Why People In Business Make Wrong Decisions
All entrepreneurs are self-reliant. I know – I’m a serial offender! But almost everyone who starts a company cannot make much of it without support from a whole range of people – both in the company itself and outside.
These people are always chosen to be the best, most reliable, the most trustworthy. So how does it come about that dynamic self-starters with handpicked teams frequently not only make mistakes, but costly wrong decisions too?
Part of the explanation comes from our personality profiles. The kind of people we are not only affects how successful we are with the outside world (customers, suppliers, the authorities and so on). It also impacts on relationships and effectiveness within the company itself. In my book, Decide – Better ways of making better decisions, I have included advice from acknowledged experts and a guide to the main personality types, and how you can cope with difference and similarity – and importantly pick successful teams.
But decision-making is not a straightforward process, and so-called Decision Traps lie in wait for the unwary. Below I list some of the most lethal. You may well be able to identify examples from your own experience.
Downside delusion
The decision-maker is so excited about a potentially exciting outcome (the upside) that he/she seriously underestimates how bad the downside could be if everything goes wrong. Most of us are optimists and it’s natural to be enthusiastic. But wise decision-makers always weigh up reward and risk, and it’s often sensible to turn down an option (however glittering) if the downside could be disastrous enough to break you.
Group failure
A group of really bright people cannot believe they can ALL be wrong! But it can happen – particularly if the balance of personalities in the room is skewed on the positive side. Ten people are as capable of being wrong as one. There is a related trap called ‘Confirming Evidence’ – when we are prejudiced in favour of people who think like we do. The trick is to make sure it is always someone’s job to be the devil’s advocate, and ensure frequent reality checks.
Information underload
Sometimes it is tempting to go ahead and make a decision even before we have all the data we need. And it can be fatal to press the button before you have all the necessary information and research. But this is where judgement comes in. It can be almost equally wasteful to insist on having more and more information to the point that the opportunity has been lost. That is ‘information overload’.
The early decision
This is a polite term for a hasty decision that can come back to bite you. Governments and ministers do it all the time. We are all inclined to kid ourselves we have thought things through when we haven’t.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santanyana)
Really bad this one – making the same mistake again and again.
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