I attended a seminar titled ‘Improve your life through better decisions’ yesterday. Michael E. McGrath was the speaker. He has written several books on the subject – available on Amazon.

His mission is to help people improve their lives through better decision making. He provided a handout on the top ten self-destructive behaviors causing bad decisions:

* Indecision – when you just can’t make decisions

* Not thinking it over – Making rash and impulsive decisions

* Emotional decisions – letting your emotions control your decisions

* Running with lemmings – bowing to the pressure of others without thinking

* Acting like a frog in boiling water – letting decisions pass you by

* Falling for pressure tactics – being forced into buying something you shouldn’t

* Buyer’s remorse – regretting your purchase decisions

* You can’t choose what you hadn’t thought of – not considering all your options

* Failing to run the numbers – not considering the true cost of your decisions

* Unintended consequences – not anticipating the consequences of your decisions

I am sure that all of us can relate to one or more of these.

Our Thoughts...

I hadn’t really thought about how my decisions have affected my life. As I think about it now, I see his point – I could improve my life through better decisions.

I would add the following to his destructive behavior list…

Based on my experience, I have seen many companies make technology decisions before understanding the problem and looking at likely potential solutions. Choosing the technology first is like the tail waging the dog.

Regarding indecision…

Several prospects as well as Michael McGrath point out that it is frequently better to make an adequate decision that is timely than an optimal decision that is too late. In the case of enterprise software, what you will learn while going from purchase to implementation could very well be worth it. And, as I pointed out in an earlier ‘ideas’, your current problem is costing you some amount of money each and every month.

Your Thoughts...