Dr. Seuss and the Art of Decision Making
Reut published the following Dr. Seuss quote in her most recent blog entry:
“You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some widows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?
And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
…Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.”
When you look at creative masterpieces, the same painting, or sculpture, will look different from different parts of the room. I’m experience the same with this clip from Dr. Seuss. So let’s just focus on one angle—the windows that are lit and the ones that are dark.
As managers, it’s the lighted windows that get us into trouble. The lighted windows, heuristics, are the simple rules of thumb that we use to make decisions. We use them to find our way. If it were completely dark we would treat obstacles with a little more respect. We would overcautiously fumble through the workday. If all the windows were lit, we would be bombarded with so much information it would render us paralyzed.
So heuristics serve a valuable purpose, without decision making rules of thumb, managers couldn’t manage. But, although heuristics serve a very useful purpose, by relying on heuristics, managers also make mistakes in very predictable ways. And the busier we are, the more likely we are to rely on heuristics. So idle managers are less likely to ‘sprain an ankle’, than busy ones.
So if you can just manage to free up your day….
In today’s hectic work environment, that advice won’t help much. Instead, research shows that managers, who are simply aware of the heuristics they use, are much less likely to confuse the “light” with the “dark”. Or as Dr. Seuss says,
“Just never forget to be dexterous and deft
And never mix up your right foot with your left.”
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