#decision-making

#decision-making

Well, the answer does depend on the person and the circumstances of the dates. Dates are, in essence, experimental samples of what the person may be really like. Naturally, the more samples you have, the more accurate picture you'll have. At the same time, each date does come with a cost in time, effort, and faith in humanity. Therefore, you don't necessarily want to be saying,

Erin is a smart cookie. She manages complex projects for a living. She maps dependencies, anticipates risks, and can predict how a small change will ripple through a system. Yet when it comes to her own life, her thinking feels fuzzy and reactive. She's brilliant at analysis, just not when the subject is herself or topics like parenting, communication with her partner, or what type of balance she wants.

I've spent more than two decades working with leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams around the world to help them become more strategic in how they think, act and make decisions. Along the way, I've seen the same frustration crop up over and over again: people know strategy matters but don't know how to "do" it. The good news? Strategy-and being strategic-isn't a mysterious skill reserved for those sitting around the boardroom or graduating from business school.

Believe it or not, emotional reasoning is neither rare nor uncommon. It is present when we feel jealous and conclude that our partner is cheating on us, with no reason or evidence to back this assumption up. It is in play when we feel judged and scrutinized, without a single remark or event as proof. It can negatively impact our impression when meeting a prospective employer triggers anxiety.

When faced with a difficult problem - and how to spend money in a way that will improve your life certainly is - it can help to work backward, reducing and excluding what doesn't work until what's left over is a decent approximation of favorable traits. Evolution works in similar ways, so thoroughly destroying what doesn't work that what's left over tends to work quite well.

There was a lot of good, and there was stuff we have to work on, obviously. We did a good enough job to win the game. I thought our third period was our best period. We did a good job protecting the lead and closing it out. The goalie was good. We had some players who were really good tonight. Overall, our puck play wasn't great. That was the root of our problems, in general.

Sometimes waiting for someone to show up or for a situation to develop becomes a waste of time, rather than an exercise in diligence. It's such a fine line to walk. Knowing when to cut bait and when to hang on. What if the promise materializes the moment after you've walked away? Conversely, what if you're left checking your watch and tapping your foot only to realize there's suddenly egg on your face?

Economists have some great tools for doing so, but Thaler got the field to appreciate that human beings, as impressive as we are in many ways, are subject to certain limitations that psychologists know a lot about. Those limitations, such as myopia, sloth and a fear of loss that exceeds the love of gains, have to be taken into account if we're going to truly understand economic decisions.

Thinking forward is an automatic process. Cause, then effect. Input, then output. A to B. It feels logical-and normal to start with a conclusion, then find justification around it.But we can always take our thinking a step further. Sometimes, the best way to get the answers you want is to think backwards. It's called mental inversion. Turn the whole thinking process upside down. As the great algebraist Carl Jacobi said, "Invert, always invert."

October is here like a comforting sip of spiced cider. Every month, I ask my tarot deck, "What do we need to know?" In the weeks ahead, you're learning what empowerment feels like. This five-card spread I created represents... Energy: Your vibe right now. Situation: What's happening around you. Obstacle: A struggle you're facing. Action: What to do about it. Lesson: What you'll learn from this.

Think about the last time you had to make a difficult choice, or had to wait to figure out what to do. For some people, any decision-making process is stressful, can elevate blood pressure, and may cause distress. How do you feel in spaces of uncertainty? Do you tolerate ambiguity well, or do you find the state of unknowing insufferable?

Controversy is baked in - which is why it should come as no surprise that Contrarian Thinking CEO Codie Sanchez made waves for a hot take she shared in a podcast interview. In a clip of the interview, posted by TikTok account @goated.quotes, Sanchez says that she can tell how successful someone is by how they order coffee. "Show me how long it takes you to order at a counter," says the CEO, "and I will show you your bank account."

When your priority becomes moving forward without using more energy, consider dropping one of your criteria for the task. Drop a characteristic you think the solution must have. For example, you might believe you need to give your niece a unique gift each year, when really she would prefer $20 cash and doesn't value uniqueness. Removing the single friction point blocking your progress can ease the emotional weight of the task, often with little or acceptable sacrifice in the outcome.

From something as simple as choosing what to wear for work to as complex as what business strategy to implement to achieve a competitive advantage, making decisions is an integral part of our everyday lives. The human brain is wired in such a way that we make many of these choices subconsciously, without even being aware of it! 🧠 However, not all decisions are (or should be) made subconsciously-sometimes, they result from proper thought, analysis, and planning.

Ladder of inference is a step-by-step process that you naturally follow while making decisions. The seven steps of this decision-making process are observation, data selection, interpretation, assumptions, conclusion, beliefs, and action. The ladder of inference is a metaphorical model of cognition and action designed by an American business theorist, Chris Argyris, in the 1970s. He created it to help people understand the decision-making process and avoid jumping to wrong conclusions. It was later popularized by Peter Senge in his book 'The Fifth Discipline'.

Every day, we make choices, big and small. From what we eat for dinner to our careers to life-altering decisions, we are continually confronted with challenging and even intriguing complex choices. It can be easy just to follow our usual habits, ask friends and colleagues, or search the internet for advice. Sometimes, we sit back and wait for things to happen, hoping they'll sort themselves out.

That's why it's crucial to remember that FPL is a marathon, not a sprint - and even after the toughest gameweeks, there's always room to bounce back. As someone who loves psychology, I often apply it to my own FPL management. The truth is FPL can impact mental health if it stops being enjoyable or becomes the main outlet for stress.

A CEO client once told me about the time she pushed her company into a joint venture that looked irresistible. The pitch deck sparkled, the recent success of a similar deal was fresh in her mind, and her intuition told her to move quickly. Six months later, the partnership unraveled due to different cultures, incompatible goals, and millions in lost investment.

"If at first you don't succeed, try again." "Winners never quit and quitters never win." Our culture has a lot of sayings against quitting, making it seem like a failure. But sometimes, abandoning a goal means opening up space for something better. Cognitive psychologist Annie Duke, author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away; career educator Colin Rocker; and psychologist and professor

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free. What does it take to make bold decisions when the odds aren't clear? Statistician Nate Silver explains why the best risk-takers aren't reckless. They're strategic, evidence-driven, and comfortable acting without perfect information. Silver shares habits that separate success from failure in competitive environments, to help you become more comfortable with risking it all.

From back-to-school through the winter holidays, the busy retail selling season is also a time to forecast sales, set budgets, and plan for the coming year. Here are 12 new and time-tested books to help make informed choices. by Nick Foster Thinking seriously about the future is a must for those who hope to shape it. This just-released book guides readers in going beyond the usual "lazy certainties and fearful fantasies" to imagine and create what comes next.

When the world stops making sense and everyone's looking to you for answers, that's when real leadership begins. I learned this in the most extreme of circumstances-first, as a SWAT team Tactical Commander where split-second decisions meant life or death, then as CEO of a major public company where market crises could make or break thousands of our customers' livelihoods.

Evidence maps are logical tools for consolidating data and insights, offering clarity in decision-making amidst a sea of qualitative and quantitative data gathered from multiple tests.

At Google, we tried to study productivity to determine which factors strongly predicted developers' self-rated productivity, condensing research into 48 productivity factors.

Metrics creation is a crucial yet often overlooked component of effective data analytics. It transforms raw data signals into actionable insights, allowing organizations to track performance and identify trends.