This is a note for all managers, leaders or business owners who are faced with a big decision. It is inspired by a recent article I read about Kevin Roberts who is the Global Chief Executive of the ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi (Australian Financial Review 18/5/09, pg 43).
Kevin has a three day rule for his key managers:
Any manager that has a key problem must get it to him within 24 hours.
He guarantees to make a decision within 24 hours then they have 24 hours to execute the solution.
Kevin observes that this three day rule, ‘gives our people a great sense of liberation and a sense of massive speed.’
There are many things to admire about this concept. In a time-poor, speed driven world, important decisions can be made quickly. Particularly in a service business there can be no bottle necks. It is also a very effective way of having the CEO to stay involved in the pulse of the business and cut-through the many layers between the client and the CEO.
My only problem with this approach is that it is very Kevin Roberts centric. What is Kevin gets run over by a bus or moves on. I think it is better to build an organizational-wide, speed-decision capability rather than it revolving around one key individual.
What do you think?
Ken Hudson
Hint: If you cannot answer this question quickly then perhaps you do. You might be one of the estimated 20% of adults who consider themselves as chronic procrastinators. This continual delaying of decision-making can sometimes lead to detrimental impacts in our business and personal lives. But let’s face it–we all procrastinate at one time or another in our lives. But why do we do it?
Here are some common reasons:
- We seek perfection e.g. we need every bit of information before making a decision
– We would rather dream than do anything
– We constantly worry about the results of our decision (hence it is better not to make a decision at all)
– Sometimes we just need a deadline or crisis to make a decision – We are just do not care either way about the decision or the decision options are virtually the same
– Because we need to micro-manage every decision we end up not making a decision at all (as we have too many to make).
Perhaps in some cases it might be for a very good reason, you might be waiting for some new information but most of us would benefit from becoming a more confident decision maker.
Here are 4 ways to break-out of the procrastination cycle
1. Use the 80:20 rule — decide what are the 20% of decisions that impact on the 80% of your life (e.g. what meetings should I attend this week, how many hours will I work today). Now make a quick decision on these only. By focusing on the few important decisions you won’t feel overwhelmed and you will make better decisions.
2. List nine pros and then nine cons of any decision. Do both in two minutes then make a final decision?
3. Similar to the above process but in this case list the nine rational elements of a decision (e.g. in considering a new job–a rational consideration might be the pay level) and the nine emotional factors (e.g. what if i fail?) then make a decision. Remember to do these quickly so you do not filter.
4. Escape thinking about any decision as being right or wrong. You will never know in advance and you can tie yourself up in knots. It is better to think about it as does this decision keep things moving or will it improve my learning or does this move the business along? By thinking along this dimension then you will be more able to actually make a decision and sleep better afterwards.
Keep deciding!
Dr Ken Hudson.
Our youngest daughter wanted to play competitive soccer this year after playing a shortened version of the game at school. Like any good parents, we encouraged her to give it a go. This all sounded fine and i left for a business trip to
I have not coached before but did play soccer for many years at a reasonable level. After one training session our first opponent was an A grade team that had been together for three years. As you can imagine this is a daunting assignment at the best of times but as a coach i faced a number of other small mountains:
- One of the kids dropped out an hour before the game leaving us with the basic 11 players
- Our new goal keeper after letting in a few goals burst into tears and was last seen out of her goal heading off with her mum never to be seen again.
- Our star striker had a tennis grand final to go to which left us with nine players.
At half-time we were down six nil. As a coach you have five minutes to try and rally the girls, parents and yourself that all is not lost and develop plan ‘C’ (plan B had gone out the window with the disappearing goal keeper). After a moment of panic i totally rearranged the team, strengthened our defense, found a new keeper and with nine players we lost the second half three nil.
To their great credit our girls never stopped trying and ten minutes after the game had already moved on (parents and coaches it seems take a little longer).
This experience no doubt, is repeated in thousands of sporting fields around the country. Decisions need to be made instantly, the environment changes rapidly, the competition reacts and all this happens in a blink of an eye. Yet coaches and managers of all shapes and sizes can make literally hundreds of decisions throughout a game without resorting to decision trees, cost benefit analysis or forming a committee. Can we learn something from being a soccer coach that we use in the rest of our lives?
Being a coach is one of the best things you can do as a parent and it might just teach us all how to be more confident, decisive decision-makers and it can be incredibly rewarding.
