The document provides an overview of decision making processes. It discusses various models of decision making including multi-criteria decision analysis, consensus decision making, and individual decision making. It also outlines steps in decision making, such as establishing goals, gathering information, evaluating alternatives, and implementing a plan of action. The document categorizes decision making approaches as rational, bounded rational, or intuitive and provides examples of each.

1. DECISION MAKING
(A research report)
Submitted by:
SWARUPARANI SAHU
(Sec: B, F11116)
1. INTRODUCTION

2. A major part of decision making involves the analysis of a finite set of alternatives described
in terms of some evaluative criteria. These criteria may be benefit or cost in nature. Then the
problem might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how attractive they are to the decision
maker(s) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Another goal might be to just
find the best alternative or to determine the relative total priority of each alternative (for
instance, if alternatives represent projects competing for funds) when all the criteria are
considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multi-criteria decision
analysis (MCDA) also known as multi-criteria decision making(MCDM). This area of
decision making, although it is very old and has attracted the interest of many researchers and
practitioners, is still highly debated as there are many MCDA / MCDM methods which may
yield very different results when they are applied on exactly the same data. This leads to the
formulation of a decision making paradox.
2. STAGES OF DECISION MAKING
Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group
decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision-
making process to begin:
Orientation stage- This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to
know each other.
Conflict stage- Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights
and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out.
Emergence stage- The group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them.
Reinforcement stage- Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it
was the right decision.
3. DECISION MAKING STEPS
Each step in the decision making process includes social, cognitive and cultural obstacles to
successfully negotiating dilemmas. Becoming more aware of these obstacles allows one to
better anticipate and overcome them. Pijanowski (2009, p.7) developed eight stages of
decision making based on the work of James Rest:

3. Establishing community: creating and nurturing the relationships, norms, and procedures
that will influence how problems are understood and communicated. This stage takes place
prior to and during a moral dilemma
Perception: recognizing that a problem exists
Interpretation: identifying competing explanations for the problem, and evaluating the
drivers behind those interpretations
Judgment: sifting through various possible actions or responses and determining which is
more justifiable
Motivation: examining the competing commitments which may distract from a more moral
course of action and then prioritizing and committing to moral values over other personal,
institutional or social values
Action: following through with action that supports the more justified decision. Integrity is
supported by the ability to overcome distractions and obstacles, developing implementing
skills, and ego strength
Reflection in action: When in an organization and faced with a difficult decision, there are
several steps one can take to ensure the best possible solutions will be decided. These steps
are put into seven effective ways to go about this decision making process (McMahon 2007).
The first step -Outline your goal and outcome. This will enable decision makers to see
exactly what they are trying to accomplish and keep them on a specific path.
The second step - Gather data. This will help decision makers have actual evidence to help
them come up with a solution.
The third step -Brainstorm to develop alternatives. Coming up with more than one solution
able to see which one can actually work.
The fourth step - List pros and cons of each alternative. With the list of pros and cons, you
can eliminate the solutions that have more cons than pros, making your decision easier.
The fifth step - Make the decision. Once you analyse each solution, you should pick the one
that has many pros (or the pros that are most significant), and is a solution that everyone can
agree with.

4. The sixth step - Immediately take action. Once the decision is picked, you should implement
it right away.
The seventh step - Learn from, and reflect on the decision making. This step allows us to see
what you did right and wrong when coming up, and putting the decision to use.
4. VARIOUS DECISION MAKING MODELS
KepnerTregoe Model
Decision step models
Six Thinking Hats
Carnegie Decision Model
Iterative Decision Model
Vroom-Yetton-Jogo Decision Model
Contingency Decision Model
5. SEVEN STEP DECISION-MAKING MODEL
This model was developed by Rick Roberts of the University of North Florida career
services. It was designed for those who wanted a decision-making model to help with
choosing a career path or deciding what to do about a job offer. An important factor in the
model is information gathering. It is suggested that the more information that's available, the
easier it is to make decisions. So many of the steps are designed to do just this.
The 7 steps :
Identify the decision to be made - exactly what are you trying to decide?
Know yourself - what are your strengths, weaknesses, skills, values and interests
Identify options - list the various choices so far
Gather information and data - about each alternative
Evaluate options that will solve the problem, pros, cons and risks of each
alternative

