John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Personal Success

Idea 95: Evaluating your options

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki

Effective decision-making has these six phases:

1. Defining the objective.
2. Gathering sufficient information.
3. Identifying the feasible options.
4. Evaluating the options.
5. Making the decision (choosing an option).
6. Testing its implementation: by feel, by measurement and by assessment.

Evaluating the options is often the most difficult part.

Notice the word options rather than alternatives. An alternative is literally one of two courses open. Decision makers who lack skill tend to jump far too quickly to the either–or alternatives. They do not give enough time and mental energy to generating at least three or four ...