Decision Making: Navigating the rough seas ahead

In light of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, I think we have all noticed a number of people make "bad" or questionable decisions, both from a business perspective and on a personal level. Observing this has made me want to touch upon why people make bad decisions and how you can you improve your decision making in this current time of crisis.

The future is uncertain! Uncertainty leads to anxiety which leads to bad decision making in the present. You see, as humans we aren't programmed properly to deal with today's modern environment. We are still hardwired to the hunter gatherer of thousands of years ago, where in adversity (say coming in contact with a sabre-toothed tiger) would trigger a fight or flight response. 

Now there aren't to many sabre-toothed tigers knocking about these days, however, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are seeing this fight or flight response displayed in people's day to day decisions all to frequently. Think of the ugly scenes in your local supermarket or the reports of increasing gun sales in the US...

Many people believe that the key to decision making is knowing your values (emotional bias) and making decisions off the back of them accordingly. However I believe the real trick to effective decision making is to align these values to a strategic, rational thought process. 

We all need to realise that the future will be different from the past. Our cognitive bias is to assume that the future will be the same as the past, however the reality is that the immediate future will be heavily impacted by the current crisis. As humans we like our "plans", however as we have seen with this pandemic a train wreck can steamroll your plans at any time, so its important to be resilient and flexible in your planning and decision making moving forward.

Start thinking longer term in your decision making process. Look at your business, your career or whatever your trying to achieve right now and think what are the outcomes of this scenario (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and how you can adapt/plan your decision making process to all three scenarios. 

Avoid the fight or flight response. Examine what fear or anxiety is driving those emotions. Try to take a step back, check your response and figure out what you need to do to get to your long term goal.

 So, yes the future is uncertain and the landscape of the business world looks increasingly unclear right now. However I believe with a change of perspective we can improve our decision making and come out of this stronger than ever.

I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and frustrations on this topic Hopefully by opening up a conversation, perhaps we can make a positive change and start improving our decision making collectively!