5. Select the best option- may be necessary to loop back and gather more info
Develop a plan of action - and implement it!
Pros and Cons
The 7 Step Decision Making Model was designed for career decision making and so can be a
bit cumbersome if applied to decisions that are not as significant. Not so useful for deciding
between chocolate or vanilla ice cream, for example! Information overload may actually
inhibit the decision making, as well as trying to figure out which information is relevant and
which is not. And this model is not how we as humans naturally make decisions. The first
step in the 7 Step Decision Making Model is very important, whatever decision we have to
make. Sometimes just clarifying what the decision is, or what the question you want
answered is, makes it much easier to decide.
6. IMPROVE OUTCOMES USING DECISION MAKING TIPS
Here are some decision making tips and ideas that can help to reach goals and fulfil
personal or business vision. Decisions do not sit in isolation. A connected decision
framework can help reveal the decisions that should guide your current choice, as well as the
decisions that might be impacted. Avoid being surprised by misaligned choices and
unintended consequences by considering the Connected Decisions before you decide. These
tips avoid common decision errors, and as a guide to building your decision making skills.
These tips for decision making are categorized as:
Prioritization :
Good decision making takes time and effort. Make time for important decisions by:
Not spending effort on decisions that aren't needed
Establishing the value of a decision and prioritizing those with the highest value (and
importance)
Quickly deciding low value (less meaningful) choices that don't justify additional time
or effort
Delegating lower value decisions that can be made by others
Moving faster on reversible choices and more carefully on decisions that will have
immediate consequences that aren't easily changed

6. Decision timing:
The best decision timing is achieved when the value of a decision is maximized by balancing
the time needed to gain knowledge that informs the choice against the benefit loss that may
result due to delay of decision implementation. The following decision making tips can help
in improving that balance.
Characterize the success factors or goals for the decision as the minimum information
that must be gathered. Benefits won't be gained from the decision if factors that create
value haven't been defined.
Significant emotions can be involved that will motivate choosing too early or too late.
If managing emotional responses becomes difficult, use an emotionally detached third
party to help determine when best to decide.
Give preference toward choosing sooner if information gathering and analysis efforts
appear to be delaying clear benefits. Future outcomes always carry uncertainty, and
making a decision may sometimes be the least expensive way to gain the knowledge
of what will happen.
Anticipate and be proactive for high value decisions. Strategic decision making can
enable needed information and analysis efforts by considering choices well ahead of
potential consequences.
Don't let little choices accumulate. Apply time management techniques to your
decision making to prevent a challenging backlog.
Process :
Have a decision making process. A well-developed process enables continued improvement
with each additional decision. A process can help reduce many of the biases and thinking
errors that commonly occur when choosing.Consider these guidelines for your decision
making process:
Record your decision efforts. It is hard to learn and improve from something that is
not written down. Having things written also makes it possible to keep relevant
information visible.

7. Define success factors or criteria in advance of considering options. This ensures your
needs and desires are understood prior to being influenced by benefits from specific
solution alternatives.
Try to get a balanced set of success factors. Outcomes often fail because a critical
need or desire was not considered.
Determine alternatives before gathering data.
The process should consider the consequences and possible outcomes of alternatives,
including how the decision will be implemented.
Give preference to objective data, but subjective data is better than no data.
Evaluate all alternatives for the same criteria versus all criteria for the same
alternative. This helps avoid bias for a specific option.
Start evaluation with the most important success factors first in case the effort gets cut
short.
Communicate throughout the process. Many good decisions fail when those needing
to support them are not included during the decision making process.
Recognize the difference between the process and repeatedly making the same
decision. A new situation and circumstances make it a new decision
Emotions
Do not ignore emotions, but do not let them keep you from thinking through an important
decision objectively.
Decision regret is wasted emotion. You can't change the past. Look forward. Use new
information to make a new decision.
We are continuously pressured to focus on insignificant, inappropriately urgent, or
low value decisions. Keep breaking it down. Smaller decisions are easier to make.
Our connected decision making model can help
Motivation and inspiration
Not deciding is a decision not to act. Take responsibility and decide, even if it is to
choose to not act now.
Coaches motivate. They are available to help with decision making as well.

