a couple of ideas that are an opportunity to think differently about how you make leadership decisions…
In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell writes that too much information leads to poor decisions.
I don't think this will surprise you - too much information in any context is overwhelming (just think about how much information we try to cram into a Board report). But it gets worse. Stuart Oskamp ran a famous experiment that asked psychologists to diagnose a patient based on differing amounts of information. Interestingly, "their certainty about their own decisions became entirely out of proportion to the actual correctness of those decisions".
So not only can our ability to make an accurate decision decrease with more information, but at the same time we think our ability to make a decision is actually improving! It's a double whammy. We're overconfident when we're surrounded by data in the moment we should be hyper aware that our accuracy is impaired.
It's worth pausing and sending back that 30 page slide deck one of your directs just sent you. You need an Executive Summary and a conversation instead.
The second idea is to remember that logic and reason are examples of linear thinking. A + B = C.
The problem with this type of thinking is it is always historic. If we're basing opinions on facts, we can only use the past (things that have happened) as a reference. We have to work from known experience.
So logic can keep us stuck in the past and mean we struggle to create new ideas. When scientists are at work, they intuit a hypothesis and THEN get to work on the testing, experimenting, reasoning. The idea - the intuitive moment - comes first.
The next time you want new ideas for a product/ service/ solution to a problem - ask for gut reactions and blue sky ideas first. This will mean you have future orientated ideas that you can then build a solid rationale for based on past experience, logic etc.
The crucial part is the upfront creativity. I hope these two ideas spark insight for you this week. Interested to hear how they resonate in your leadership role - hit comment and let me know.
P.S. Turns out that lots of data and a logical approach can cause bad decision making. In a corporate role it can sound counterintuitive, but brevity and intuition are your friends.
P.P.S I'm designing a short course that helps leaders create confident impact in their first 100 days in a new role. I'd love to hear from you - tell me what areas you'd want to see included.
