Smart decision-making: Are you considering too few options?

So often when we have to make a decision, we quickly narrow the options we are considering to one or two discrete choices, thinking perhaps that too many choices makes the decision more difficult to make. Indeed, the evidence seems firmly on the side of simplifying and focusing decision options in a world where “choice overload” is a real problem.

How many times have you seen individuals or teams slow down or freeze in the face of too many options, forgetting that no decision is a decision – to stick with the status quo – or that a delayed decision sometimes becomes a decision when the decision ultimately gets made for you – either by circumstance or by somebody else.

So it makes sense that we avoid this choice overload by narrowing down our decision options whenever possible – often to the extent of considering just two different choices:  Do we purchase software package A or B?  Do we hire person A or B?  Do we invest in initiative A or B?  Do we go to restaurant A or B?  (We call these A/B type decisions.)

Smart decision-making? Or not?

Or perhaps we even more narrowly frame the decision and just consider whether or not to do one thing.  Do we invest in a new software system or not?  Do we hire a new person or not?  Do we do that new initiative or not?  Do we go out to eat or not? (We call these “whether or not” or  “go/no go” decisions.)

In both cases, we have expedited and simplified our decision process by creating a binary choice situation for ourselves. Seems smart, right?

The interesting thing is that doing this generally isn’t even a conscious process –  as our brains are always seeking to simplify and streamline by using heuristics and other shortcuts to conserve energy and reduce complexity.  Without some level of this happening, we’d never get through the many decisions we make each day.

Yet there is a paradox here.  It turns out that too few options can be equally detrimental to making smart decisions, as Steven Johnson eloquently describes in his recent New York Times op-ed piece,  How to Make a Big Decision.

In Decision Mojo™, this is an aspect of what we call the Frame Blindness decision trap– one of 12 decision traps that we address.

While Johnson describes the risks inherent in “whether or not” decisions and suggests coming up with at least two options, there is a growing body of research that considering more than two options is even better– as both the quality of the decision, and also the subsequent satisfaction with the decision, increases significantly.

This is not considering 50 options, as that would be too many, but ensuring that more than two options are actively being considered when making the decision.

The key is to increase awareness of when you or a team has too narrowly framed a decision and then proactively seek to widen the frame.

What are some “tells” to watch for that indicate a decision may be too narrowly framed?

• Is your choice being described as a “whether or not“ decision?
• Are you looking at either/or decisions or only A/B choices?

What are some techniques you can use to widen the frame?

• Challenge yourself or the team to generate at least three very different alternatives
• Break out of either/or thinking by imagining a decision that could be both A and B
• Use what Chip and Dan Heath call the vanishing options test (described in their book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work), where you imagine not being able to choose any of the options you are considering and ask: "What else could we do?"

What is clear is that good decision-makers, and teams that are skilled at making decisions, learn how to avoid the Frame Blindness trap and make smarter decisions as a result.

And without smart decision-making, personal and organizational success is elusive at best.