No cats where harmed in preparing this blog!
One of the most critical tasks for the leader is decision
making. The ability to choose rightly or
wrongly is essential and greatly affects the performance of any company. Any decision-making process relies on a basis
the leader selects as a mode of operation and the use of the process tends to
be rather consistent. Some decisions
stem from a pure gut feel. There is a
tendency for much of these decisions to have a good outcome even though the in
depth analysis is missing. The reason is
that prior experiences weigh heavily into the gut feel. Waiting a while and performing an analysis
may yield a superior result but the time lost can result in loss of deals or
other benefits.
The decision making process is critical and great leaders realize
making decisions as an essential part of their job. The decision must consider all risks and any
uncertainty that has a potential to affect the outcome. As an example, the following description of
the Schrödinger's Cat thought
experiment is provided and I am certain
you are wondering what a quantum mechanics thought experiment has to do
with decision making.
“Schrödinger's Cat: A cat, a flask of
poison and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal
monitor detects radioactivity, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison
that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies
that after a while, the cat is simultaneously
alive and dead. Yet, when we
look in the box, we see the cat either
alive or dead, not both alive and dead.”
There is uncertainty as to whether a cat is alive or dead in the experiment. However, there is a risk that opening the box
will expose the observer to radiation that will be harmful. Any decision would weigh the curiosity and
need to evaluate the cat’s wellbeing with the risk of radiation poising. This decision would be very easy for people
today because of the knowledge of radiation.
If you knew nothing about the toxicity of radiation, perhaps your desire
to help the cat would over compensate and you would open the box only to find
out years later you were dosed with high levels of radiation. The risk of
exposure was not a problem due to lack of knowledge. The desire to help the cat took over. You could not have done a complete analysis
of the problem because the research on radiation was too new at the time.
Similar risks and uncertainties occur in all decision making. Your knowledge can be used to the best
possible but the unknown always has the ability to affect the future
outcome. Many times, it is better to
perform the best analysis possible and just decided on a direction. Learning how to monitor and PIVOT makes a
huge difference in altering the course of the future. Fear of making the decision can have a
greater negative when it causes stagnation.
So when faced with your version of a Schrödinger's Cat decision, weigh the risks and
uncertainties. After careful thought,
decide what you must do. Monitor the
results and adjust as needed. You will
come out just fine!
Taffy
Williams is on Twitter by @twilli2861. Email
questions to twilli2861@aol.com. More is
available via his company
website , photo website, or “LIKE”
ColonialTDC on Facebook. You can also find him in the group
Startup Group on
Linkedin. Other articles are in the Charlotte,
NC- small business section of Examiner.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment