Many decisions in our lives have uncertain outcomes. What to buy: a bike or a gym membership? Once you buy a bike, you can ride whenever and wherever you want. By purchasing a subscription, you can exercise on simulators and swim in the pool. Everything seems to be clear, but why is it so difficult and sometimes even painful to make a decision?

The fact is that when we make a decision, for example, with two options, then on the one hand we gain something, on the other - we lose. Having bought a bicycle, we will not be able to go to the pool and to the simulators. And after purchasing a subscription, we lose the opportunity to ride a bike with friends in the evenings and get a lot of pleasure associated with it.

Therefore, even when we make the right, as it seems to us, decision, we experience pain. But in many cases the problem is contrived. For example, the flour of the morning choice - tea or coffee - is sucked from the finger. Both options are good. You can drink tea, forget about coffee and get maximum pleasure. For some, this is obvious, while the other will experience doubts and spend mental energy on a choice where it is not necessary to make it. So, why is it sometimes not important what decision to make? Because it does not affect the quality of life and is unlikely to negatively affect the future. If you drink tea this morning instead of coffee, it doesn't matter (let's leave the possible harm of coffee aside).

Therefore, the first thing to ask yourself is: is it really something important, or can you choose one option at random and not worry? Many successful business people who make dozens of decisions a day know this, so they try to relieve themselves of the burden of everyday worries. They wear the same clothes and eat the same breakfast in the morning. An ordinary person brings himself to stress already at the beginning of the day, because for him clothes and breakfast are of great importance. But actually it is not. Stop worrying about nonsense.

What really matters are the important decisions:

• Where to go to study?
• Which company do you want to work for?
• What product to start producing and what to refuse?
• Is it necessary to learn Chinese?
• What house to buy?
• What skills to develop?

The implications of these decisions are important. They allow you to lose or earn money, spoil or improve relationships with loved ones, lead to growth or degradation.

Find out which questions are important to you and which are not. And then read on.

Decision making process

1. Definition of a problem, challenge, or opportunity. Problem: which dentist to go to treat teeth. Opportunity: what will be more important in five years - knowledge of English or Chinese?
2. Create an array of possible options. You can find several dental clinics on the Internet, and then ask your friends.
3. Estimating the costs and benefits associated with each option. On the one hand, even treatment in an inexpensive clinic costs a pretty penny, on the other hand, you still need to be treated, because then you will be forced to pay ten times more.
4. Choice of solution.
5. Implementation of the chosen solution.
6. Evaluate the impact of the decision and change it if necessary.

You may not go through all six stages in every instance of your life, and not always in sequence. But even so, there should not be many difficulties in making decisions, because there is a step-by-step algorithm. Although life is usually not so simple. So what's the difficulty then?

Why is it so hard to make a decision sometimes?

Some of your decisions are so simple that you make them without thinking. But complex or ambiguous ones require more attention. These include:

• Uncertainty: many facts and variables may be unknown.
• Complexity: many interrelated factors.
• High Risk Consequences: the impact of the decision on your fate and the fate of other people can be significant.
• Alternatives: different alternatives may arise, each with its own set of advantages, uncertainties and consequences.
• Interpersonal problems: You need to predict how other people will react to your decision.

All this flashes through your head in a second, so you don’t even have time to understand why this viscous inner feeling appeared. One thing is clear: the more complex the decision, the more time you need to allocate for reflection.

How to learn to make decisions

Before moving on to solving specific problematic issues, it is necessary to develop a general mechanism for making informed decisions. It consists of three parts:

1. What you focus on. What you think about shapes you as a person and changes you. Many people focus every day on things they cannot control. You can make decisions based on what you have, what you can influence.
2. Make a decision not to focus on what doesn't work. Sounds weird, but that's what most people do. We are so accustomed to cast doubt on everything that we do not notice how instead of working solutions, we first of all sort out non-working ones.
3. Assess situations. Life is changing every day, you are changing, the people around you and situations in general. Some problems may not be problems at all.

But this is all theory. In real life, we think in specific categories and are often limited in our choice by many factors. Here are some practical requirements for the process of reflection that will allow you to consider any situation more carefully and soberly.

Make a decision quickly

Yes, in this case it may not be the best. However, even a bad decision is better than deliberation that drags on for days, months, or years. During this time, people psychologically put up with the fact that no decision will be made.

Successful, great people often make decisions quickly. They know that doubts and fears can ruin even the greatest undertakings. They change and adjust their plans as they go, learning along the way.

If you hate your job, why not make the decision right now to change it? Not to change, namely to make a decision. This means that you start looking for another job, improve your skills and prepare the ground. But you make the decision now, there is no need to delay.

Often we think along the following chain: information gathering - analysis - evaluation - information gathering - analysis - evaluation. And so on ad infinitum. Make a decision (you already know that you need to change the hated job) right now and only after that look for information that will help in the process of implementing your plan.

The more you wait, the more you will suffer. To be tormented by the fact that you perfectly understand the importance of making a decision, but do not accept it in any way.

Find a decision criterion

Should I take it? In many cases, everything is too obvious, in some - not. What are your criteria? For instance:

• What is good for me.
• What is good for my loved ones.
• What will bring money.
• That will bring experience and knowledge.

Gather information after making a quick decision

Again: do not confuse and swap the first and third points. If you need to study, make a decision here and now, and only then start collecting information, looking for books, self-study books, enrolling in courses (all this can be done a minute later).