Ken Hudson
Ever since the Greeks were the head honchos we have believed that effective decision making was rationale process. You methodically gather all the information, carefully weigh up the options and make an objective, rational decision. Emotions were to be avoided at all costs because these might muddy up our thinking.
Trouble is, what we believe and what we do, are completely different. Recent brain research suggests that reason alone is not a good way to make decisions in a fast-moving, ever-changing environment. Patients that have had some parts of their brain damaged (concerned with their emotions) are simply not able to make up their minds as they descend into an endless loop of pros and cons for each potential option.
To quote from a recent book on the subject by Jonah Lehrer, The Decisive Moment, 2009, Pg. 5;
‘’The simple truth of the matter is that making good decisions requires us to use both sides of the mind. For too long, we’ve treated human nature as an either/or situation. We are either rational or irrational. We either rely on statistics o trust our gut instincts……
Not only are these dichotomies false, they’re destructive.’
Good decision making it seems is a dance between head and heart. There may be situations where a gut instinct decision might be appropriate (e.g. time is short, information is lacking and you have considerable experience). Other times a longer more rational approach is necessary (e.g. where there is one correct answer that will be arrived at through analysis).
For most situations however a combination of head and heart might be the best way to go. You can do this through speed thinking by listing the nine rational elements of a decision in two minutes (e.g. cost, pay back etc). Then you list the nine emotional elements in a decision (e.g. resistance to change, risk involved, fear of failure), again in two minutes. There is no right or wrong in this process. The aim is to simply make the rational and emotional elements explicit. By doing so you can talk to others about these factors and both factors are given equal weight. You then make a decision feeling confident that you have explored both the rational and emotional.
This head and heart decision making tool is an effective way of harnessing the best of both worlds. There is structure, thought, passion and speed. When faced with a difficult decision give it a go. You will become a better, more confident and decisive decision maker.
Ken Hudson
I was interviewed today by a reporter from a HR magazine in
Speed Thinking shares many of the qualities of intuition:
- Both are modes of thought that are quick, In fact, intuition is almost instantaneous -see the book by Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) for example.
- Both rely on more right brain processes. Speed Thinking is more about accessing the unconscious and Intuition the emotions.
- Both benefit through experiential learning (i.e. you get better at both the more experience you have).
- Both modes of thought are often viewed with some suspicion by the more rational business people as somehow compromising quality (yet there is plenty of evidence that people rely on intuition a great deal when making decisions for example).
But there are differences:
- Intuition is more of an internal process, speed thinking an external one.
- Intuition is more individual, speed thinking is both an individual and a group process. It can be used in meetings for example.
- Intuition is typically used by someone who has a particular (often extensive) expertise and experience whereas speed thinking can be used by anyone, any age, in any role with little or no experience.
- Intuition is used for mainly used for decision-making, speed thinking can be used to create new ideas, solve problems and make decisions.
- Intuition is more difficult to teach whereas Speed Thinking (I believe) is more teachable because of its four step process (start, evaluate, build, do), 2 minute-nine possibility mechanic, speed links template and 30 tools etc.
In short, Speed Thinking is a more structured, external, tool-driven process than intuition.
Ken Hudson
In case you have missed it there is a new CEO of Yahoo, Carol Bartz.. She is from all reports a ’straight-shooter’ (The Wall Street Journal, 14/2/09) and her mission is to speed up decision making and get the giant moving again.
She is apparently fond of asking her managers,
‘What would you do if you were me?’.
This is such a good question. It forces managers to actually think for themselves and recommend a new course of action or a decision. This question is a way for the new CEO to send a message that she is open to the ideas of others.
And it is a wonderful Speed Thinking way for anyone to make a decision when they feel stuck.
Ask yourself: What would my boss do in this situation? Or If it was my money what would i do?
The answer usually becomes obvious immediately.
Ken Hudson.
Much of the conversation today in the business press is naturally concerned with the downturn in the economy and specifically how Generation will cope. Long-painted as being too self-centered, disloyal and having unrealistic expectations, it is felt by some that this recession will somehow whip them into shape so they will become like the rest of us (i am a boomer).
But is this the case? I would like to mount an argument that they are smarter and certainly faster than all the proceeding generations and as a result are better placed to thrive in a broadband paced world.
