Decisions, Decisions.

We make them daily by the thousands, many without conscious thought. Your morning routine consisting of decisions borne out of routine and trial and error work to get you set for the day’s activities. Some become so ingrained that it feels uncomfortable and unnecessary to try another way, even if there was one and this is often the crutch we lean on, especially in business.

A.D.I.T.W. You’ve all heard it a million times and likely used it yourself when confronted by change and ideas not comfortable to you. We’ve “always done it this way” is the mantra of businesses that follow a long way behind the leaders. As a rule people don’t like change and a sameness everyday leads to a relaxed atmosphere in the work environment which can lead to people not making decisions at any level.

Business decisions are best made with relevant information and data appropriate to the situation, yet emotions, often illogical, play such a large part that we need to understand why we sometimes play it safe.

An interesting study of New York City cabs pointed out obvious decisions to be made for better work practices but change was not forthcoming for a number of reasons with one particular illogical emotion overriding that decision process.

Cabbies have a daily target to aim for and when they reach that target they go home. Makes sense so far. On the slow days they have to work longer hours to reach the target before they go home. On the busy days they hit the target early and go home early. Thousands of cabbies work that way and they can usually work out in the first hour or so whether they will have a slow or busy day.

Then the logical question is asked, why not work longer on the busy days or even normal hours to earn more and go home early on the slow days?

The perception or potential for loss seems to override the decision making process and logic behind better work practice decisions. They will work longer hours on the slow days to not miss out rather than extra hours on the busy days to earn more. Before you point out the clear logic consider that you likely fit into this goofy thinking in decisions you’ve made in the past.

Fear of loss, decision making has been used successfully by many companies and in travel the best examples come from frequent flyer programs. This is a prime example of where people are prepared to buy extra and sometime unnecessary trips to keep up their points balance and maintain their status rating. Fear of losing points is a powerful emotion, often stronger than the logic that says the trip you just bought was worth more than your current points balance.

Decisions based on potential loss have been ingrained since our ancestors decided to start farming and leave hunting behind, for that “bird in the hand” was worth more than the potential of ending up with no birds in the bush.

Yet great business leaders take a chance on loss because the prize or gain can be so much more fulfilling than standing still or working in that “comfort zone”. How often have you used that phrase to describe your business environment? It’s a fear of loss phrase. Get rid of it.

Some decisions are easy, toast or cereal but the big ones not so. Be motivated by gain, by accomplishments, by how much you’ve already succeeded in life. It’s never as bad as you think.

Go ahead; make your day.