Make better decisions with these questions

- One rule for navigating changing, uncertain circumstances is that you really shouldn't jump on the first solution that occurs to you. That's fine to do when things are operating the way they always have. Yeah, two plus two equals four, of course. But when conditions are changing, relying on the same assumptions or action plans can be a damaging mistake. We have to guard against our own mental tendencies here as well. The more uncertain a situation is, the more we crave certainty, so there's a real risk that our minds will settle on a quick, easy, pat solution before we even consciously interrogate the situation to understand how it's different. To prevent those lazy heuristics from misguiding us then, we have to slow things down and put a process in place. The more we consciously examine the situation, the more we can evaluate whether the old way is still the best way. Here are three questions to ask yourself then, as you're making a decision. First, ask yourself what's worked before? That gets the standard obvious answer on the table. This is the one that your mind most often would naturally default to, and it may still be the right one, but the crucial thing here is to put this answer into context. It's not the only solution out there. It's one possibility to consider. Second, you can ask, is the situation the same as before, or is it different in any way? If so, what's changed? This can unearth critical variables that may dramatically influence which solution works best now. For instance, plenty of people who've been frustrated when they couldn't get a cab and a certain number probably wondered, "Wouldn't it be great if regular people could give me a ride instead?" But the logistics were way too complicated until the advent of the smartphone. But with that new variable, Uber and Lyft, and other ride sharing services were able to make something possible that couldn't have been before. Finally, there may not be a good analogy in your company or your industry about how to handle a given situation, but someone, somewhere has probably dealt with a related problem. So keep searching until you find them. A quick internet search can likely yield newspaper articles and books about companies facing similar circumstances. Barring that, you could look into business school case studies, which you can find for sale online or call a reference librarian. They specialize in helping people find information like this. The more data you can find about what people tried and what worked and what didn't, the better. Consider it a palette of options from which you can draw and find what will work best for you. Decisions become critical when times are changing rapidly. To make better ones, we can't default to what's always been done or just go with the first option without considering alternatives. By asking these questions, we can illuminate other possibilities that will help us make the right choice.