When the decision is made and the goal is set, collect all the necessary information, having previously put forward a condition for yourself: I will take the next important step in this direction after so much time. For example, you decided to study English in the morning, gave yourself four hours to find all the necessary information, and at six o'clock in the evening you decided to call several English schools and choose the best one for you in terms of class time, distance, etc.

Analyze past decisions

It is important to understand two things:

• Why have you made good decisions in the past?
• Why have you made bad decisions in the past?

What happened then? What principles did you follow? Perhaps when you make decisions quickly and intuitively, they turn out to be the best in your life. Then do the same in the future.

Create a spreadsheet

It's very simple, visual and effective: all your choices on one screen with their ratings, pluses and minuses. This allows you to dive into the details or look at the big picture - depending on the goal.

Tony Robbins Method

Potential flaws in decision making can be avoided when you have a system in place to help break down options and anticipate potential weaknesses. It's called OOC/EMR. This is the decision method from Tony Robbins. He applies four rules to the very process of its development.

Rule one: all important or difficult decisions should be made on paper.

Don't do it in your head. This is how you end up getting hung up on the same things without reaching any resolution. The revolving of thoughts creates pressure and leads to stress.

Think about the last time you took a very long time to make an important decision. Or rather, they did not want to accept it. Months and even years passed, but the matter did not move forward. If you took a pen and paper, the decision could be made in one hour.

Rule Two: Be absolutely clear about what you need, why you want it, and how you'll know you've achieved it.

You must clearly understand what you want, what is the goal. Even if it is absolutely clear what you want, you may forget the reasons why you want it. WHY is what will make you follow your decision. This is where it appears.

Get as specific as possible about what you want, why you need it, and how you'll know when you get what you need.

Rule Three: Decisions are based on probability.

Don't expect complete and absolute certainty. In most cases, you will never get it. So, you have to give it to yourself.

No one can clearly say what the consequences of the decision will be. Yes, you need to collect information and analyze it, but no one can give a 100% guarantee.

Rule Four: Decision making is refinement.

In most cases, there may be multiple results. Find out what solution will bring the most benefit in all areas of your life. Sometimes benefits appear where you could not even think.

So we got to the decision-making process. Robbins calls it the fancy acronym OOS/EMR. It consists of the following steps:

1. Results.
2. Choice options.
3. Consequences.
4. Evaluation of options.
5. Damage reduction.
6. Solution.

Let's consider each step separately.

results

Tony Robbins starts by defining the results he wants to achieve. He asks the following questions:

• What will be the results?
• What exactly do I want to achieve?

This helps to create clarity about the results as well as to prioritize them. After all, there can be a lot of them, and they can carry completely different benefits.

Robbins: "Think first, then answer."

Choices

He writes down all options, even those that may seem strange. Why? Tony says that there is a principle here: “One option is not a choice. The two options are a dilemma. Three options - a choice.

It doesn't matter if you like any of these options, just write them down.

Consequences

Robbins tries to figure out the consequences of each of the options he came up with, asking each of them the following questions:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
• What will I get from each option?
• What will it cost me?

Options evaluation

For each option or choice, Tony Robbins asks the following questions:

• What results are affected? (this is what we discussed in the first paragraph)
• How critical are the disadvantages and how important are the advantages on a scale of 1 to 10?
• What is the probability, from 0 to 100%, that a negative or positive consequence will occur?
• What emotional benefit or consequence would result if I chose this option?

Robbins uses this step to eliminate certain options from the list.

Damage reduction

He then considers the consequences of the shortcomings of each of the remaining options. For everyone, Tony Robbins brainstorms alternative ways to eliminate or reduce damage.

You can lean towards one option, but still know that there are downsides to it. That's what this stage is for: think about how to reduce their impact.

Solution

Robbins selects the option that provides the most confidence in achieving the desired outcomes and needs based on the most likely outcomes.

He suggests the following steps in this phase:

1. Choose the best option.
2. Complete it to make sure it works.
3. Decide for yourself that regardless of whether the option works 100% or not, it will lead to victory (this way you can stop tormented by thoughts that choosing one option, we lose another).
4. Develop a plan for implementation.
5. Take action.

Books

You are unlikely to learn how to make decisions by learning a couple of methods. This is a process that takes years. The following books will help speed it up.

• "Problem Solving by Secret Service Methods" by Morgan Jones.
• "Refraction. The Science of Seeing Differently" Bo Lotto.
• "Guide to Lies. Critical Thinking in the Post-Truth Age by Daniel Levitin.
• “How not to make mistakes. The Power of Mathematical Thinking Jordan Ellenberg.
• Why are we wrong. Thinking Traps in Action by Joseph Hallinan.
• “Traps of thinking. How to Make Decisions You Won't Regret by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
• "Territory of delusions. What Mistakes Smart People Make by Rolf Dobelli.
• “Proactive thinking. How simple questions can dramatically change your work and life. John Miller.
• "Mental traps at work" Mark Goulston.

This article sheds light on only part of such a complex process as decision making. You can learn more about it in our free course "".

We make decisions all the time. Sometimes more than a hundred of them can accumulate in a day, and all of them will have certain consequences. This means only one thing: the quality of decisions determines the quality of our lives. When you achieve mastery in this matter, you will achieve success in many areas. We wish you good luck!

The question of choice will always be relevant for a person, regardless of his age, gender, nationality, education, etc. Life experience, of course, teaches, and over time it becomes easier to make decisions, but it does not at all give any guarantee that all decisions, without exception, will be correct and effective. Decision making is a skill that requires a lot of effort to master, as well as a fairly large amount of knowledge.

