Decisions, decisions

Choosing the right option becomes easy when you learn how to categorize your decisions.

by Roger Dawson   The decisions we make become the building blocks of our lives. Some of them are good, some are brilliant, and some are disastrous. We’re conscious of the major decisions we make in our life because they cause us stress and mental anguish. But it’s not just the major decisions that affect our future.

Decision-making is something we do a thousand times a day, and nothing affects our lives more than our ability to do it right. All that lies ahead of you—your hopes, dreams, and goals—depends on your ability to make wise decisions.

Many ways exist to analyze a decision, from tossing a coin to complex computer programs. However, the foundation of good decision-making is not analyzing the choices you have; it’s categorizing the decision correctly. Do this right and the correct choice is much easier to make.

Here are eight ways to categorize your decisions that will help identify your available options.

Does the problem deserve a decision?

We all waste time trying to make a decision about something that doesn’t deserve one, like the following example:

I was driving to Houston one night and with 90 miles to go found myself dozing at the wheel. I saw a billboard for a motel, but as I was about to pull off, I saw another billboard that looked better, so I kept going. Several times I was tempted to pull off, but I kept on going in the hope of finding something better. I couldn’t decide.

Because the long-term consequences aren’t great, this decision should immediately be made by establishing parameters. The driver should decide what attributes in a motel room he will and will not accept, and take the first thing that doesn’t violate those parameters.

If he decides the room must cost less than $50 and be clean, then the perfect decision is to pull off the highway and take the first motel that meets those criteria.

Is it a problem or an opportunity?

We tend to jump on problems and let opportunities slide by because the problems seem more pressing. It’s easy to spend all your time on problems with no time left to take advantage of opportunities. Try reversing that philosophy and see what happens. If you’re in trouble, try spending all of your time on opportunities, which are really the answer to your problems, and see if most of the problems don’t go away of their own accord.

Is it covered by a policy?

Whenever faced with a decision, you should first look to see if an existing policy tells you what to do. For example, a man runs a company that distributes garden tools and equipment. One of his buyers offers him a shipment of new bicycles at 25 cents on the dollar. It sounds like easy money, but he can’t decide what to do.

The man should check his corporate mission statement. Policy probably dictates that this man should stick to the gardening-equipment business and leave bicycles to someone else. Unless his company’s policy is to look for new industries to enter, he shouldn’t be tempted by this offer.

Pigeonhole the decision

To further categorize the decision, you can place it into one of four pigeonholes:

1. There is a decision with concrete principles involved. There is a right answer and a wrong answer, and you must choose between them.
2. Several choices are available, and you must pick the best answer.
3. You don’t see any solution to the problem. For this you need to create options before you go ahead.
4. It’s a "go" or "no go" decision. Should you do it, or shouldn’t you?

Is the problem real or imagined?

All too often, we overreact and spend time and energy on problems and opportunities that are illusions. In many newsrooms, you’ll find a big sign that says: "Nothing is as bad or as good as it’s first reported." It teaches the reporters not to overreact.

Is it a money problem or a people problem?

You will encounter only three different kinds of problems: those that involve money, those that involve people, and those that involve both. As this example illustrates, people get all tangled up when they confuse them.

My 20-year-old son is driving me insane. I love him, but I can’t stand him living at the house anymore. He’s driving me crazy with his late-night carousing. I’ve tried laying down ground rules, but nothing seems to work.

I ought to throw him out of the house, but I hate to break the ties completely. He’s my son, and I might never see him again.

This mother is confusing a people problem with a money problem. When I suggest she give her son $400 a month to rent his own apartment, she tells me that would solve everything—but she doesn’t have the money to give him. It isn’t a people problem; it’s a money problem.

Determine what happens if you do nothing

A lot of people call my office for advice with their decisions. I’m always happy to talk to them if I’m in the office, or, if I’m away on a speaking trip, I return the call when I get back into town. Over the years, I’ve learned that if I’m not able to call them back for a few days, more than half the problems resolve themselves by the time I return the call. In those cases, the best decision was to make no decision at all.

So determine what will happen if you do nothing. Will the situation get worse or better?

How unique is the problem?

If you’re bogged down with a decision, it’s probably because you haven’t faced it before. Assuming that’s true, there are three possibilities: somebody else has faced the same problem, nobody has faced this decision before, or underlying causes are exacerbating the problem.

The first possibility is that even though the problem is new to you, somebody else has experienced it. This might be a situation where you have a sick relative, or you’re having family or business problems. To resolve these types of problems, consult an expert, such as a doctor, attorney, or marriage counselor. Sometimes you agonize for years over a problem you think is unique only to realize that experts face the same problem dozens of time a week.

The second possibility is just the opposite. The problem is so unique that almost no one has faced your decision before. The ultimate example of this is NASA. The decisions faced by the space agency often have never been seen before. In order to solve these problems, you need to be very creative to expand your possible solutions.

The third possibility when the problem is unique to you is that of underlying causes exacerbating the problem. For example, perhaps you own three greeting-card stores and one of them is always losing money. Should you close it down? Underlying problems are causing the store’s poor performance and presenting you with a difficult decision. Addressing those problems will determine what action you should take.

The art of confident decision-making starts with correctly categorizing the decision. Only when you have done that are you ready to move on to what most people think of as decision-making, which is selecting one of the choices available to you.

Roger Dawson, CSP, CPAE, is a negotiating expert and leading sales and management speaker, as well as the author of Secrets of Power Negotiating and Power Negotiating for Salespeople. Copyright© 2002, Roger Dawson. All rights reserved. For information about his keynote presentations and training sessions, contact the Frog Pond Group at 800/704-3764 or e-mail susie@frogpond.com.

Photo © Artville.

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