Joseph L. Badaracco’s book, Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work, suggests asking five basic questions to help make hard decisions when the analysis, facts and data fail to provide a clear answer.
- What are the net consequences? That is, if you have to make a decision that has a lot of uncertainty and significant human stakes, make sure you look at all your options, not just some of them, and consider the consequences for everyone who is going to be affected.
- What are my core obligations? Consequences are really important, but so are core human obligations, and there are some things that are just wrong and you can’t do them.
- What will work in the world as it is? Which means a world that’s uncertain, turbulent and surprising.
- Who are we? Most organizations have a set of core values that we really care about, how we treat people or how we treat each other. So you’ve got to test your options against that.
- Once you’ve asked these first four questions, you got to make a decision. That’s when you ask the final question, what can I live with?
Authors: Joseph L. Badaracco, Tom Fox
Source: A Harvard professor on the five questions to ask when facing tough decisions
Subject: Decision Making Questions
Source: A Harvard professor on the five questions to ask when facing tough decisions
Subject: Decision Making Questions
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