8. Changing a decision:
Good decision making does not guarantee outcomes. The unexpected will happen.
Always be open to new information, and be prepared to make a new decision if it
becomes clear that decision goals and criteria will not be met.
Being committed to a decision means changing slowly. Don't let emotions cause rapid
changes in direction. Require the same (or higher) level of diligence for new
information as when the decision was first made.
Building skills:
Learn about decision traps, biases and mistakes. Knowing about these common errors
makes it possible to avoid them.
Find out about alternative decision making techniques and try applying them to low
risk decisions. Get some practice before you need to make an important decision.
Identify or develop some brainstorming techniques that can be used togenerate
decision alternatives.
Play games that simulate life choices. This creates a low risk environment to build the
patterns that can enhance intuition.
Positive outcomes increase when the chances are in your favour. Learn about
uncertainty and risk to improve your likelihood of success.
Intuitive decision making can enhance effectiveness for choices where we have a lot
of experience. Learn where intuition fits best, and decisions where it is best to apply a
more rational analysis.
Decision making skills improve with practice. Don't be afraid to choose.
Values: It is difficult to have decisions deliver on what you value if you have not decided
what they are.
Values last. So should your most important decisions. Consider short and long term
consequences when you choose.
Be careful of assumptive language and influencing. If others are making your
decisions, you are living their values, not yours. Take responsibility for your choices.

9. Seeking information and avoiding overload
Distinguish fact from interpretation. A large amount of the information we use in decision
making is laden with interpretation that can bring up emotions that can lead to poor choices.
Find decision making tools that can help address the cognitive overload that comes from
information that is doubling every three years. The best tools will accelerate information
collection by reusing knowledge gained from related and similar decision making efforts.
Examine assumptions. Decision criteria and information important to a choice can
often be hidden in the assumptions.
Cross-check information with independent third parties where practical.Consider an
outside opinion. An alternative viewpoint can expose biases that may be affecting the
decision making effort.
It doesn't require an expert. Consulting a friend or colleague that has made the same
decision will likely provide valuable insight.
Additional information gathering comes at a cost. Try to determine in advance what
information will best inform your choice to limit the data gathering effort.
Do the research. Effective decisions require reliable information
7.CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING
It is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement, of
participants and the resolution of objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as,
first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its origin
in a Latin word meaning literally feel together. It is used to describe both the decision and the
process of reaching a decision. Consensus decision-making is thus concerned with the
process of reaching a consensus decision, and the social and political effects of using this
process.Consensus should not be confused with unanimity or solidarity.
Objectives:
As a decision-making process, consensus decision-making aims to be:
 Agreement Seeking: A consensus decision making process attempts to help everyone get
what they need.

10.  Collaborative: Participants contribute to a shared proposal and shape it into a decision
that meets the concerns of all group members as much as possible.
 Cooperative: Participants in an effective consensus process should strive to reach the
best possible decision for the group and all of its members, rather than competing for
personal preferences.
 Egalitarian: All members of a consensus decision-making body should be afforded, as
much as possible, equal input into the process. All members have the opportunity to
present, and amend proposals.
 Inclusive: As many stakeholders as possible should be involved in the consensus
decision-making process.
 Participatory: The consensus process should actively solicit the input
and participation of all decision-makers.
8. INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING
Good decision making is a skill to be learned and mastered, especially for leaders who are
managing a team. More importantly, individuals must also practice being good decision
makers since it is not advisable to be too dependent on others for personal decisions.The
downside of being too dependent on others is that you might have a hard time standing on
your own two feet when a situation would require you to make a choice without anyone’s
help. A better way to deal with it is to consult friends or trusted people who can advise you
on the kind of decision you are about to make. They can give you tips, suggestions and
warnings before you implement it. This way, you are still on your own in arriving at a final
decision.
9. CATEGORIES OF DECISION MAKING
There are three broad categories of decision making processes, rational and intuitive.
Rational: These are by far and away the most common and when many people think of
decision making, they typically consider some kind of rational model. The general idea here
is to weigh up the pros and cons, and work out the most sensible, logical option. There are
usually a series of steps involved and these are done one after the other. These models often
involve plugging information into a graph or chart. This information usually includes facts as
well as assumptions. And the scoring method is designed to produce the optimal decision.

