Whoops, Apocalypse

Lewis Hamilton's team made a quick decision and as a result a certain win became a third place in the space of the blink of an eye. What makes Mercedes error more surprising is that they had a full understanding of all the variables they needed to get the decision right. That highlights that under pressure decision making can force errors that have profound impacts on results.

In business we often have to make a snap judgement. The more we can do to remove pressure and garner time the less likely we are to make mistakes and errors. A typical example might be whilst pitching for a large contract, where an unexpected question may lead us to trip up. The pressure of the moment may lead us to making a costly commitment, or pricing error.

Be prepared, plan for what might happen, research and gather relevant data. You might still get a surprise decision to make and when you do the likelihood of getting a winning outcome will be proportional to your preparation.