Generation Y:
- Is better educated
- Understand that having a life outside of work is important
- Realize that what you do at the moment does not define who you are
- Want to travel
- Are connected to people from all over the world
- Are exposed to greater diversity
- Perhaps are more innovative and entrepreneurial?
- Can access information, respond and make decisions at lightning speed without agonizing or second guessing themselves
- Like other Speed Thinkers around the world they want to be judged on output rather than hours spent at the office and
- Would like to be appreciated for their contribution
In summary, because of their command of technology, their comfort with a fast-moving and changing environment , their openness to new ideas and their ease in working with others, it seems to me that Generation Y are better placed than all of us.
It is the rest of us that can learn from them rather than asking Generation Y to change to a world which does not exist anymore.
Ken Hudson
I just read some of Bob Rotella’s work on improving your golf through his emphasis on mental training. As Bob suggests, ‘guys (on the professional golf tour) have swing, strength and flexibility coaches–the mind needs practice too.’
Bob Rotella has a PHD in sports psychology and is working with some of the biggest names in professional golf (Tiger Woods excluded). His aim is to help normal people become exceptional.
What i find interesting is that many of his ideas resonate with what i am trying to do with Speed Thinking. His theory is that to stop people choking and to improve their golf performance they should turn off their critical, conscious mind and turn on their more intuitive and instinctual unconscious brain. This is exactly the idea behind speed thinking–people are too busy just doing to listen or pay attention to their often critical, internal voice.
Now, granted the golf course is different from the corporate arena but it seems to me that anyone interested in improving their and others performance should look for what others are doing wherever they find it. And in the future the biggest improvements will be on the mental side, as The British Open winner Padraig Harrington suggests, ‘I think that 95% of this game is mental.’
I would recommend Bob’s books, particularly, ‘Golf is not a game of perfect’. This title suggests that golf (like business) and life generally is a game of mistakes, learning and self-acceptance. Yet so many people seem to spend all their time analyzing and trying to develop the perfect solution. In a fast-moving environment, actually doing something or making a decision, then learning from what happens is a much better response than searching for the best idea, solution or decision.
Ken Hudson.
One powerful way of making a decision is to use what i have called the passion meter. This is a meter which measures how passionate you feel about a particular course of action or option.
Passion, I believe is the most important aspect in making and implementing a decision. Passion gives you energy which is what is needed to get anything up and running. If an option makes rational, logical or financial sense it still will flounder without someone, somewhere saying that ‘give it to me i will give it a go and make it happen.’
In the decision-making process, after you have created a number of options than ask yourself: how passionate do I feel about option one on a scale of 1-10? Then repeat for option two, three etc.
In a very short time you will have ranked the options according to passion. Go with the highest scoring ones. You will have a greater chance of making it a success and because you care about it you will do better work.
Try the passion meter and let me know how you go.
I, like of millions of others, have been captivated by the Olympics. There is something about having our finest sportspeople and athletes compete fiercely then shake hands at the end that stirs the imagination.
In flicking through the reports of the
‘China’s New Jersey Net power forward Yi Jianlian blamed the loss on hesitant play down the stretch, saying his team-mates were thinking too much. We started thinking too much and when you start thinking too much you start making mistakes,’ Yi said.
This is such an interesting comment the idea that you can think too much. Presumably what Yi meant what that by thinking too much you ignore your natural instincts, you procrastinate and become hesitant. Suddenly you become overwhelmed with the pros and cons of every option. This feeling reminded of Julia Cameron’s (Author, The Artists Way) insight, thinking is not the enemy, but overthinking is.’
This is one reason why Speed Thinking is a very effective process to help in the decision-making process. In giving little time and perhaps a speed thinking tool you often become focused on the task at hand and sometimes the decision becomes crystal clear. The limited time seems to encourage you to listen to your emotional or unconscious brain and avoid the endless loop of rational analysis. I have also found in my workshops that when you ask people for a decision and in fact demand that they make one in two minutes they always can. They have to rely on their own instincts and not wait for the crowd.
Speed Thinking works on a four step process of Start, Build, Evaluate and Do. The first and last stages are the most important. You have to start and not procrastinate and you eventually have to ‘Do’ something — it could be to research the concept, test the decision or keep doing what you are already doing. But the important point is to do something.
As Goethe told us, ‘whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it, because action has magic, grace and power in it.’