THE DECISION-MAKING SKILL THAT MATTERS
Follow this science-backed trick for making smarter and
quicker decisions that’ll work in your favour
When it comes to
making big life decisions, it is difficult. Choosing between apartments is
torturous. Should you pick the one in the more desirable location or the one
with more space? The one with enticing amenities or the one with a
slightly-cheaper rent? There’s also a bit of meta-decision-making anxiety that
goes on: How should you choose? Make a list of pros and cons? Ask a bunch of
friends and relatives? Go with your gut?
A bit of simple decisionmaking advice featured
recently in the Harvard Business Review: “Adopt a fly-on-the-wall perspective.”
That is to say, make the decision as though you’re making it for someone else.
The author, Evan Polman, an assistant professor of
marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, cites a paper he co-wrote about the different ways people
make decisions for themselves and for others. The researchers conducted
multiple studies with over 1,000 people, in which they asked them to choose
between restaurants, job options, or dating profiles, either for themselves or
for someone else. As it turned out, people were more cautious when choosing for
themselves, examining the nitty-gritty of each individual option as closely as
possible. And they were more adventurous when choosing for someone else, preferring
to look at as many options as possible.
Be action-oriented
Polman writes that when we make recommendations to
someone else, we tend to be more optimistic and action-oriented. “When making
their own choices, people tend to envision everything that could go wrong,
leading to doubt and second-guesses.” Based on these findings, Polman
recommends that everyone should have a mentor, or a blunt friend who can help
people see and act.
Be your own friend
Using the fly-on-the-wall perspective, according to
Polman, you act as your own advisor. It may even be effective to refer to
yourself in the thirdperson when considering an important decision as though
you’re addressing someone else. Instead of asking yourself, ‘What should I do?’
ask yourself ‘What should you do?’. Susan David, the author of Emotional
Agility, says that the best way to distance yourself from your thoughts and
feelings is to think of someone you respect and imagine what you would advise
that person if they were in your situation.
businessinsider.in
ETP14DEC18
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