11. Bounded rationality: Bounded rationality is the idea that in decision making, rationality of
individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds,
and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision. It was proposed by Herbert
Simon as an alternative basis for the mathematical modelling of decision making, as used
in economics and related disciplines; it complements rationality as optimization, which views
decision making as a fully rational process of finding an optimal choice given the information
available. Another way to look at bounded rationality is that, because decision-makers lack
the ability and resources to arrive at the optimal solution, they instead apply their rationality
only after having greatly simplified the choices available. Thus the decision-maker is
a satisfice, one seeking a satisfactory solution rather than the optimal one. Simon used the
analogy of a pair of scissors, where one blade is the "cognitive limitations" of actual humans
and the other the "structures of the environment"; minds with limited cognitive resources can
thus be successful by exploiting pre-existing structure and regularity in the environment.
Intuitive: The main category is the intuitive model. These models do not depend on reason
and logic. The choice is reached usually by an intuitive 'knowing' of what the best answer is.
People talk about 'feeling it in their gut', 'listening to their heart' and receiving visions or
hearing voices.Other methods of decision making such as astrology, crystals, tarot cards, a
roll of the dice, could also be considered to be intuitive models. They are not based on reason
and rationality; rather they are tapping into some inner wisdom.
10. DECISION MAKING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
Oftentimes, people really have a difficult time deciding and choosing between or among
options. Indecisiveness is not something innate. An indecisive person can master the art of
good decision making. One way to make this happen is to apply a practical technique when
making decisions.
The various tools and techniques of decision making are very helpful in teaching people how
to become quick and smart decision makers. There are so many of these decision making
tools and one can choose any of these techniques which seems applicable and useful for the
situation.
Here are some of the common tools and techniques used by people in decision making:

12. Cost/Benefit-Analysis
A tool that allows the decision maker to simply compare the costs with the benefits of
something
SWOT
The acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is a very useful
and effective tool for various situations in businesses and organizations wherein the strengths
and weaknesses are identified as well as the opportunities and threats in order to arrive at
sound decisions.
Pareto-Analysis
This tool is useful in focusing on major causes for changes that will bring about huge benefits
to the decision maker.
Stepladder-Technique
The technique works by managing the entry or admission of members in a decision making
group. It encourages every member to contribute ideas and alternatives to the group.
Starbusting
Starbursting is a process of gaining knowledge on new ideas through brainstorming but the
focus is more on the questions and not on the answers.
PMI
PMI tool is used for arriving at quick decisions that do not quite have problems. The acronym
stands for Plus, Minuses, and Interesting points.
11. STRATEGIES IN DECISION MAKING
When the need for a decision is caused by a problem or an issue, potential solutions may be
presented but only one option will be chosen. In the process of narrowing down the options to
get to the most feasible choice, there are strategies in doing so.
Optimizing
In this strategy, the most practical solution or alternative to the problem is chosen from
among the list of possible alternatives. There are factors to be considered in optimizing:
 significance of the problem
 time availability

13.  cost involved
 accessibility of tools and resources
 personal values and beliefs
Satisficing
The term came from the combination of “satisfactory” and “sufficient.” This strategy is done
by choosing the first satisfactory option over the best alternative.
Maximax
Maximax means “maximize the maximums” which is a decision making strategy that openly
takes risks because the approach is choosing the alternatives based on their highest potentials
and most favourable outcomes.
Maximin
The term is a combined form of “maximize the minimums.” In contrast to the maximax
strategy, the decision maker settles for the alternative with the highest minimum payoff for
failures or negative outcomes.
12. HOW TO MANAGE AND OVERCOME MENTAL SHORTCUTS TO DECISION
MAKING
What makes decision making difficult? Is it the inability of the person to take the decision or
is it something more than that? To answer these questions will be the chief aim of this paper.
Decision making requires not just an idea about what to decide but also the ability to tackle
the inherent obstacles present in everyone’s mind. Decision making is not something which
can be taken lightly. At each stage of life, there will be some decision or the other that one
must take. Take for example a child. Even the child takes plenty of decisions. May be the
nature of decision making and its impact is not that big, but eventually every person goes
through this process of making a decision at every stage of life.
Overcoming the mental obstacles in decision making is not that easy because the mind goes
through a lot of thought processes while taking a decision. It is not just about taking some
decision at that moment and forgetting it. Decisions once taken are mostly of permanent
nature and so it is important that the decision once taken is of the highest standard. Because
of this, there is fair amount of pressure inside every person to take a good decision. This

