How To Increase The Chance Of Making The Right Decision

Suzy Welch, editor of the Harvard Business Review , has developed a technique to increase the chances of making the right decision in every situation. This technique is based on taking into account the immediate, medium and long terms of the decision in question. Welch proposes that before making a decision, it needs to be analyzed based on the 10/10/10 rule. That is, asking yourself if you are going to feel bad in the next 10 minutes, in the next 10 months, and even if you will remember that decision in 10 years.

We make decisions every day, whether willingly or by obligation. If we make an assessment of what has been bothering us for a long time, we realize that there can also be good consequences for “bad” decisions and that “good” decisions can bring unexpected results.

Therefore, it is better not to be too worried about which decision is the right one and, at the same time, to better analyze the possibilities and/or consequences of everything that can happen. If we become obsessed with making the right decision, we are assuming that in some way we are going to be rewarded for one thing and punished for another. However, if even the real world doesn’t work that way, why do we need to see it as a dichotomy?

Don’t be obsessed with both poles: right or wrong decisions

In order to make decisions, we must think that, at least, we are going to stay with the learning that the decision-making process itself will bring us, in addition to the other lessons that the chosen option will provide us. On the other hand, to know whether the option chosen was the best or the worst, we often depend on the degree of commitment we have established with it.

When faced with the task of making a decision, our intuition and our feelings about this situation will take on considerable influence. If not in the decision itself, at least in how we will feel after making it. Faced with several options, it is normal for us to be left with the doubt of what is right or wrong. The only thing we can do in this regard is to let time go by, see what happens and correct if necessary.

Many decisions offer a masked option: to do nothing. We say masked because some people think that opting for this alternative is not deciding. Nothing could be further from reality. Deciding not to do anything is also deciding. We are talking about an option that is not bad in itself: in many situations doing nothing is prudent and even allows new alternatives, which we might like more, to appear.

However, in some situations doing nothing is the chosen option because it is the one that produces the least dissonance, the one that requires the least effort or the one that avoids the part of responsibility that corresponds to us in its consequences. In these three cases doing nothing is usually not the best option. Perhaps in the short term it will be a relief, but in the long term this option is likely to result in anxiety.

Don’t worry so much if you don’t make the right decision: make the most of each experience

A good idea to build on each experience is to learn not to judge or punish yourself for thinking you’ve made a mistake. Errors need to be corrected or fixed, but not punished. There is no such thing as an important and complicated decision that does not require a sacrifice or a resignation.

Taking advantage of opportunities gives us the confidence to believe when we go through difficult times and the confidence seems to be gone. On the other hand, even more important than knowing how to take advantage is knowing how to generate an opportunity, having the will and intelligence to move when we are at a station where no train passes.

Furthermore, the worst thing we can do when trying to make the right decision is not to make a mistake, but to try to justify it rather than use it as a warning for similar situations later on. To make decisions that we won’t regret later, it’s important to be prepared, even more important is knowing how to wait, but seizing the right moment is the secret of life.

When history repeats itself, this is not so much because of the choice made, but rather because of not having learned from previous situations. The good thing about decisions is that life’s trains run constantly. We may miss one that would have taken us to a wonderful place, but we’ll never know which train might come next and renew our hopes.