How We Decide – Blunders

This post is dedicated to the subject of blunders.  Since this is a post about how we decide, I will delve into a number of reasons why we make mistakes or blunders.  In preparation for this blog series on decision-making, I read a few articles and books.  One of them was a book written by Zachary Shore titled Blunder.  In his book, he identifies seven reasons why smart people make blunders.  A blunder is defined as a stupid, careless, or thoughtless mistake.  Let’s explore a few of these reasons.

Fear of being seen as weak

Many decisions we make are made out of fear of being perceived by others as a weak person. Depending on the meaning “being weak” has to a person and the implications they attach to such perception by others can lead to distorted judgment and “good” blunders.

Thinking others think like we do

This is probably a very common issue for many of us.  The truth is every human sees things differently.  We filter stimuli, the things we see, hear, etc. according to our own map of the world.  Our map develops from our experiences.  While we can agree and reach common ground, the meaning, value or importance we give to things are different.  Assuming others see, hear, and more importantly, understand the same is highly unlikely.

Confusing causes of complex events

According to one of the laws of Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, “Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. There is a fundamental mismatch between the nature of reality in complex systems and our predominant ways of thinking about that reality.  The first step in correcting that mismatch is to let go of the notion that cause and effect are close in time and space.”  We must be keenly aware of this fact.  When we make decisions based on false assumptions regarding its cause, the solutions we choose will ultimately not solve the problem or prevent it from recurrence.

In order to prevent blunders, we must become as present as possible to reality and avoid our habitual thinking pattern from interfering with the decision process.

As I suggested in my last post, making a list of these blunder drivers can help you remember the possibility that one or more of these can get in the way of the best decision.  It may save you from some unnecessary pain and sorrow later.

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO