The Secret to Making Great Decisions

Human beings are hard-wired to be drawn to what is pleasant and averse to what is unpleasant.

Think about this: Helen must work with a difficult person named June. June is opinionated and believes her viewpoint is right most of the time. Helen has tried arguing with facts, and talking to June in diplomatic way but it hasn’t worked. Now the emotional experience of pervasive unpleasantness causes Helen to ignore June whenever possible. But they must cooperate on several projects and those projects are languishing.

Or take the case of Jeremy and Nanette. Nanette is a very smart and funny co-worker. Jeremy is smitten with Nanette by his own admission. When asked how that affects his decision making with Nanette he claims it doesn’t, but his co-workers complain that he seems to have no power of discrimination when it comes to looking carefully and thoroughly for the evidence behind Nanette’s arguments.

In both cases, emotions are clouding judgment and causing biases that lead to unsound decisions or lack of decisions at all.

Brian Wansink and his colleagues at Cornell University write and research food choices. They are experts at debunking biases by exposing emotional motivation. For instance, they’ve demonstrated that the reasons behind overeating and obesity are much ado about emotions and their power to cause delusional behavior. They’ve also discovered that many people’s respect for science can lead them astray when it comes to making wise choices. An interesting bias for sure!

What Are My Biases?

You can work to understand your own biases through mindful awareness and inquiry.

Mindfulness as a skill set trains us to:

1. See our emotions with more objectivity as they come to the surface, and then to observe how they affect our reactions.
2. Have a moment to pause before reacting mindlessly.
3. Use the pause to inquire: Is this the best way to respond to my aversion? Or, is my attraction to this choice really the one supported by evidence and solid experience?
4. Set aside the emotion for as long as it takes to make a decision that is evidence-based.

Here are a few tips on how to guide the elephant of emotion rather than ride it toward inferior choices:

• Understand that we all have cognitive biases that undermine our effectiveness. It’s not just you!
• Read and learn about the most common biases. Try Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahane (winner the Best Science book of 2012).
• Train yourself in basic mindfulness. Apply the tools of mindfulness to observing emotions. Acknowledge tendencies to be deterred by unpleasantness, and drawn towards by pleasantness.
• Avoid making choices when you are driven by emotional responses.
• Hit the “Mindful Pause” button and take a few minutes (or much longer) to sort out the best choice.

You're invited to preview my course, Thriving on Change: The Evolving Leader's Toolkit for free here. Module 1 is available for purchase.

Elad Levinson, head lecturer for the Praxis You course Thriving on Change, has over 45 years of experience as a leadership coach and organizational consultant. He’s currently the Senior Organization Effectiveness Consultant at 4128Associates. 

Elad has been a senior organization development and learning and development professional at Agilent, Stanford University, ICANN and several start-ups. He was the first to apply the stress theory to business and leadership at many of these organizations.