How to Prevent Bad Decisions: Workplace Decision Making Examples
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When you were deciding whether or not to accept a new job offer, how did you come to your decision? What questions did you ask? What factors did you consider? Did you seek advice from another person? If so, why them?
Do you apply the same thought process for decisions within the workplace? Why, or why not?
Countless crucial decisions reside on managers. As a leader, managers are also the ones to take full responsibility if anything goes wrong. Therefore, it is important for managers to be skilled decision makers.
The scenarios below are bound to come up in a management career. We’re going to discuss a 3-step approach to navigating through those decisions.
Steps to decision making: the WAR method
In the book “Decisive”, authors Dan and Chip Heath discuss 3 common pitfalls people fall victim to when making crucial decisions.
“We rarely consider more than two options.”
Think about it. How often do you ask yourself, “should I go with Option A or Option B?” For example, to keep an employee or let go of the employee? To exercise or not exercise? To buy this item or not buy this item?
“We are blinded by short-term emotion.”
In other words, we often seek what brings us immediate comfort without realizing long-term effects.
“We have a false sense of certainty due to confirmation bias.”
Confirmation bias refers to our predisposition to mold new findings to fit our current beliefs.
To overcome these pitfalls, Dan and Chip refer to the WAR method.
W – How can I widen my options?
Situations are rarely black and white. There are often alternatives you may not be considering. The vanishing options test is one of several ways to help with this. It requires you to ask, “If neither of the current options are available, what would you do?”. Another method is to rephrase the question from “Should I do this or that?” to maybe “What am I missing out on if I choose this?”
A – How can I attain distance from short-term emotions?
Look at the decision from an outsider’s perspective. What advice would you give your loved one if they were in your shoes? Or, what would your biggest competitor do?
R – How can I reality-test my assumptions?
Would you pick up all of your belongings and move to a new country without visiting first? Most likely not. Find ways you can “try on” the decision before settling.
Let’s navigate a few common workplace scenarios.
Should I let go of an employee?
It would be a dream come true to have all happy employees who always deliver 110%. That will never be the case. Humans are imperfect and make mistakes. What would make you decide to fire an employee?
In this previous article with examples of top leaders admitting to mistakes, we shared how Sheila Marcelo, CEO and founder of care.com, decided to let go of an employee who publicly misrepresented the company through a reaction to a blog post. Not even three days later, she rescinded her decision and rehired the employee back. Why? She realized the infraction did not warrant such a severe punishment that ultimately played against their values as a company. If we were in her position, how could we have used the WAR method?
W - Instead of deciding between keeping the employee or dismissing him/her, other alternatives could be probation, a warning, or a write-up.
A - The public attention the employee caused was deemed “a little embarrassing for the company”, which could understandably be considered a big deal for one trying to grow at the time. From an executive’s standpoint, initial thoughts would be to ensure this never happens again, so disassociating ourselves from the source seems like a logical choice. However, what would the rest of the company outside of the decision-making room think?
R - Before deciding to dismiss the employee completely, maybe let’s try putting them on a one-month leave to see what the outcome will be. How will that affect the company’s reputation? What are the effects on the team and company culture?
Who should I hire?
Let’s say you need to hire on a new team member because the team’s responsibilities are growing and you need additional hands. Your goal is to hire someone within two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, you’ve had some good candidates, but you’re unsure. The team’s workload is piling up so you desperately want to hire someone. What’s your next move?
The deadline you set is up. Your team needs help. Deciding who to hire between the top two candidates would be logical. Will that still be the right decision after WAR?
W - Using the vanishing options test, if neither of the top two candidates were available, what are your other alternatives? One alternative could be to continue on as normal and keep interviewing. Another alternative could be to bring someone on from a different team temporarily. You can also rephrase the question to: how does this candidate fit our needs?
A - You’re under pressure, the team’s under pressure. If you were to hire one of the candidates now, it could relieve some tension since the work could be distributed more. However, will this person be a good fit in the long run?
R - Before bringing on any new candidate you’re unsure about, you could test to see if it’s crucial to hire someone immediately. Maybe the two week deadline wasn’t unnecessary. What other assumptions do you have that can be questioned?
Do we continue down the original path we took, or is it time to deem it as a failure?
In this scenario, you implemented a plan for manufacturing three months ago. So far it has cost $45,000 and yielded low results. What is the next move?
W - Aside from continuing with current production or stopping it immediately, what else could you do? The plan may not have produced results in the area you were wanting, but did it have an effect anywhere else?
A - Since $45,000 has already gone into the project, it might seem like a waste to stop now. Maybe the plan needs more time before it garners any real results. What would you tell your best friend to do if they were in your shoes?
R - Based on the answers from the previous questions, are there any small changes you could implement to test your theories?
When it comes to decision-making, the most difficult aspect is the unknown: unknown details that could affect your decision and the unknown results. By analyzing the situation using the WAR method, you can mitigate the unknown to increase the chance of a favorable outcome.
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