You can go here in different ways: either learn everything by trial and error, spending a lot of time and nerves on it, or look for an opportunity to get the required information in a structured and compact form, thereby saving your mental and time resources. We believe that you are on our site for a reason, and the presented Decision Making course was created to help you learn how to make decisions quickly and correctly.

From our course, you will not only learn that much of what is happening around is subject to specific rules and patterns, but also get acquainted with a variety of practical techniques and techniques, tips and recommendations that greatly facilitate human activities in everyday life, training and at work.

What is decision making and why is it important

We have to choose the strategy of our behavior in most life situations, and we always choose, even when it seems to us that we are not doing it. But the decision-making skill is, of the many options, the one that will affect the situation in the best way. Simply put, there is a certain objective function that helps to evaluate the "usefulness" of a particular situation. It can concern not only the person making the choice, but also his relatives, friends, colleagues, or in general the whole of humanity. And the ability to make decisions is the skill of choosing a scenario with the maximum value of the objective function. It is important to note that the choice is not always correct objectively - it is simply the best in the opinion of a particular person.

There are situations in which it is difficult to make a choice and make a decision. For example, the above objective function can produce the same values, different options can be equivalent, both scenarios can be equally valuable to a person. And if he cannot make a decision, he can be characterized as.

Another variant of difficulties with decision-making is expressed in the fact that the objective function is not set. In other words, a person simply does not know what he wants. This case is much more complicated and requires a more serious determination of the causes of the difficulties.

Based on the foregoing, the ability to make decisions is a whole set of skills:

• The skill of seeing the maximum number of possible solutions
• (objective function definitions) for each specific situation
• The skill of choosing one solution among all their many

It would not be superfluous to note that all these functions for a person initially (while he is in childhood) are performed by adults. But the older he gets, the more choices he has to make himself. And it is generally accepted that upon reaching adulthood, a person is already able to make any decisions that determine his future life.

A person develops further, and is already learning to make decisions that concern not only him, but also other people. Those. he learns to make decisions for others, for example, at home or manage employees at work. This skill is also very important, but it is also more difficult, because. the number of choices expands, and the objective function includes personal interests and the interests of others.

If a person does not know how to make decisions, he will be torn between options, which leads to inconsistent actions and even letting the situation take its course. And here it is important to note that he does not decide to do nothing, choosing this strategy as optimal, but simply does not make any decision at all, remaining a passive observer.

But such passivity is acceptable only in rare cases - when the situation is positive and does not require intervention. When things get worse, whether it's a specific person or a group of people, changing it always requires action. Actions are a reasonable act, and behind each of them there is a decision taken to perform it. A person who is not able to make a decision is also unable to take actions to resolve negative situations.

All this suggests that the ability to make a decision is, first of all, the ability to act, resolve situations, solve problems and improve one's own life. And how much a person owns this skill can depend on his own life and professional results, as well as the results of other people. And here is the time to talk about professional solutions.

The Importance and Significance of Management Decisions

The conditions of the modern market are very tough, and the competition is very high. In such an environment where all companies and organizations have similar technologies, high-performance, correct and rational decisions at all levels of management play a huge role in success, competitive confrontation and achievement of set goals.

Management decisions are defined as methods of purposeful influence on management objects, based on the analysis of reliable information characterizing a specific management situation, as well as setting the goal of influence and ways to achieve this goal.

Decision-making from this position is one of the main, and sometimes even the most responsible functions performed by managers or departments of organizations and enterprises. The need to constantly make managerial decisions pervades literally all areas of activity of leaders and managers. For this reason, everyone who is somehow involved in management must understand the essence of the decision-making process. The effectiveness of the organization as a whole depends on how adequate and timely management decisions will be.

Speaking specifically about Russia, in our country for a very long time there were no attempts to professionally train management personnel to make decisions. This was greatly influenced by the presence of an administrative-command apparatus, in which all serious decisions were made at the highest level of various departments and ministries. The lower levels were engaged only in execution.

But with the transition to a market economy, the responsibility for making managerial decisions has seriously increased at all levels. Each decision made began to influence the position of organizations, and there are no higher authorities controlling this.

Today, when the economy is developing very intensively, leaders are increasingly faced with the need to look for new ways to solve problems, which is associated with great risks. Management decisions associated with a large number of processes are now distinguished by the complexity of their development and a high degree of responsibility.

This determines the special importance among managers of different levels of the skill of developing, adopting and implementing highly effective management decisions, taking into account all prospects and risks. Actually, this once again indicates the relevance of the course offered to your attention.

Fundamentals of Decision Making

In this small section of the introduction, despite its theoretical and introductory focus, we still want to offer some useful recommendations, based on which you can now rethink something and increase the effectiveness of your decisions. The information provided will teach you to make better choices in education, work, business, family and friendships, and in any other area of ​​life.

Get rid of frames

When thinking gives you only two options: "Yes" or "No", you are trapped in the framework. Choosing between them, you get stuck in the boundaries of just one alternative and ignore the rest. Instead, you need to look for a solution in another plane, despite the desire and instinctive desire to keep everything simple and avoid diversity.

In addition, people often try to find an option between two extremes, despite the possibility of finding a compromise or the simultaneous implementation of both options without having to make a choice. Situations in which several options are available at the same time, although not often, but occur.

Never be in a hurry to make a decision. It is much more correct to try to see the maximum number of options. This will allow you to better orient yourself and protect yourself from the influence of emotions, which is not always useful.

