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When you went to school, it was the answers that were important…or so you were told. You were graded on how many right answers that you could come up with. You were taught that there is only one right answer and that everything else is wrong. Maybe in some classes you could get partial credit if your “showed your work” and you used the “right” process but came up with the wrong answer. The problem is that most of the challenges that you come across in business, and in life, aren’t the kind where you are solving for “X” with only a couple of variables.
For most decisions, there isn’t one right answer. But we are so indoctrinated into the idea that there is a “right” choice, that we get stuck in a spin of indecision. What is the “best” thing to do? It’s time to give up that idea. Stop waiting for someone to tell you that you have the “right” answer and that you get an “A”. There is no right answer, only different choices with different results. Different benefits. Different costs. No right or wrong…only different. So then, which one is better?
To judge one as better than another requires us to answer the questions – “Better in what way?” – “Better for whom?” – “Better based on what criteria?” In other words it is based on the values of the person making the decision. And that is where we get stuck. Everybody is different. We often times share similar values but even then, when comparing things, we need to rank which value is most important.
So rather than thinking about the “right” or “best” answer, we need to instead think more about the questions. Life is more about the right questions. What are the questions that we need to ask to find the best course of action, for us and our business? How can we get advice from others if we don’t know how they are deciding what is best? So we have to be able to evaluate based on our own criteria. Criteria that you develop based on you, your business and what you are trying to build. If you don’t have this framework, you can end up listening to advice that doesn’t fit at all…leading you to a a result that you never intended.
This is one of the hardest skills in business and in life – the art of decision making. Some deal with it by not dealing with it. By forever considering the options and never moving forward. Not deciding is a decision of sorts…the decision not to move forward. Most times we don’t decide because we think we don’t have enough information. You never can have perfect information. You won’t be able to predict all outcomes. And sometimes more information doesn’t really help. What helps is to embrace the uncertainty. Accepting it helps you move forward.
Start with your theory about how you can achieve the result that you want. You have an idea about what will take you there. Then it is a process of trying to either prove or disprove that theory. Get advice from others. Get advice from the smartest people you can find. Get advice from people who completely disagree with you. It will challenge your thinking. Stress-test your ideas. What are the consequences of being wrong? Can you minimize the risk?
Then it is about the feedback loop. Reflecting on the realities of the consequences of the decision. This sounds easy enough. But in fact, it is probably one of the hardest parts. Dealing with the realities of life is a skill. We tell ourselves all kinds of stories to explain why things happened the way they did. Stories that help us not deal with reality. Because dealing with reality is hard. It is especially hard to deal with realities that are our own short comings. It is easier to blame the economy than our own product or service, for example.
So the hardest question you can ask is, “Is that true?” But this is the most important question. Truth helps you deal with reality. Even if it is negative. Especially if it is negative. Have you made a mistake? Is what happened a result of your personal weakness? All of this information is valuable in the assessment. Only by having as accurate an answer as possible can you effectively deal with reality. If you continue to delude yourself, the problem will persist. That gives you a clue about where to identify blind spots. What problems do you have that keep coming up? Why haven’t the solutions that you have tried resolved the problem? Is that really the problem? Or is it something else that is causing the problem? Something we have been reluctant to address?
It is the disillusion that keeps us stuck. Not properly facing what created the problem in the first place and therefore “fixing” the thing that was never broken, or telling ourselves that nothing can be done about it. The more effectively we can face and deal with reality, the more successful we will be in our business and our life.
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