Articles Categorised with "decision-making"
100 - Opportunity Costs: Have you thought of what you’re giving up?
15-09-2023
Intrinsic motivation in a species is said to be correlated to the size of the brain relative to the body. Bigger the brain relative to the body, more driven is the species to exercise it for fun or for challenging things. That explains...
Continue reading →104 - Odds and ends
27-09-2023
What happens in groups happens to individuals as well ...
Continue reading →112 - Bargains and Rip-offs
18-10-2023
LI promo: We buy things we may not have use for just because they’re available at a price lower than we expect. We reject perfectly useful things we need simply because we believe their correct price in our judgment should be lower....
Continue reading →113 - Is this a success or a failure—the value of reference points in framing decisions
21-10-2023
This is a now-famous example from a [1984 paper](http://courses.washington.edu/pbafhall/514/514%20Readings/choices%20values%20and%20frames.pdf) by psychologists...
Continue reading →115 - The Status Quo Trap
27-10-2023
How to reduce the lingering power of the status quo ...
Continue reading →118 - Risk and Expected Value and the Mistakes We Make with Them
05-11-2023
When making a decision, people tend to think too much of risk and not enough about the expected value. ...
Continue reading →120 - Two Kinds of Risk, Four Kinds of Luck and _That_ Worst Outcome
08-11-2023
Managing your odds for career success ...
Continue reading →126 - The Stories We Tell Ourselves
23-11-2023
Recording of last weekend’s session on decision frames ...
Continue reading →129 - Why should we believe in the wisdom of the crowd? And when should we not?
29-11-2023
1906. Plymouth, England. Country fair. Some livestock and poultry show, actually. A fat ox. A Joe-Biden-old statistician has an itchy idea that he wishes to scratch. But it’s not easy to pull off what he has in mind. So he comes up with a...
Continue reading →134 - Visualization Techniques in Decision-Making (Part 2 of 3)
08-12-2023
Right then, on to a new week and a new year. Two weeks ago, in issue #132, I wrote about a trait that’s unique to us humans among all animal species: mental time travel. We can move back and forth in time, imagine possibilities, and...
Continue reading →135 - Second-Order Thinking: The Seen and Oh, the Unseen (Part 3 of 3)
11-12-2023
Part 3 of 3 in series on Visualization Techniques in Decision-Making ...
Continue reading →152 The “even more” strategy
03-02-2024
One year, at our annual offsite, the company leadership shared the mantra for the year: the Genius of the AND. ...
Continue reading →170 - Essence of strategy, rationalization, and a question on processing emotions
21-04-2024
For anyone who has worked in Business Development or in Ops, they would be familiar with a tension that simmers all through the year. ...
Continue reading →34 - How to differentiate between decisions using a decision matrix
01-03-2023
I went from being stressed by too many daily decisions to having time for the truly important and big decisions with a simple change. You can learn the basics in two minutes. And like any good system it works everywhere–work and life. ...
Continue reading →35: How to break down a Lead Domino into smaller decisions
04-03-2023
So you have identified what matters most to you and you’ve taken most other things off your plate. You have this (one or more) big consequential-irreversible decision to make. Think of it as your Netflix special. How would you approach it? There are two ways: ...
Continue reading →36 - How we define a problem dictates the solutions we see
07-03-2023
We don’t build cars that are sent to the museum after a trip, but we have always built rockets for single use. ...
Continue reading →37 - The secret to solving the right problem? Identify it first.
10-03-2023
If you have a habit of jumping at a problem the moment it is presented to you, if you take pride in being action-oriented, you may want to read on. ...
Continue reading →38 - How to know when to take a decision
13-03-2023
As a leader, how do you know how much time you have to make decisions? Should you be quick or should you wait? Could you miss out on opportunities if you’re slow? Or will waiting out bring vital information that could decide the course for you? ...
Continue reading →39 - How to know when to stop gathering evidence
16-03-2023
By now you would know that the 2X2 decision matrix is really a prioritization tool. Its point is to help you strip down what’s on your mind to the most essential. ...
Continue reading →40 - How to keep options open when waiting to decide
19-03-2023
At the height of the dot-com bubble in the late 90s, Warren Buffett stayed out of the craze and looked like an idiot for a few years until the bubble burst and he was the one sitting on a piggy bank. ...
Continue reading →41 - The perils of problem solving
22-03-2023
There’s an idea that is 10X as effective but only acknowledged a tenth of the time as it should be. I’m talking about avoiding problems–a far better approach to decision-making than solving problems. ...
