making better decisions - 4. Pros and Cons
Dealing with Difficult People
This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series.
4. Pros and Cons
Thinking carefully through each possible choice in a decision, and making a list of its positives and negatives (pros and cons) is a good way to start the consideration process for a complex decision you have to make (and dates back to Benjamin Franklin in 1772).
If there are no significant downstream consequences to the decision - if it's one where the impact can be reversed at a later date, then this is a perfectly adequate way to go.
Is there a situation outside your control that will impact the quality of the decision outcome? This is something you will need to factor in (this may be one of the pros or cons, or both).
One risk with the pros and cons list is it gives the illusion of thinking through a matter thoroughly, and objectively, but still allows an emotional decision to be made, rather than a rational one, while making the decider think they have come to an entirely rational decision. It may help to reframe the decision as if you're outside the decision-making process, and to be able to allot weightings (say, a number to show how important each of the options is) so that something with many immaterial pros or cons doesn't win the day through show of force, as it were.
For further reading, an HBR article about pros and cons traces the approach back much further than this email.
Are you a fan of the pros and cons list? Think they're over-rated? Hit reply and let me know: I'd love to hear from you.
See you next time.