There is no need to be overly attached to the goal that thinking initially sets for itself. From this, the ability to make decisions becomes inert, and we see only what confirms the decision, and what contradicts it remains unnoticed.

The obvious choice is not always the best one, and there may be better decisions behind it. It is dangerous to stick to one solution, and to expand the choice, a comparative analysis of other paths should be carried out.

Gather Information

Before making any decision, you need to collect as much information as possible on the current problem. It can be obtained from other people, from the Internet or books, from some other third-party sources.

A large amount of information will expand your vision of the problem, highlight the initially invisible details and subtleties of the issue, and make your understanding of the situation more objective. With a sufficient amount of information, it will be possible to evaluate all the pros and cons of the available options, and therefore make a choice in favor of the most suitable one.

Don't get emotional

As we said, emotions, especially momentary ones, often create serious obstacles in decision making. Due to emotions, you can lose sight of something important, focus on small things that often turn out to be insignificant.

Impulse and unconscious decisions lead to severe and not always reversible consequences, because in the process of such a choice a person is blinded by emotions and is not able to see the whole picture.

Set Priorities

For decisions to be correct, you must always. Many difficulties are due to the fact that a person makes decisions (or tries to do so) based on values ​​that do not correspond to basic priorities.

Think about it: why are you making a choice at all? How suitable are the available options for your parameters? Will you be comfortable after the decision is made? Only through understanding what you really need can you come to the right decision.

Among other things, decisions that run counter to priorities often cause internal contradictions and conflicts with oneself, and mental health largely depends on this. Remember that making the right decisions, in addition to everything else, you also take care of your health. Priorities are always higher for those decisions that contribute to the achievement of your main goals.

Consider simple solutions

Earlier we said that instead of one alternative, you need to look for several, but there are some limitations here. For example, a wide range of options similar to each other is far from simplifying the decision. If the number of such options grows, the number of variables that serve as the basis for selection will also increase. And the more variables, the more difficult the choice.

In this case, you can use advice from the poker literature, which says that you need to create space for simple solutions. You need to try to avoid the need to make difficult decisions. This requires not the first stages to determine the basic priorities in order to understand what is really important, and what can be overlooked.

By doing this, you, firstly, will save the lion's share of time for thinking and analyzing all the options, and, secondly, you will simplify the task of choosing for yourself, because. only the most optimal alternatives will be at your disposal.

Try

You can think about everything FOR and AGAINST indefinitely. But it's much more productive to just get started. Of course, this option is more suitable for cases where it is possible to run a "test" version of the solution. This will help you find out what prospects await you after making a decision.

Keep in mind that even employees are hired for a trial period to understand how they will work, and only then do they make a decision on admission. This is the same test case. If there is no opportunity for a test, then collect as much information as possible to make the most accurate predictions.

Set conditions

To make effective decisions, you can use a trick - to set certain conditions (preferably unfavorable), under which specific actions will be performed.

When making a decision, you can fall into the trap of overconfidence, believing that everything will be fine. But when faced with problems, you can no longer take a step back, being strongly attached to your decision.

The conditions we are talking about will make it possible to avoid this. This means that you must set several variables under which your decision can be reversed. For example, you decided to invest in an investment project, but at the same time you promised yourself that if in a year the investments do not start to make a profit, you will leave the project - this is your condition.

This method helps to avoid difficult situations, allows you to see hidden risks and prepare for them, indicate ways of retreat and look at things more realistically. In addition, you will be less attached to your decision and get rid of excessive arrogance.

Accept criticism

Sometimes it helps to make the right decision to accept criticism from the outside. But it is important to understand what you need to be able to do, because it is not always constructive, especially when it is a projection of the fears and expectations of other people onto its object. In criticism, the psychological background is very important.

But still, the criticizing person should be perceived as a colleague who helps you get rid of self-confidence and points out the weaknesses of your decision. Criticism helps to look at the situation from a different angle and include this view in your point of view in order to get a more objective picture of what is happening.

Do none of the above

No matter how strange it may sound, there are situations when you can not follow any of the above tips. They help make decisions when options are driven by advantages and disadvantages. But there may not be any shortcomings, right.

If you understand that there is nothing to lose by choosing one of the options, put everything said above aside, make a decision and just watch what happens. One simple rule applies here: if the choice is worthless, you don’t need to think long - just act.

As you can see, learning to make the right decisions is not as difficult as it might seem. Naturally, there are very few people given advice to fully master this skill, but for this our training “Decision Making” was created, which will also talk about other equally important things.

Decision Lessons

Our course includes five lessons that examine the individual components of the decision-making process. It has both a theoretical and practical focus, so the information you learn will be useful to anyone.

We advise you to go through the lessons in the presented sequence, but at the same time we recommend referring to auxiliary materials: we will give links to some of them, and you will have to look for some on your own (including books, the list of which is presented below).

Consistent passage of the lessons will allow you to better understand the features of making everyday and managerial decisions and assimilate the information in the best way, while being able to immediately apply new knowledge in practice. But let's clarify a little what kind of knowledge it will be.

Decision-making, as it is easy to see, is directly related to solving a variety of problems. But in order to competently solve problems, it is necessary to understand them, as well as to carry out diagnostics and comprehensive analysis. This can be called the basis of decision-making, and it is recommended to start mastering such a difficult skill from studying it.