Continue reading →42 - Why pros and cons won’t work for me (or you)
25-03-2023
We all have unusual friends. I had a friend who was obsessed with flossing his teeth. No matter what, at the end of the day, he would pull out a piece of thread and run it between his teeth. The thing that didn’t make as much sense was that he was flexible with brushing. There would be days he would forget to brush, or just skip. ...
Continue reading →43 - How to change your spotlight to a floodlight
28-03-2023
A common decision-making mistake is that we sincerely believe what we see is all there is. This happens nonconsciously. Before we know it, we’ve turned on our internal spotlight and are looking hard at what it has lit up. ...
Continue reading →44 - How to identify the most important thing
31-03-2023
Some years ago, when my wife and I were beginning to think about homeownership, we spoke with recent homeowner friends. On one such visit, we marveled at the surrounding greenery (Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai). Our friend said that their decision to buy that place was based on a specific need. He said, “We knew what’s outside the walls was outside our control, and what’s inside we could fix. So we picked a location that was going to stay green.” ...
Continue reading →45 - How to help your team decide in your absence
03-04-2023
Being a new manager shouldn’t stop you from being a good leader. ...
Continue reading →46 - Decision-making with less: constraint is the seed for creativity
06-04-2023
What does decision-making with constraints look like? Here are three high-stakes examples. ...
Continue reading →47 - Better decision-making by asking better questions
09-04-2023
If you had to improve your decision-making and you had 24 hours to do it in, you could do a lot worse than learning to ask better questions. Why? ...
Continue reading →48 - How to run strategy meetings without authority (aka how to spark disconfirming analysis for better decisions)
12-04-2023
When you’re running any consequential discussion among business leaders, as a young professional you may find yourself in one of two situations: the discussion converges too quickly OR it moves around in circles. The best way for you to drive the discussion is to steer it in the right direction. And that direction is away from preconceived position-taking AND toward open exploration. ...
Continue reading →49 - How to earn the freedom to make decisions
15-04-2023
Early career can be a hard time. You’re hungry to create impact. But you get bogged down by ‘micromanagement’, or by having to influence without authority, or even burn yourself out in the process of trying to prove your worth. ...
Continue reading →50 - The more people I talk to, the more confused I get. Help!
18-04-2023
Ever wondered why this happens? ...
Continue reading →51 - The pain of sticking to commitments: inside and outside views
21-04-2023
I was twenty-five and I was reporting to one of the co-founders. We were launching a new global website and my job was to collate/write news stories and populate the news section. I think it came to around 25 news pieces. I did some math, banking mostly on my writing speed, and committed to a date by which I would be ready with the content for the news section. Let’s just say I fell comfortably short and for a long time after I was worried I had made a fool of myself. ...
Continue reading →52 - Deciding on normal
24-04-2023
When moving between projects, teams, jobs, careers, have you ever thought about how what is acceptable often changes with the environment. ...
Continue reading →53 - What’s missing in how we hire?
27-04-2023
Conversations around workplace diversity are often hot potatoes. But they miss a crucial ingredient: the potato. ...
Continue reading →55 - Changing uncertainty to a risk range
03-05-2023
You’re at the airport. You see a DELAYED against your flight on the display board. What would you think: Should I call and cancel the meeting I’m traveling for OR I’m sure this is nothing? ...
Continue reading →56 - Using the Area Under the Curve Framework to categorize risk
06-05-2023
All day, every day, you’re being bombarded with problems that need solving. Here’s a simple framework that’ll help put things in perspective so that you don’t lose sleep over an ant bite or sleep through a snake bite. ...
Continue reading →57 - Reverse-engineering the present from the future through backcasting
09-05-2023
The problem’s that we plan looking forward but we can see more looking back. ...
Continue reading →58 - The young professional’s guide to persuasion
12-05-2023
You’re probably going to scroll past this but if you ever have found getting alignment at work challenging, my Persuasion framework is just for you. ...
Continue reading →59 - The Forbidden Fruit Theory for org decision-making
15-05-2023
Anyone who has had to hire someone will know this. You’ve a shortlist of candidates for a position. You’re undecided. Until you receive word from one of the candidates (let’s call him Dilbert) that he has received another offer. Suddenly, Dilbert’s value shoots up. Why? ...
Continue reading →60 - The Barbell Strategy for personal decision-making
18-05-2023
Taking a number of small but extreme non-consensus risks means you’ll be wrong and pay a penalty for most of these risky bets. It’ll also mean two other things: ...
