Cycles Of Fear

Great decisions bring out the best in people and galvanize them to achieve great results together. They attract interest, energy, and resources that members of any team or group effort need to implement them. Great decisions resolve tough issues with flexible solutions that to changing conditions. Unfortunately fears provoke great decision-making roadblocks:

1. People get left out of the decision-making process because “they’ll be disruptive” or “we don’ have time to include them.” However, this is an undermining tactic that can limit truly creative solutions and successful implementations.
2. People lose sight of what they really want when they confuse expectations with true desires. They focus on getting a bigger piece of the pie and ensuring it is relative to everyone else’s piece of the pie instead of working together to make the pie bigger for everyone.
3. The real issues get ignored or overlooked when people fight for control. They hide their real agendas because they do not want ‘to show their hand.’ This causes communication to stifle because people don’t want to talk about what is really important.
4. People miss important options when they jump on the first idea or rush to defend their own.
5. Information gathering is biased and inefficient when advocates only share data that support their ideas or refute others’ positions. Some people study data to excess when they don’t know what they are looking for but don’t want to miss a thing that might cause them to make a different decision.
6. People become attached to preset expectations or positions making them less able to receive new information presented by others. They often ignore or reject information that could lead to better results.
7. People drives the decision with their own agenda using self-protection as their only priority. Personal victories can overshadow win-win results.
8. All choices and areas aren’t explored fully when authoritarian or majority rules decides the only path for discussion. People can miss seeing total solutions.
9. Decisions don’t stick when winners revel in congratulations and losers rally to reverse the decision.
10. Dissension builds as difficulties mount and fears increase. Dissatisfaction explodes into other areas so that even mundane decisions become difficult.

Reference: How Great Decisions Get Made: 10 Easy Steps For Reaching Agreement on even the Toughest Issues By Don Maruska