What is a good decision?
Just because you get the result you were hoping for, doesn't mean that the outcome was based on good decision-making.
How do you know if the decision that you making is a good one?
One would assume that if a decision in the past gives you the result that you were hoping for in the future - that the decision was then good.
That's not necessarily true.
If you make the decision to drive home drunk, after a big night out, that's an extremely poor decision. Even if you get home safely having driven the whole way while pissed - it was still a very poor decision.
Just because you get the result you were hoping for, doesn't mean that the outcome was based on good decision-making. In the driving home drunk example - the exact opposite is the case. A fair amount of good luck would have come into play in this situation; relying on getting lucky to achieve the future you desire is obviously very risky.
Similarly, very good decisions can also result in an outcome that you didn't want. Just because you didn't get what you wanted doesn't mean that the decision was bad.
We wrongly judge the quality of our decision-making on whether or not the outcome that was achieved was favourable.
This error of judgement is dangerous.
It makes us believe that we are somehow better at decision-making than we actually are, and when the luck runs out the results can be disastrous.
Good decisions and good decision-making have nothing to do with the outcome they achieve.
A good decision is one that is made through a thorough process of weighing up the options available, one which carefully considers all the relevant factors that may affect the outcome and seeks an informed judgement based on the understanding that the information available to make that judgement is limited, so luck obviously also plays a key role in the eventual outcome.
The decision-making process is something that you can control and can always be improved, and with any luck - the better you get at it, the luckier you become.
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Jonathan Cherry
Clarify your strategic intent
Over the years, Jonathan Cherry has consulted with numerous organisations helping them clearly define their strategic intent and strategy map for accelerated business growth and resilience in uncertain times.
If you need a facilitator to take you through this process for your organisation, please get in touch here to chat with Jon.