[Haverg]

Effective decision making is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are a lot of factors that goes into making an effective decision. Your decisions tend to shape your life for the future. A bad decision can destroy you and I mean, literally. Others, well not that fatal but can leave you in hot water.

Good decisions relative. Simply scoring high marks in a test is a good decision because you studied hard. Many want to earn distinction and their decision to go extra length in studying for the test is a good decision for them or you can buy essay at Writing Bunch. So you see, it’s relative. However, effective decisions are when you have to choose between alternatives.

What will be the best course of action should I undertake this task or project for that matter. After evaluation, all options, effective decision making comes into being. Let’s study some tips in this regard.

1. The Two-Minute Rule

Try completing an action within two minutes. Challenge yourself today. It's classic advice by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done.

2. Make Minor Decisions Fast

People usually spend a lot of time on making small decisions. For example, which color clothing should I wear to a certain party/occasion and this is frankly, quite common. And we spend hours wondering what and what not to wear. Therefore, make up your mind and be quick about it so you can move on with life.

3. Pick Up The Phone

We tend to email or text to communicate these days, unfortunately (whatever happened to good ol’ conversing over telephone days). This slows decisions down. You wait for the reply and put off matters until you hear from the person to take certain action.

To speed up, simply pick up the phone and converse. Talk with him and seek resolution or address the problem right there. Even if you can’t reach a decision by having talked to the person, you’ll still have a more concrete picture and with that information, you can prioritize.

4. Establish Criteria For Major Decisions

Major decisions are tricky and demand time. A lot of thought of goes into reaching life-altering decisions or those requiring to set up projects such as dam building, academic curriculum, opening up of other stores, matrimonial, selection college/university moving business offshore etc. because a budget has to be specified along with certain deadlines.

5. Avoid Big Decisions Before Lunch

It is being said that do not take decisions (major ones) if you have not had your lunch. No kidding, it’s been statistically proven. This implies that if you have the necessary amount of energy and focus, you are naturally in a better position to take effective decisions.

6. The Halo Effect

The halo effect is concept whereby you, under an overall aura of the individual’s personality, take decisions. In organizations, usually star performers are preferred over others. The projects are considered to be in safe hands if a team of star performers is aboard its ship, according to managers.

The downside to halo effect is you are judgment is being clouded by their appeal and skills package. What managers fail to realize is that they are human beings too and star performers are bound to entail some weaknesses that may not be in sync with a particular project and that someone else can be a suitable fit who is not a star performer.

Hence, be mindful of such decisions before they cause irreparable loss.

7. Availability Bias

This is something we need to combat. Combat in the sense that we need to dig deeper. Information which is readily available and easily accessible is most adopted or utilized. Whichever project you undertake it is imperative that should look in other ‘dark corners’ as well instead of looking at what’s in plain sight.

You need to ask yourself and your team, how differently can we solve this issue or from what another angle can we approach this problem? You know, brainstorm and not become confined to your comfort zones. Innovate, that’s how your project stands out! This bias is a surefire way of settling for mediocrity.

 

In addition to above tips, the ideal way to go about doing things especially decision making to employ an ‘underdog tactic’. Because of this, you will escape the information curse – the all-knowing trait that I have x experience and y knowledge. It is how you limit your project from being truly spectacular!