This is a guest post by Alice Scarlet. She works as a team coordinator at Assignment Market, supervising a team of Assignment writers who offer round the clock writing consultancy. She’s also an emerging artist who loves to sketch abstract arts and natural sceneries.
Hidden traps in decision making are a few of the unseen mistakes that even a C-Suite would make without even realizing it. There are several traps that almost anyone can get stuck in and end up making some terrible, terrible decisions. However, now you can learn more about those hidden traps and understand how to avoid them to make effective decisions. So, here are seven most common hidden traps that one must avoid at all cost when making a critical decision:
1. The Anchoring Trap
Anchoring trap is one of the flaws in the decision making in which the mind mentally weighs a decision and anchors it by giving more value to the first information out of the two that it receives. In other words, the primary thoughts, expressions and estimates become the first call of judgment. You can solve this problem by viewing each decision from a different perspective until one of the two makes more sense.
2. The Group Think Trap
Group Think trap in a decision making is a point when we believe that a vote of majority wins. If more than a few people are speaking about it, we tend to believe they would be correct and we do not scrutinize our actions. Before making a decision, evaluate the facts from theories. If you are not careful, you could move forward with something that was wrong in the first place.
3. The Status-Quo Trap
It is yet another common trap in the decision making. Although we believe we are being rational when making a decision, we tend to end up being biased. This leads us to reject something new in the market because we are already so accustomed to the old status-quo. You can sort out that trap by considering your options, keeping your mind open and not rejecting something new as soon as it is introduced.
4. The Failure to Frame Trap
Every time you have to make a decision about something, you need to create a frame around the situation to evaluate your present condition and then try to paint a picture within that frame. Things go awry when you fail to frame a trap. You can decide a complete plan of approach for your present decision when you frame a situation.
5. The Sunk-Cost Trap
Sunk costs are old investments that no longer hold the current value. It is a trap because when making decisions, you tend to give importance to the reason “But, we have held onto them for too long”, which is exactly the reason why you need to let it go. Your old monetary investments- they have gone too far from the recoverable range. And by holding onto them, you are only destroying your decision.
6. The Inference and Judgment Trap
Try to remember that when it comes to decision making, evidence and facts are your best friends. Disregarding or ignoring facts and figures is a mistake that even most of the senior employees can make because they start to focus on a small collective data analysis, instead of a current situation. The inference and judgment trap can hinder a strong decision that could be made straight-off with factual evidence.
7. The Confirming-Evidence Trap
You are in a situation where you need desperate advice. You call your board of advisors, listen to what they have to say and march straight on with their decision. Do not, in any case, do that. Confirm everything they have to say by comparing it to fact based evidence to avoid ending up with a loss.
If you pay attention to facts, run a reliability check and gather enough data before making a decision, you will be able to avoid most of these decision traps.
Good points here. Though not a trap, decision fatigue is a big issue when you’re discussing and scoping big things. Ever notice that some Fortune companies just made odd and what many would consider stupid decisions? It’s all rooted in decision fatigue.