Barriers in decision making and how to deal with them

Barriers In Decision Making
- Part 1

Know-how

One of the most common barriers in decision making is not knowing how to make a decision in the first place.

It may seem strange, but many folks do not know how specifically they actually make decisions, or they use different decision making strategies in different circumstances without realizing it.

The solution, of course, is to take the time to learn a process that works.

Expert, or not

Other barriers to decision making concerns experts. Some will defer unquestioningly to experts and make no attempt to consider whether the expert's choice actually applies to them or not. The converse of this is where someone is so internally referenced that they ignore expert advice that would actually be useful for them. They are determined to do it their own way.

The best

Major barriers in decision making nowadays are fear and anxiety at getting it wrong. We have this idea that there is one best solution and that anything else is second-rate. This notion sometimes leads to an excessive gathering of information to the point where sometimes the decision never actually gets made.

One way around this is to make effective decisions as opposed to perfect ones. As General George S. Patton said, 'A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week'.

What might happen...

In a similar vein, further barriers in decision making is the desire to avoid negative consequences and unpleasant aspects. This may lead to indecision, or simply the choosing of a safe option to avoid controversy. This can be especially tricky because often times there are unexpected consequences to any decision.

The reason things are unexpected is that they are unexpected! It's just not possible to predict these. Life happens and the world is chaotic. A useful skill is to be able to use whatever occurs so that you still get to achieve your outcome. Read on for more barriers in decision making...