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How do you make a decision?

How will you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that any decision you make is the right one? Sometimes, we can all guilty of decision paralysis by over-analysis. Some things in life are black or white, and so are easy to make decisions about. A juggernaut is speeding towards you. You want to live. You jump out of the way and you know unequivocally you have made the right decision. But should you buy a car in silver or blue? Hire more staff? And if so, who?
So much of life is ambiguous. Sometimes both decisions would have been right or wrong… to some extent. If we wait for absolute certainty before acting then we may never act. Sometimes there are no 'right' decisions, only different or alternate decisions. Some people wreak havoc by worrying about what to do. The four most common traps are:

1. Wanting too much certainty before acting. Perfectionist types with simplistic ideas of right and wrong go for this one. They don't feel it is reasonable to act on a decision while still having doubts about it. They want a certificate to come through the letterbox telling them the right decision has been reached and officially approved. As this doesn't happen, their minds go round and round in circles and they actually think too much.

2. Making emotional decisions based on a whim. Although such decisions are often easily recognised as mistaken, the emotional decider will rarely admit this and instead seeks to 'back up' their dodgy decision with emotional rationalisations – kidding themselves and sometimes other people.

3. Believing a decision can only be valid if ratified by other people. This approach often comes out of fear of making an entirely independent decision.

4. Constantly making the same mistakes because of failure to learn from the past. Of course, people rarely admit that they have 'failed to learn'. Instead they blame lack of decent 'karma', poor equipment, conjoined star signs, lack of support from other team members and any number of other 'reasons' for their problems.

When decision making gets tough – trust your gut instincts. Research published in 'Current Biology' shows that in some instances snap decisions are better than endless pedantic pondering and logical weighing up. Test subjects were asked to pick the odd one out on a screen covered with more than 650 identical symbols, including one rotated version of the same symbol. They performed better when they were given no time to linger and were forced to rely on their subconscious to select the correct answer.

So to make good decisions you need to learn to trust your instincts. Don't always insist on 'logical' reasons for everything, such as why to get the silver rather than blue car. Learn to say ‘Because it feels right.' When you do base decision making on weighing up the pros and cons, use your imagination. Really sit down and envisage living with the decision. How does that feel?

Remember, some decisions won't make sense to other people and that may be OK. Most medical advances (open heart surgery, for one) were instigated by people who decided to follow what seemed like crazy ideas to others at the time. And finally, don't beat yourself up if you do make a 'wrong' decision. You can learn from it and hey; you are only human!

News & Comment

Extra Bank Holiday

To celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee there will be an extra bank holiday in 2012. The extra day off will come on Tuesday 5 June 2012 to celebrate the jubilee and the late May bank holiday will also be moved to Monday 4 June to create a long weekend.

Family Friendly

The TUC has launched a new guide to persuade employers of the benefits of introducing family-friendly policies at work. The guide makes the case for good, family-friendly working practices and features case studies where unions have negotiated forward-thinking policies with employers. And, according to the guide, good flexible working practices benefit staff and their companies by helping to retain employees, increase productivity and morale.

Large Compensation Awarded

A senior nurse who was told in an appraisal she was the "wrong colour and wrong culture" to be promoted has been awarded £115,000 compensation.

Dr Sarina Saiger, former assistant director of nursing at North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust, suffered the slur after inquiring about her chances of promotion in November 2005.
Yorkshire-born Dr Saiger, who is mixed race, claimed that then director of nursing Bruce Skilbeck told her during an appraisal she was the "wrong colour and the wrong culture" for Cumbria. Skilbeck has always denied the accusation, but the tribunal ruled it was more likely than not that he had used those words. Dr Saiger was sacked in May 2008 after complaining about unfair treatment on the grounds of race. The tribunal ruled she was racially discriminated against and unfairly dismissed from her job.

Equal Pay

British workers still face high levels of pay inequality, according to a report from the independent National Equality Panel. The income gap between men and women has narrowed somewhat - 12 years ago women only earned 53 per cent as much as men on average, a figures which now stands at 64 per cent. Overall, women are now better qualified than men, up to the age of 44. But their median hourly pay remains 21 per cent less than men's pay, and women's pay does not rise as they get older.

Fascinating Facts

There was no punctuation until the 15th century.!

Quote for February…

‘I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes’ Humphry Davy

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