Continue reading →61 - Mental contrasting and the practice of WOOP
21-05-2023
You’re brushing your teeth in the morning and imagining an important presentation later in the day. You picture yourself setting the table for the problem, laying out the options, and winning the audience’s vote for a desired solution. You’ve quick answers and there’s not a moment you go off script. What may actually transpire, the reality of it is something that you don’t consider. ...
Continue reading →62 - Premortems: why you should kill your dream project to save it
24-05-2023
We agree that talking about failure is healthy, but we forget to think about failing ahead of time. ...
Continue reading →63 - The power of thought experiments in making decisions in uncertainty
27-05-2023
The difference between humans and other species on earth is that we can shift both back and ahead in time, while the rest can only go back. ...
Continue reading →64 - The very powerful decision-hygiene habit of time travel
30-05-2023
There’s a basic but powerful decision hygiene habit that few of us practice: time travel. It may sound outlandish, something you thought only happened in sci-fi dramas. It’s anything but. ...
Continue reading →65 - Second-order thinking for organizational decision-making
02-06-2023
When we think of a decision we look at the effect it may have. And then we stop. But the effect has an effect too. Second-order thinking is thinking about the effect of the effect. The need for it becomes clear when you look at how organizations design incentives. ...
Continue reading →66 - Mental models are keyboard shortcuts
05-06-2023
What is different about how technophiles and power users use computers? ...
Continue reading →67 - Introducing pause in rash decisions - the 10/10/10 method
08-06-2023
If you find yourself making rash decisions or agonizing over decisions, this is for you. ...
Continue reading →68 - Second-order thinking: carefully count what you see and find out what you don’t
11-06-2023
Second-order thinking makes us imagine the unseen problems and opportunities created by every action we take. ...
Continue reading →69 - Do you have a ‘local foreigner’ in your life?
14-06-2023
I want to tell you about something that you understand but underestimate the value of in making your life better. And it’s not just you. I’m the same. That something is the idea of a ‘local foreigner’. ...
Continue reading →70 - Deal with success or have it eat you up.
17-06-2023
It may seem odd to worry about a positive outcome, but that’s exactly what we need to do to avoid being snowed under. ...
Continue reading →71 - Three practices to become a better decision-maker
20-06-2023
Here are three simple practices to get you started on the path to better decisions. I’ve distilled them from a wonderful interview of neuroscientist and author Lisa Barrett on The Knowledge Project podcast. ...
Continue reading →72 - Tilt in decision-making and 3 ways to avoid it
23-06-2023
Imagine a day where you open your inbox to a stinker. It’s the last one in, but there’s no doubt it has to be the first one out. You respond with a suitably charged email to refute the hideous allegations made against you. Thankfully though, from that point on, your day goes on to break even. ...
Continue reading →89 - Decision categorization
13-08-2023
The beauty of having a sound framework for decision-making is that it can clarify your approach to work both at a day-to-day and long-term level....
Continue reading →91 - The future is uncertain but in us we have a key
19-08-2023
The paradox ...
Continue reading →92 - How did Iceland get its teenagers to swap the high of drugs and alcohol for the high of sports?
22-08-2023
Plus: Why do organizations stop learning? ...
Continue reading →93 - How to resolve the stickiest conflicts
25-08-2023
Every business leader, executive, senior manager, and founder has faced this question at some point, yet coverage of the topic is full of tropes. At least, I couldn’t find much beyond that in popular literature. So I looked deeper....
Continue reading →94 - Looking beyond dead ends
28-08-2023
More than a decade ago I was at a company offsite where I was introduced to the phrase ‘The Genius of the AND and the Tyranny of the OR.’ I believe it was from Jim Collins’ Built to Last....
Continue reading →96 - How to move from frame blindness to frame control
03-09-2023
Imagine you’re one of the best at what you do. You get paid in millions. And suddenly you get dumped. You’re not fired but your services are no longer integral to the success of your team. If you haven’t guessed already, this happens in...
Continue reading →97 - Do your thinking frames serve you well?
06-09-2023
Some ways of looking at the world are unhelpful. One of them is imagining the world as opposing forces in a competing frame. I win, you lose. Locked forever in perfect competition....
Continue reading →98 - How to build better decision frames
09-09-2023
No frame is complete. So, don’t stop at just one. Mix and match. This essay shows you 5 ways to build new frames: ...
Continue reading →99 - ‘Real options’ thinking: Win the right, lose the obligation
12-09-2023
(why firms are better off thinking like venture capitalists) ...
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