14. decision must not just think about the past happenings or the present moment, but it must take
into account all future consequences that could affect the person involved in taking the
decision and all those who will experience the impact of this decision.
So to manage all the mental obstacles in taking the right decision, it is necessary to manage
and overcome mental shortcuts in decision making. Now, what do mental shortcuts mean? It
is about how well a person involved in taking a decision deals with all the mental thoughts
that decides the fortune of the decision. Mental shortcuts must be managed properly so that
proper decisions are made at the right instant. Let us discuss as to how one can manage
mental shortcuts.
Mental shortcuts are about dealing with emotions that one undergoes during the decision
making process. Emotions play a big role in taking a decision. So one must know how to deal
with it. But how does one do that? It’s all about doing a lot of self-analysis and thinking
about the decision. Talking about the self-analysis part, one needs to know what he/she
derives out of the decision. Self-analysis plays a crucial role because a decision once made
cannot be reversed. The impact of the decision on one’s own self is the most important aspect
of decision making. It is not that the decision’s impact on others is negligible, but then the
mind is tuned in such a way that everyone puts self before others.
Now, how does one decide which is best for him in terms of the decision that he/she makes?
This is where self-analysis plays an even bigger role. One must not just think about his/her
present needs, but also give importance to the future requirements. There are a few decisions
made just to satisfy the present needs that future concerns related to the consequences of the
decision are usually neglected. This might give temporary pleasures, but then when a
problem arises in the future, there is every possibility that one might regret the decision that
was taken. So to avoid all that, it is highly essential that the person is confident of taking a
decision. He/she must know the problems that might arise in the future. How to tackle any
problem that might arise in the future must be carefully analyzed based on the present
scenario. Many people fail to make good decisions because either they don’t analyze the
problems that might arise in the future or they don’t think about the solutions to the problems
believing that future is uncertain and hence need not be given much importance. The fact is
even though future is uncertain; there are certain things that are clear. It may not be
predictable to minute details, but then a rough idea of what could happen could always be
outlined. Based on this, one could subject his/her decision to analysis. How well would this

15. decision analysis be accurate is not what must think about. But an analysis is required so that
he/she can be confident in pursuing with the decision that was made. This, in turn, will help
make the decision be more successful than what it could have been had it not been subjected
to analysis.
Now, here comes the real test of character. A decision once made must stand the test of time
and for this, stern belief on what has been decided must be there and there must be no fear
what so ever in facing the consequences of the decision if any. Why should there be no fear?
Fear can be termed as a nuclear chain reaction happening within us. When it is within
controllable levels, it helps to perform well, but if it exceeds the limits, it decelerates the
performance. To eliminate fear is another tedious process but instead what can be done is one
must be prepared mentally to face any problem that comes along the way. This mental
preparation requires some pre-knowledge of what would happen and for all this, a thorough
analysis of the decision is required. This gives a clear idea as to how the mental shortcuts
must be managed.
13. CREATIVITY IN DECISION MAKING
Creativity in decision making is an asset which very few of us possess. A decision may look
ordinary many a time in life because it lacked the creativity part. What can creativity do to
decision making? Creativity in decision making helps a person who took the decision to
enjoy proceeding with the decision he/she took. It is more of enthusiasm to pursue the
decision rather than compulsion to do it just because some decision was taken. This is what
makes creativity an essential aspect of decision making and every one of us must ensure that
we try our best to be creative in our decision making.
Now the common question that arises is how to be creative in making decisions especially
when most decisions are taken instantaneously under a lot of pressure. True character and
mental strength of a person is exhibited only at distress times and pressure situations. So if
one learns the art of being creative in such situations, he/she has mastered the art of living.
Not every day will one have to face such situations, but whenever one has been made to face
such crisis situations, it is highly essential that a good creative approach is adopted and the
problem neatly tackled. All these depend on how well a person is in creative decision
making.

