The 8 Elements of F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making

A decision made from fear is always the wrong decision” – Tony Robbins

The Fear of Decisions

Every day, decision makers in organizations confront fear of the unknown when making critical business decisions.

Decisions on marketing and sales strategies, supplier selection, financial budget allocations, revenue projections, make versus buy, hiring new employees and downsizing existing employees – the list goes on and on…

Every individual has a default, decision making mental model that they fall back on. The decision making process could be measured and unhurried or it could be based on a visceral, gut feel. It could also be a combination of analysis and judgement, depending on circumstances.

The fear of the unknown arises when decision makers are unsure about the outcomes, due to inadequate information or because of a rapidly changing external environment.

This fear of the unknown could cloud the decision making process resulting in sub-optimal decisions or procrastination of the decision delaying timelines, exposing the organization to risk.

So, how can organizations overcome the fear of the unknown and optimize their decisions?

By using the Eight Principles of F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making, decision makers can rely on a strategic decision making framework that mitigates apprehension that they might feel during this process.

F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making

1) Fact based

In a world inundated with fake news and unconfirmed realities, it is imperative that decision making is based on verified and substantiated facts. Decision makers consciously consume or are unconsciously exposed to a myriad of opinions, data and information. Some inputs are internally validated by the organization and processed as outputs in the form of analytics and reports. Decision makers should maintain a high degree of skepticism towards all sources of information, especially external, non-corroborated data as a means to achieving fact based decision making.

2) Experience-based

Over the years, decision makers gain experience in making certain types of decisions based on a specific situation or circumstances. With acquired experience, they become comfortable and familiar in certain aspects of decision making. The best types of decisions are a combination of analysis of the facts and the knowledge borne out of past experience. This combination of analysis and judgement mitigates uncertainties around the possible outcomes. Therefore, the application of experience in the form of knowledge or judgment reduces the fear of decision making.

3) Accountability creating

One of the drawbacks of consensus based decision making, is the lack of accountability over the final decisions. When there is an inordinate amount of focus in ensuring that the opinions and voices of every individual are considered, the end goal of achieving optimal decisions gets diminished. Therefore, the decision making process takes longer than usual, as no individual is held accountable for the final decisions. F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making involves the designation of decision accountability at the start of the process and a specified completion time.

4) Realistic

F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making is balanced and grounded in reality. When decision makers choose an extreme solution, the fear of unmet expectations remains with them throughout the time that it takes for the results to manifest themselves. Also, they are likely to choose riskier maneuvers or unusual tactics in order to achieve these extreme solutions, further compounding the risk of failure. Therefore, decision makers should strive to take the middle path and strike a balance between two extremes or variances for the decision outputs.

5) Logical

Cognitive biases affect all humans and impact the quality of decisions. It is difficult to maintain a rational and logical mindset, when decision makers come across information that either confirms or contradicts their pre-conceived world view. They are likely to ignore or minimize such conflicting information or eagerly accept and incorporate the confirmatory evidence in the decision making process. In either case, this could result in sub-optimal decisions. Thus, F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S decision making can be facilitated by being aware of cognitive biases and applying logical reasoning to the analysis of information that is presented during the process.

6) Externally focused

Decision makers can become too reliant on internal information, analysis and knowledge. The internal view of the business is only one aspect of decision making. When the internal view is not supplemented with an external environment focus, the risk of not incorporating anticipated risks or missing opportunities rises. The external focus can incorporate the outside view through competitive analysis (SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces Model, Four Corner’s model or Blue Ocean strategic analysis). It can also involve an environmental scan via PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis. By incorporating the external focus, decision makers can ensure that they do not ignore key competitive and environmental factors that could impact decision outcomes.

7) Solution oriented

Organizations can get lost in the process of decision making and lose focus on the end goal – optimal decision outputs. When process orientation takes precedence over solution orientation, the quality of the decision outputs depreciates. In F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S decision making, the primary goal of decision makers is to reach the most optimal decision output within the accepted time constraints.

8) Substitutable

In the current business environment, there is a high degree of uncertainty and dynamic change. The assumptions that are the underlying basis of decisions can be rendered irrelevant or invalid in a short period of time. Decision makers need to build in flexibility and have multiple scenarios laid out that address the rapidly changing external environment. F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making uses future oriented strategic analysis tools such as Scenario Analysis and War Gaming to provide a view of possible future outcomes and generate several substitutable decision outputs. These alternative or substitutable decision outputs can be triggered when a particular assumption needs to be replaced or modified to reflect the new environmental changes. By having multiple decision outputs ready for any eventuality, the fear of having no back-up plans is removed.

Conclusion

The Eight Elements of F.E.A.R.L.E.S.S Decision Making are Fact-based, Experience-based, Accountability creating, Realistic, Logical, Externally focused, Solution oriented and Substitutable. When organizations incorporate these principles in the decision making process, they provide decision makers with a strategic decision making framework that mitigates apprehension and allays fear of the unknown.