Decision making in the grey space.

We make numerous decisions everyday, from the smallest of deciding on the song to wish to listen listen to the magnanimous business decision which can be worth millions and impacting thousands of people, we take decisions, a lot of decision!

Decisions need to be taken when there are options available hence decision science is a non linear function. If there been were no options then there would not be a need to take a decision and a linear course of action would continue. Hence decision science is not black or white, it’s a shade of grey and the beauty is in choosing the right shade of grey for the situation.

Decisions comes in multiple layered complexity and as professionals one needs to make the decision most closer to the desired perceived outcome. These perceived positive outcomes are nothing but choosing the rights (whites) in the dense chaotic and overwhelming wrongs (blacks). There are no right or wrong decisions, it’s always the closeness to right or wrong, hence it’s called the grey area. As a decision maker you will always get a spread of options, concerns and comforts and between these you will have to take a decision, there is ever hardly going to be a clear white decision in terms of all maths falling in place. 

In this article I am listing down my thoughts to help create your decision making arsenal amongst all the greys:

Have an unstinted moral compass and ethical conduct

This becomes the foundation of your decision making model and unless this is strong and pure, one can never make a decision which can never be questioned in the future. This is an ingredient which can not be acquired or created, it’s inbuilt and goes to the very foundation of what we do and how we do it. They help to decide the what and why of decision science. There are never a right or wrong decision but in the eyes of the stakeholders, customers and street it’s always the right and wrong consequences which matter, when individuals and organisations stand in testimony of their decision then if one dwindles on their moral compass and ethical conduct it become an non-pardonable. Here there is nothing grey, it’s very clearly black and white. 

Decision’s shelf life

How frequent will you get to take a decision for the same challenge, if it’s frequent then you have multiple and quicker avenue to do a course correction to your decision, however if the context in which you are taking a decision would leave everyone sealed with no scope to make a course correction, then this will curtail a much deeper and detailed thinking to take and stand by the decision. Hence decision science changes on the temporal scale in terms of how often you can relook at your decision. A simple example- while you drive you take a million decision like steering your vehicle on one side and seeing the consequence in real time you change your decision and steer it differently. In contrary when you have to take a decision in an expressway as to which route to take, you will be super cautious as one mistake will set your course not in the direction you would want to go and will need larger effort to course correct. Take the above examples and replace it with tactical short decisions of business operation as steering correction and the express way route selection as the strategic organisational long term decision.

Sustainability and dependence of decision

Is your decision sustainable or does it have so many dependence that it renders it non practical to operationalise it. Consider that the decision taken today if it has to sustain in your absence will it be able to do so and is the sustainability of decision clear to its stakeholders and are your decisions dependent on you or too many other factors which you can not control. This also goes in to the concept of business continuity plan. Try to remove those dependent’s from your decision which you can not control to make your decision a a little less grey.

Spatial thinking ability for decision making

Your ability and dexterity to think across space of multiple parameters and create a mental model in space of your decision considering all parameters which forms the body of the decision becomes your unique skill to design your decision strategy and wade of blacks from your decision. Spatial thinking ability is an art one would garner with practice and with disciplined experimentation.

Decision courage

Taking a decisions and standing by it, both need courage. If individuals or organisations have the courage to stand for their decision, the it will establish them as people and/or management of substance. This is the toughest part and there can be temptations to deviate from the decision but a demonstration and conviction to stand for it with courage not only helps you reinstall faith on your decision but also build goodwill and intangible brand equity for the decision making bodies.

Know for what you can take decision 

One should know the domain where they can take decisions and it’s absolutely appreciated to stand and say that you are not the right person or the council to take a decision, in this case route it to the right person who can do it. This point needs to be read differently, it’s not about denial or avoidance to take decisions but it’s self realisation and assessment of how legit are you to take a decision in the situation.

Epicentre of the decision

This is a function of the decision if it is for self then the epicentre of the decision can be around you however when taking a decision for a larger audience and your outcomes impacts life of people and touches a larger ecosystem then the epicentre of the decision has to be spaced somewhere in between all decision makers. In an autocratic management style this may not be true however otherwise in all other situation this needs to be taken care of.

Psychological safety connected to the decision.

I wanted to end my points with psychological safety as many a times individual and/or organisations tend to not consider the outcome of their decision on the psychology of people concerned. Individuals and organisations who have been able to take decisions and take care of this avenue warrant a great deal of respect in the ecosystem they operate. Whatever decision one takes it impacts one or more individuals and necessary steps needs to be taken for psychological safety and this is not what’s good to do but it’s a must do.

Decision science is a much researched domain of psychological, science, management and technology; this article is intended to create a ripple in the minds of the reader and it’s about individuals to nurture their own decision making methodology after reading it.

Feel free to share your thoughts, feedback or to have a discussion around this.