Put a group of people together to decide and you can get some very strange conversations happening.  There will be people who are excited about the future after the decision to proceed has been made, who are ready to decide right now and just want to get on with it – no doubt their arch enemies will also be in the room – the people who can instantly see all the risk associated with the idea and who feel nervous about the outcomes of the decision.

So how do you proceed?

Whether you are an optimist or a pessimist chances are you are only bringing half your brain to your decision making.  Would it surprise you to know that optimists tend to consider the best case when deciding and pessimists tend to consider the worst case?

Imagine if both parts of the brain had their chance to speak and be heard during the decision making process…spend some time working on the best possible outcomes as a result of your decision, and then spend some time working on the worst case scenario as a result of your decision.  The outcome would surely be a well thought out picture of the post decision environment.

Once you’ve got the full picture all you need to do is find some balance, does the best case outweigh the worst case – either way, decision made!

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.