In the first lesson, you will get acquainted with the concept of a problem and the types of problems, such as psychological, scientific, social, economic, managerial, environmental and other problems. You will also learn about the basics of diagnosing and analyzing problems and the methods used for this: histogram, control sheet, stratification, scatter plot, control chart, Pareto chart and Ishikawa chart.

Making decisions in general is much easier than making correct and reliable decisions. Decision-making is a psychological process, which means that it does not always obey logic and common sense. Hence the difference in the decisions themselves and the many nuances in the process of their adoption. Rational decisions are rightfully considered the most effective, but their other types should not be discounted.

In the second lesson, you will learn about intuitive and judgmental decisions, but the main part of it will be devoted to rational decisions and the process of making them, which consists of several stages: diagnostics, formulation of criteria and restrictions, identification of alternatives and their evaluation, final selection and implementation . In addition to this, we will cover four groups of decision-making approaches and the foundations of decision theory.

Not everyone can find the optimal way out of a difficult situation, and it is not always easy. Today, many different methods and techniques for finding and developing effective solutions have been developed. And the task of everyone who is interested in increasing their personal effectiveness is to understand these methods and techniques, and select the appropriate ones for each specific case.

In the third lesson, we will talk about the most popular and in-demand methods and techniques for finding and developing effective solutions today. Among them are brainstorming, synectics, Delphi method, idea engineering, focal object method, SWOT analysis, systems analysis, Eisenhower matrix, Descartes square, Bush ideas matrix and others.

Evaluating the effectiveness of decisions is just as important as making them, because thanks to this you can understand whether the actions were competent, whether it is possible to focus on them in the future, what help they can provide, etc. But everyday decisions and managerial decisions are evaluated according to different algorithms, and we will talk about them in the fourth lesson.

From it you will learn how decisions are evaluated in everyday life and what are the basics for evaluating management decisions, as well as get acquainted with the methods of their evaluation: index, balance and graphical methods, the elimination method and the comparison method, functional-system analysis and economic-mathematical methods.

As you yourself understand, decision-making is closely intertwined with human psychology. This topic is also very important for a more accurate assimilation of the specifics of this issue. One of the most popular and relevant research in this field today is the research of the Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who was awarded, among other things, the Nobel Prize for "the application of psychological methods in economic science, especially in the study of the formation of judgments and decision-making under uncertainty" .

In the fifth and final lesson of the training, we will talk about the psychological features of decision-making from the position of Kahneman and his colleague Amos Tversky. In particular, we will talk about two systems of thinking (fast and slow thinking), the prerequisites for the emergence of Kahneman's theory and the conclusions that he made thanks to his numerous experiments.

How to take classes

Training "Decision Making" aims to introduce you to the theoretical and practical foundations of decision making. Therefore, your task will be to approach the study of theory as carefully as possible and project knowledge onto the plane of practical application as quickly as possible.

1-2 days is enough to study each lesson, after which you can spend 1-2 days working in real conditions and studying auxiliary materials. Actually, practice should be present in your life all the time, because it will depend on it how quickly you master a new skill, and what results you can achieve.

Decision Making Books

The books that we have selected for you as additional materials are not just bestsellers that have earned popularity among readers around the world. In fact, this is a real storehouse of useful information about everything related to decision-making, both in everyday life and in professional and business life. The authors of these books are successful people who have managed to reach the limits of personal growth and productivity. Take advantage of the experience of these specialists, and serious results will not be long in coming.

Decision Making Books:

• "What will you choose?" Tal Ben Shahar
• "Why? Guidance for Finding Causes and Making Decisions. Samantha Kleinberg
• "Problem solving using the methods of special services." Morgan Jones
• "Jedi Techniques. How to raise your monkey, empty the inbox and conserve thought fuel. Maxim Dorofeev
• ". How to make the right decisions without doubt and stress. Guy Claxton
• Why are we wrong. Thinking traps in action. Joseph Hallinan
• “Microsolutions. A proven path to achieving big goals. Caroline Arnold
• "Territory of delusions. What mistakes do smart people make? Rolf Dobelli
• “Comprehension. The power of humanitarian thinking in the era of algorithms. Christian Madsbjerg
• “All the right decisions. A Guide to Creating Breakthrough Strategies. Konstantinos Markides

And to conclude this introduction, we want to give you some food for thought. We offer you a small selection of quotes from famous people about the importance of decision-making skills. Let them once again point out to you why you need to be able to do this, and what significance all this has in the life of each of us.

Celebrity Quotes About Decision Making

“Before you think about solving future problems, learn to cope with today's problems in the least time and with greater efficiency”

“We need to discuss often, decide once”

“With an open discussion, not only errors, but the most absurdities are easily eliminated”

“The weak hesitate before making a decision; strong - after "

“There are no problems, there are only unpleasant solutions”

"Every complex problem has a simple, easy to understand wrong solution"

"Recognizing a problem is half the battle in solving it"

“He who wants to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions”

“All problems have a technical solution, it’s just that the biggest problem is choosing the right solution and abandoning those that entail other problems”

“Greatness is not in going to extremes, but in touching two extremes at the same time and filling the gap between them”

There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to make a difficult decision. How to make the right decision when in doubt? What direction of study to choose? The partner with whom I am now will not disappoint me in the future, do I have love with him for life? Should I accept the offer or can I find a more interesting job? These are just some of the dilemmas most of us face.

The choice of what to buy - apples or pears, seems insignificant compared to decisions whose consequences can affect a lifetime. How can you be sure that you are making the right decisions? How to avoid internal dissonance, the impression that the option you gave up might be better than the one you chose? How to make difficult decisions?

