Welcome to Merge's Monthly Mega Minute — a bite-sized, yet substantial and practical, nugget of information that you can use immediately to enhance your professional and personal success.
When you eat peanuts, what do you do with the shells?
Peanuts in the shell – a concession staple at just about any baseball game! So think about the last time you purchased a bag of these tasty treats. As you shelled the peanuts, did you put the empty shells back in the same bag? Chances are you didn't, likely for a couple of reasons. One, because it instinctively doesn't make sense to put the waste in with the good peanuts, and two (and perhaps more importantly), every time you put the unwanted shells back in the bag, you reduce your chances of getting a good peanut the next time you reach in.
There is a workplace equivalent to this scenario, having to do with decision-making. As a leader, you are charged with making a variety of decisions, often requiring you to select the best choice from a number of possible options. Using this metaphor, it makes sense to discard choices as you evaluate them as unsuitable. Why put them back in the bag where they'll just continue to muddle and reduce the efficacy of your decision-making? But that's exactly what we often do. We consider an alternative, decide it isn't suitable, and instead of removing it from our slate of choices, we return it to the bag of possibilities. The unfortunate outcome: we significantly reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of our decision-making.
This decision-making misstep usually happens because we're trying to hedge our bets. Often, we're not fully confident about our choices, so we think it's better to keep all the options "in play" for as long as possible. But in actuality, we're complicating the process more than we need to. Far better to assess each option for viability, and then to immediately remove from consideration the ones that are not appropriate.
Well, what do you think? Is this good advice for more effective decision-making, or will this approach in fact cause one to eliminate feasible options too early? Please share your thoughts directly on the blog at www.turningmanagersintoleaders.com/blog
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