16. How it is that one can develop this creativity? There’s nothing like developing creativity.
Everyone possesses creativity in some form or the other and so it is about how one brings out
creativity underlying in him/her that differentiates him/her from the rest. Every person in the
world is blessed with the art of being creative. Not everyone feels so, a few who feel that
don’t show interest in using it to their potential and few others don’t consider creativity as a
big deal. The rest who are very few in number realize their dreams by extracting the
creativity in them to the optimum level and thrive in crisis situations.
Creative decision making is in all fields, but it can be clearly visualized in sports. People who
lead a team may have to be creative and sometimes take crucial decisions based on their
intuitions and these people are usually very successful. Creativity in any decision one takes is
essential. As explained, there’s nothing like developing creativity in one self, it only needs to
be brought out of every one. Now how can this be done? This again requires thorough self-
analysis. Everyone needs to find out where they are good at and what aspects most attract
them. Even the person who is termed the dullest head will have some extra ordinary skill in
him. It is the inability to understand where that skill lies that makes him look dull headed to
the external world. This causes the person to feel that he/she doesn’t have the innate
creativity skills that other people possess. But this is not true. It is essential that self-analysis
is done to identify the innate skills. Only that can make him/her a very successful person.
Similarly, it is up to the individual to try and make sure that he/she is creative in all decisions
that is made.
To get the best creative skills in a person, self- analysis must be accompanied with intense
training whereby one gets a chance to shape his skills and tune them to make sure they are
more creative and match high standards. This training requires a lot of hard work and so only
those who are willing to really dig their skills succeed. This is the reason why not everyone
becomes a good decision maker and only the people who possess the will power to do it
achieves it.
Process of creativity techniques:
Creativity is very essential to enhance creative problem solving. There are various
such techniques involved:
Shifting a person’s mind state from an idle one to a creative one
Reframing the problem

17. Trying to increase the quantity of fresh ideas
All these creative techniques involve identifying what the problem is and cracking the
problem by finding out a proper solution. Problem solving is not about the problem involved,
but it is more minds related. How the Mind perceives the problem determines the magnitude
of the problem and not the problem in itself. So it is essential that the problem is given the
weightage it deserves and nothing more than that
Creativity in problem solving would involve a creative mind to carefully tackle the problem.
It is also essential to make sure that more fresh ideas are thought about relating to the
problem and all those are properly implemented. It is a problem solving technique which is
independently created rather than learned with assistance. Creativity requires newness or
novelty as a characteristic of what is created, but creativity does not necessarily imply that
what is created has value or is appreciated by other people. A frequent approach to teaching
creative problem solving is to teach critical thinking in addition to creative thinking, but the
effectiveness of this approach is not proven. As an alternative to separating critical and
creative thinking, some creative-problem-solving techniques focus on either reducing an
idea's disadvantages or extracting a flawed idea's significant advantages and incorporating
those advantages into a different idea.
A frequent approach to teaching creative problem solving is to teach critical thinking in
addition to creative thinking, but the effectiveness of this approach is not proven. As an
alternative to separating critical and creative thinking, some creative-problem-solving
techniques focus on either reducing an idea's disadvantages or extracting a flawed idea's
significant advantages and incorporating those advantages into a different idea.
Creative-problem-solving techniques designed to efficiently lead to a fresh perspective that
causes a solution to become obvious. This category is useful for solving especially
challenging problems. Some of these techniques involve identifying independent dimensions
that differentiate (or separate) closely associated concepts.Such techniques can overcome the
mind's instinctive tendency to use "oversimplified associative thinking" in which two related
concepts are so closely associated that their differences, and independence from one another,
are overlooked.