Decision-making methods

Two decision-making strategies are mainly used - heuristics and algorithms. Thinking algorithmically, a person carefully studies and analyzes, compares the pros and cons of a particular option. Heuristics saves us time because it appeals to emotions, intuitions, preferences, internal beliefs, without "calculation".

It seems that in the case of a difficult choice, it is wiser to think things over carefully several times before making a final decision. Meanwhile, people are very often guided by their hearts rather than their minds - even in the case of making decisions that affect their entire life (for example, when choosing a life partner). How to understand what is best for us in this situation?

Depending on the rank of the problem, a person usually uses from 1 to 3 decision-making strategies. What methods are used in making life choices?

1. Obtaining information from others

When you do not know what to decide on, you often use the support of loved ones, friends, family. You consult, looking for additional information. If you need to make a difficult decision, you should consult with others, ask what they would do in a similar situation. Brainstorming, exchanging views with others helps to look at the problem from a new point of view.

2. Postponing a decision in time

If no one and nothing helps, take your time with the choice, give yourself time. You may temporarily not feel strong enough to make decisions that could affect your entire life. Postponing a decision until later can be a good idea, because during this time new facts may be discovered that will help make a choice. But it is important not to put it off indefinitely, in the end you need to decide.

3. Eliminate the worst options

When you have several different options and you don't know which one to prefer, make a choice, eliminating what seems to be the worst and least interesting. At the end of such a screening, there will be a better alternative.

4. Choosing the lesser evil

The choice is not always between good-better or good-worse: you have to choose between two not the most attractive options. How do you choose between two equally unpleasant alternatives?

You need to choose something that carries fewer potentially negative consequences, and come to terms with the decision. There are things that we simply cannot influence. Therefore, sometimes it is easier to accept the need to make a decision with bad consequences than to make such a choice.

5. Before you choose, analyze

This is a strategy related to algorithmic thinking. List the pros and cons of each of the alternatives and choose the one that has more positive consequences. In other words, a balance is drawn up of the gains and losses associated with choosing one option and rejecting the other. However, such a cold calculation is not always possible, because sometimes emotions take precedence over reason.

6. Act on the spur of the moment

Sometimes there is neither time nor opportunity to consider the proposals received for a long time. Then you need to make a decision spontaneously, immediately, on a hot hand. In this case, it is better to trust your instinct, inner voice. Not always, guided by emotions, we act recklessly. In retrospect, this turns out to be the right decision, so trust yourself and your intuition.

7. Descartes square

One of the most effective and simple ways to make a difficult decision. You are invited to analyze any situation or problem from different points of view. To make the right decision, answer four questions by looking at the figure below.

Be careful when answering the fourth question, because your brain will try to ignore the double negative and try to answer like the first one. Don't let this happen!

Why is this method so effective? When you are in a situation that requires you to make a difficult decision, you often get stuck at the first point - what happens if that happens? However, Descartes' square allows us to look at the problem in many ways and make a carefully considered and informed choice.

8. PMI Method

How to effectively make difficult decisions? You can use the Edward de Bono method - the PMI method. This abbreviation is a derivative of English words (plus, minus, interesting). The method is very simple. It is based on the fact that before a decision is made, it is comprehensively evaluated. A table is drawn on a sheet of paper with three columns (pluses, minuses, interesting), and arguments for and against are indicated in each of the columns. In the “interesting” column, everything is written that is not good and not bad, but at the same time connected with the decision.

Below is an example. Decision: whether to rent an apartment on the outskirts with a friend?

When this table is drawn up, a scoring is made for each of the arguments in accordance with the direction (arguments for are indicated by a plus, against - by a minus). For example, for some, more space is more important than pleasant company. At the end, the value of all arguments is summed up and it is determined whether the balance will be positive or negative.

The PMI method cannot be called innovative, it is not fundamentally different from how we make decisions in everyday life. He seems to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a given choice. Nothing is further from the truth. Most of us, when making a decision, actually take it for ourselves from the very beginning and then select arguments that would justify our choice. Even if it turns out that the decision we made has 3 more minuses, we will still choose it. People are actually not very rational, guided more by personal preferences, taste, etc. Pros and cons on a sheet of paper will allow for an accurate analysis, at least with a partial disconnection of emotions.

People are very often afraid of the consequences of their choices and do not like to make decisions. They would willingly shift the responsibility for their lives onto other people. Unfortunately, if we want to be happy, we must learn to solve our own problems and bear the burden of life's choices. There is no guarantee that others would do it better for us. We will never know if the options we ignored are better than the ones we chose, so don't weep over spilled milk and constantly regret the positives of rejected alternatives. Constantly lasting dissonance kills us morally.

The life of each of us is an endless stream of decisions. You constantly have to choose: what to buy, how to spend the evening, which profession to choose, which deal to accept and which to reject, etc.

Fortunately, in most cases, making the right decision is fairly easy. Our subconscious does not have to spend a lot of time choosing one of the options, since it is definitely better. But there are situations when it is not clear which of the chosen options will bring more benefit and less harm.

Remember the legendary movie "The Matrix" when Morpheus offered Neo to choose one of the pills. From the outside it may seem that choosing freedom and life in reality was easier and more correct than forgetting everything and continuing to exist in a fairy tale. In fact, most people choose the other side in their lives.

