[VIDEO] Are you focusing on outcomes instead of improvement?
It's an easy trap: Looking at the end result of a situation, and if it was bad, quickly rejecting the whole thing as bad. If the outcome was good, we assume it was all good.
Nothing could set you up for failure more quickly.
Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in economic science, has written extensively about thinking and decision-making. His book and speech on decision-making highlight pitfalls people commonly fall into that set them up for failure.
The biggest of these is focusing too much on outcomes instead of improvement. For example, if an employee completes a project, and the project is unsuccessful, we tend to believe that employee and the project was altogether a waste of time. But what if in the process, invaluable insights were present that we completely disregard that could have improved the process for the next project?
If instead we focused on the decision-making process instead of the outcomes, we would see ourselves learning and growing faster than ever. Two suggestions he offers to help focus on decision-making are:
- Implement "quality control" on decision-making. Factories have quality control departments and processes. It only makes sense to implement a quality control process in our decision-making. It will help highlight and refine the decisions being made every day.
- Keep track of the deliberations, alternatives and considerations made while reaching the final decision. These peripherals are key to understanding and improving on the next process. They reveal weaknesses and strengths.
Watch Daniel's full video below to find out more!