18. 14. COMMON DECISION MAKING MISTAKES
To some, decisions may be easy to reach while other people cannot easily make up their
minds on certain things. Decision making is a skill that requires constant practice. Once you
are faced with a situation, you are forced to decide what is best for you or for others. Some
decisions have to be made instantly and quickly; other kinds of decisions are analyzed before
getting rolled out. Yet, human as we are, we commit mistakes, and even with decision
making, we encounter pitfalls. These slip-ups are inevitable especially when the situation is
little complex.
A mistake must be taken positively instead of allowing it to put you down. Any fault in
decision has to be accepted gracefully and constructively. It is utterly important to learn from
these mistakes and not commit them the next time around. Part of becoming a good decision
maker is gaining understanding of your own mistakes and learning from them.
15. AVOIDING DECISION PITFALLS
If your weakness is being indecisive, you have got to change that personality. Poor decision
making skills actually make one weak and dependent. There is a great tendency that you
cannot stand on your own and may even struggle when left alone.
One simple tip is to defer the decision for the time being. Hasty decisions may turn out to be
bad. Pressuring oneself to decide when the mind is not well-conditioned will also generate
bad decisions. Take time to analyse and really weigh the pros and cons of the choices.
In connection with the first tip, always research and evaluate the choices available. The more
information you gather, the easier it is for you to narrow down your alternatives and
eventually make the best decision.
Lastly, when worse comes to worst, do not hesitate to consult with a friend or an advisor
perhaps. Yet, never completely ask them to make the decision. Simply seek for their opinions
and what they can say about your chosen alternative. This leaves you being independent as a
decision maker.
16. THE FUTURE OF DECISION MAKING: LESS INTUITIVE, MORE EVIDENCE
Human intuition can be astonishingly good, especially after it's improved by experience.
Savvy poker players are so good at reading their opponents' cards and bluffs that they seem to

19. have x-ray vision. Fire-fighters can, under extreme duress, anticipate how flames will
spread through a building. And nurses in neonatal ICUs can tell if a baby has a dangerous
infection even before blood test results come back from the lab.
The lexicon to describe this phenomenon is mostly mystical in nature. Poker players have
a sixth sense; fire-fighters feel the blaze's intentions; Nurses just know what seems like an
infection. They can't even tell us what data and cues they use to make their excellent
judgments; their intuition springs from a deep place that can't be easily examined. . Examples
like these give many people the impression that human intuition is generally reliable, and that
we should rely more on the decisions and predictions that come to us in the blink of an
eye.This is deeply misguided advice. We should rely less, not more, on intuition. Here's some
of what we've learned:
It takes a long time to build good intuition. Chess players, for example, need 10 years of
dedicated study and competition to assemble a sufficient mental repertoire of board
patterns.
Intuition only works well in specific environments, ones that provide a person
with good cues and rapid feedback. Cues are accurate indications about what's going to
happen next. They exist in poker and firefighting, but not in, say, stock markets. Despite
what chartists think, it's impossible to build good intuition about future market moves
because no publicly available information provides good cues about later stock
movements. Feedback from the environment is information about what worked and what
didn't. It exists in neonatal ICUs because babies stay there for a while. It's hard, though, to
build medical intuition about conditions that change after the patient has left the care
environment, since there's no feedback loop.
We apply intuition inconsistently. Even experts are inconsistent. One study determined
what criteria clinical psychologists used to diagnose their patients, and then created simple
models based on these criteria. Then, the researchers presented the doctors with new
patients to diagnose and also diagnosed those new patients with their models. The models
did a better job diagnosing the new cases than did the humans whose knowledge was used
to build them. The best explanation for this is that people applied what they knew
inconsistently — their intuition varied. Models, though, don't have intuition.

20. It's easy to make bad judgments quickly. We have a many biases that lead us astray
when making assessments. Here's just one example. If I ask a group of people "Is the
average price of German cars more or less than $100,000?" and then ask them to estimate
the average price of German cars, they'll "anchor" around BMWs and other high-end
makes when estimating. If I ask a parallel group the same two questions but say "more or
less than $30,000" instead, they'll anchor around VWs and give a much lower estimate.
How much lower? About $35,000 on average, or half the difference in the two anchor
prices. How information is presented affects what we think.
We can't know tell where our ideas come from. There's no way for even an experienced
person to know if a spontaneous idea is the result of legitimate expert intuition or of a
pernicious bias. In other words, we have lousy intuition about our intuition.
17. CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, decision making is a core criterion to lead a successful life and every one of us
must realize the importance of decision making. Creativity in decision making is essential for
efficient problem solving and so it is essential that this trait is developed within each of us.