But we digress a little from the topic. So, there are situations when it is not easy to make the right decision. Each of the possible options has a lot of pluses and even more minuses that we would not like to receive. In addition, each of the options will have a lot of consequences that we could not even imagine.

2 approaches to decision making

There are two ways that can help us make a choice. We have used each of them in our lives, simply, someone chooses one more often, someone uses the second more often.

1. When to enable logic?

Careful consideration of possible options and their consequences is characteristic of making logical decisions. Using this approach, we can weigh the pros and cons, analyze the possible benefits and losses of each of the possible options.

The logical approach is best used in situations where there are many inputs and most of the consequences are easily predictable. As a rule, this approach is better applied in business and in any other business areas of life, in cases where the possible risks are very high.

2. When to use intuition?

Often we find ourselves in a situation where it is almost impossible to imagine the further development of events. There is no past experience corresponding to such situations, and there is no way to extract and analyze information from other sources. And you need to make a decision quickly, because "delay is like death."

In this case, there is nothing left but to listen to your intuition and not make a quick and unambiguous choice. Still, we will not be able to build any accurate forecasts.

The need to make such decisions almost always arises in personal life and in everything related to human feelings and emotions.

Regardless of which approach you tend to take more often, I recommend following these five principles to help you make the right decision:

Principle 1. Never rely on "maybe". Always make your own decision.

Don't wait for things to work out on their own or for someone else to do it for you. Indecisiveness is also a decision, but in this case you are no longer in control of the situation, therefore you are not in control of your life. Often people put off making a decision until there are no alternatives worthy of attention, and this is no longer a decision.

Consciously making a decision, however unpleasant, will prepare you in advance to accept its consequences and, most likely, it will be easier for you to cope with its negative consequences. Or maybe you can even find a way to get rid of some of the problems associated with it.

Principle 2. Make a decision quickly.

Postponing the decision for later, we tend to raise our bet in this game. As a rule, intuition tells us the best ways, but intuition only works for a short time, then all your past experience, fears, doubts and other nonsense that the brain is loaded with comes into play. All this only clutters up our consciousness and encourages us to make mistakes.

The sooner you can make your choice, the more time you have to prepare for its negative consequences. There will be time to “lay straw”, as a result, you will be able to get more out of the path you have chosen.

Principle 3. Once you've made your decision, take action immediately and don't stop.

Nothing delays the achievement of goals like procrastination. Once you postpone the implementation of your decisions, it will not be difficult for you to postpone them in the future, and this is fraught with the fact that you will never achieve the goals for which the decision was made. Often, what we thought about and decided to do is forgotten after a few days. The long box has not been canceled yet - it is in it that all our greatest achievements are stored.

Principle 4. Do not change your decision half way to the result.

Achieving any result takes time and effort. It makes no sense to expect that the result will come easily and quickly. And if you constantly change your decisions, then all this will look like Brownian motion (chaotic movement of the molecules of a substance, in which the substance itself does not move anywhere) and no result will definitely come.

Drive it into your head - you can get the result only by reaching the end.

If you have made a decision to become rich, then act to the end. If you decide in a week that it is difficult and it is better to become healthy. Stop saving money and start eating right. After another week, you will stop eating vegetables, because. you want a barbecue, and decide to be beautiful by playing sports. Then you can continue on your own.

Principle 5. The most important. Never regret your decision.

Often people believe that they made the wrong decision. It was necessary to act differently. The trick is that you can never know if you did the right thing, because. check is impossible. Always consider your choice as the only correct one.

For example, you bought a car, and a week later its engine broke down. The first thought - it was necessary to buy another, but, on the other, at the most inopportune moment, the brakes could fail. What would be better?

In fact, it is not difficult to make the right decision, it is much more difficult to take responsibility for its consequences! Follow these rules, they will help you and get outstanding results.

Good luck, Dmitry Zhilin

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what to do if you are a leader and you face a difficult choice? Remember, as in a fairy tale: one cannot be pardoned, one cannot be fired, and it is not clear where to put a comma. In this article, we will share several ways to make the right decision. This will help not only businessmen, but also ordinary people who find themselves in a difficult situation.

If you are trapped

Usually making a difficult decision is necessary in a difficult life situation. Stress affects a person in different ways: someone withdraws into himself, someone is worried and does not sleep at night, someone is hysterical and breaks down on loved ones. One thing remains unchanged: a person seems to fall into the trap of his own psyche, often he is not able to make a choice on his own and acts under the influence of emotions or close circle. Time shows that impulsive and ill-conceived decisions are ineffective and can ruin your business, career, your relationship, in the end. Remember: all serious decisions are made with a cool head. Therefore, before using the methods described below in practice, do this: turn off your heart and turn on your head. We'll show you how.

There are several ways to calm emotions:

• short-term - breathe properly. Take 10 deep slow breaths - this will help you calm down;
• medium-term - imagine that your friend is in such a situation and asks you for advice. What will you tell him? Surely discard all emotions and try to look at the situation from a distance, objectively. So try it;
• long-term - take a timeout. Just let go of the situation for a while, do other things, and after a week or a month, return to it. So you will kill two birds with one stone: firstly, you will cut off impulsive decisions and will not chop off the shoulder. And secondly, the right decision will ripen in your head on its own, like a ripe fruit - you just need to give it time.

Now that emotions no longer influence your choice, let's talk about eight reliable decision-making methods.

1. Method of pluses and minuses

Use the good old way: take a sheet of paper and a pen, draw the sheet in two. In the left column, write all the pros of the chosen solution, in the right column, respectively, the cons. Do not limit yourself to a few positions: the list should contain 15-20 items. Then calculate which will be more. Profit!

