Reducing Bad Decisions #2

from Linked In 7/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 11/13

(1) Separate the initial Decision-Maker from the Decision-Evaluator.
Once you’ve made the initial decision, you’re no longer in a neutral position to decide whether to keep investing in that course of action. Since you’re biased in favor of sticking with the decision (promoting a weak product, keeping an under-performing employee), it’s valuable to delegate the decision to someone who can take an un-biased look at the facts.

(2) Create “Accountability” for Decision processes, not only outcomes.
Many leaders like the idea of holding people accountable for the results they achieve. That way, employees have the freedom to choose different methods and strategies, and we don’t have to monitor their work along the way. The problem with this approach is that it allows employees to make faulty decisions along the way, convincing themselves that the ends will justify the means. Long before outcomes are known, asking employees to explain their decision processes can encourage them to conduct a thorough, evenhanded analysis of the options. Process accountability can be applied to our own choices, too. It just means setting some criteria for the decision process in advance.

(3) Shift attention “away” from the Self.
Once you’ve learned that an initial choice didn’t pan out, your focus immediately turns to your pride and your reputation. If you consider the implications of the decision on others, you can make a more balanced assessment.

(4) Be careful about Compliments.
When we praise people for their skills, it can go one of two ways. It can reduce escalation by protecting the ego, allowing people to feel good enough about themselves, that they’re comfortable acknowledging a mistake. But it can also increase escalation by inflating the ego, causing people to become cocky: they couldn’t have made a mistake. Which way does it go?

Comments: What are ways that you use to reduce “bad” Decisions?