Before we embark on any course of action a decision will have to be made. However, we are confronted with the likelihood of uncertainty. Therefore, individuals and executives are confronted with such situation, and which must be evaluated in other to defend against the likely outcomes thereafter. It is important to note that the most difficult job for any executive is in making decisions. The outcomes of such decisions will impact positively or negatively in the business.
We can ask several questions on why some decisions are regarded as bad. It can be said that such bad decisions were not clearly defined as the earlier stages. It may be personal of corporate decisions we our biases impacted our initial judgement. It could as well be said that the right information was not clearly given or represented, also the cost and benefit analysis were not accurately considered. With all these processes in place, the fault line might not necessarily be with the decision-making processes as explained but with the biases of the decision maker.
It has been discovered on how unconsciously routine are used to cope with the complexity inherent in most decisions. With this routine we are made to carry out some trial and error to discover or learn somethings from such events.
It has been discovered by research how a whole series of flaws in the way we think in making decisions. It might be based on our proceeding to solve a situation through trial and error or through our own biases. With all these traps, it appears very dangerous in their invisibility. As they are considered hardwired into our thinking process, we fail to recognize them as we eventually fall right into them.
As executives are faced with the day-to-day decisions they make or approve, the traps herein are very dangerous. Those decisions can undermine everything from entry into a new market, acquisition decisions, divestment, or divestiture strategy to succession planning.
There are several business traps that are set to undermine our decisions. It is also important as managers to guide against some of these traps. It is also important to know that the best defense is the awareness. It is important for business executives to attempt to familiarize themselves with these traps and diverse forms they take will be better able to ensure that the decisions they make are sound and that the recommendations proposed by others within the organisations are reliable.
- Anchoring and relying on first impressions
This is usually taken as the first impressions, estimates or data anchor subsequent thoughts and judgment that comes into our mind. The anchors take many guises. They can be as simple and seemingly not harmful or offensive as a comment by a colleague or a statistic appearing in the morning business news.
It can be noted that in a business, the common types of anchors are past events or trend. Example can be for a marketer who is trying to make a forecast to a product, such marketer will look at the past events to forecast the future of the product. In this scenario, the previous events become anchors and adjustments are made for the future events. With such adjustments it makes give to accurate estimates to the forecasted years in view.
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ANGER MANAGEMENT