The essence of the methoda: even if you endlessly scroll through the pros and cons in your head, you are unlikely to see the full picture. Psychologists advise making written lists: this helps to organize the accumulated information, visually see the ratio of pluses and minuses, and draw a conclusion based on pure mathematics. Why not?

2. Make habits

This method is suitable if you find it difficult to make a choice in everyday matters. For example, to raise the salary of a new employee or not worth it yet, put on the site or another company. What to eat for dinner, in the end, french fries or fish and vegetables. A difficult decision, of course, but still not a matter of life and death. In this case, it is useful to consciously create habits for yourself and continue to follow them. For example, enter an iron rule: raise the salary of employees only after six months of work in your company. It is cheaper to buy stationery products exclusively from the Skrepka company. There are light and healthy dishes for dinner - you yourself will soon say thank you. Well, with the callback, you get the idea, yes.

The essence of the method: following habits, you will make simple decisions automatically, saving yourself unnecessary thoughts, without wasting precious time on nonsense. But then, when you need to make a truly responsible and important choice, you will be fully equipped.

3. Method "If - then"

This method is suitable for resolving current problems in business, team, personal life. For example, your employee speaks impolitely to customers and does not respond to comments. Question: immediately dismiss him or try to re-educate him? Try using the "if-then" technique. Tell yourself: if he once again allows himself to mistreat the client, you will deprive him of the bonus. If the incident repeats, fire.

The essence of the method:as in the first case, this is the creation of conditional boundaries within which you will act. The burden will immediately fall off the soul, and life will become much easier. And most importantly, you don’t have to waste time thinking and thinking about the fate of a negligent employee.

It was invented by the famous American journalist Susie Welch. The rule is: Before you make a difficult decision, stop and answer three questions:

• what will you think about it 10 minutes later;
• How will you feel about your choice in 10 months?
• What will you say in 10 years?

Let's take an example. Let's take a young man who works as a manager, does not like work, but tolerates it, because money is needed. He dreams of quitting, taking a loan and opening his own business - a small pub, but at the same time he is desperately afraid of burning out and losing everything he has. In general, a classic case when a tit in the hands is preferred to a crane in the sky.

It is difficult for our hero to take the first step - to quit his hated job. Let's say he does it. In ten minutes, he is unlikely to have time to regret his decision. In 10 months, he will have time to rent a room, equip a pub and receive clients. And if it doesn’t work out, he will find a manager’s job anyway, so why regret? Well, in 10 years this choice is unlikely to have any meaning at all: either the business will continue, or our hero will work in another place - one of the two. It turns out that if you follow the 10/10/10 rule, making a decision no longer becomes such a difficult task, because a person clearly understands what awaits him in the future.

The essence of the method: when making a difficult decision, we are usually overwhelmed by emotions: fear, anxiety, or vice versa, joy and excitement. A person feels it right here and now, feelings obscure the prospects for the future before him. Remember, as in Yesenin: “you can’t see a face face to face, a big one is seen at a distance.” As long as the future looks hazy and vague, the decision will be delayed again and again. Making concrete plans, presenting his emotions in detail, a person rationalizes the problem and ceases to be afraid of the unknown - because it becomes simple and understandable.

See also: Three real stories.

5. Decide within 15 minutes

Paradoxical as it may seem, the most important, strategic decisions should be made in 15 minutes. A familiar situation: the company has a serious problem that requires immediate action, but the bottom line is that no one knows the right solution. For example, competitors have done nasty things, and it is not clear what to do: to respond in kind or to get out of the situation with dignity. Or the crisis hit your company, and you are confused: move to a less prestigious place or lay off a dozen employees. How to make the right choice here, and is there one? And you start to pull, unable to make a decision, in the hope that everything will resolve itself.

If you do not know which solution is correct, just imagine that there is no correct answer in this life problem. Give yourself 15 minutes and make any, absolutely any decision. Yes, at first glance it may seem nonsense. But what about planning, but what about testing and verifying solutions? OK, if you can quickly and with a minimum of investments check the correctness of the solution - check it. If this requires months of time and millions of rubles, it is better to abandon this idea and immediately note the time.

The essence of the method: needless to say, if you play for time, nothing is solved: crises do not go away, rental prices do not decrease, and competitors become even more toothy. One unaccepted decision drags others along, the business sags and becomes inefficient. As the saying goes, it is better to do than to regret, than not to do and regret.

6. Go beyond narrow boundaries

The same as what we wrote at the beginning. Execute or pardon, buy a car or not, expand or wait for better times. One of the two, hit or miss, oh, was not! But who said that the problem has only two solutions? Get out of the narrow framework, try to look at the situation wider. It is not necessary to organize a large-scale expansion of production - it is enough to launch a couple of new positions. Instead of an expensive car, you can purchase a more modest option, to apply disciplinary measures to the offending employee for the first time.

The essence of the method: when there are only two solutions, there is more chance to choose the right solution, and many deliberately simplify their lives by dividing the situation into yes and no, black and white. But life is much more diverse: do not be afraid to look her in the eye and accept all possible options. The solution may be a compromise, a rejection of both extremes in favor of a third, completely unexpected solution, or a successful combination of two options. This often happens when the owner of a small business cannot decide what to do: sit on the phone, deliver orders, or engage only in managerial activities. Start combining - and then you will see what works best. This will be the best solution to the problem.