Making Decisions with and Without Needed Information

In a perfect world, decision-making would be an organized and predictable process: we could gather all the information and data necessary to make a sound decision, then we would weigh our options and choose the best possible path. Unfortunately, in the "real" world, we are all often called upon to make decisions in the heat of a moment and without all the data and information that could be helpful. Does this mean that we are poor decision-makers? Or are there those times when doing our best in the moment is all we can ask and expect?

While your approach to decision-making can be similar regardless of how much information you have, there will be increased risk when you have to make choices and decisions without knowing all the facts. Many of us prefer to acquire all the information possible and weigh options, get others' opinions and input and extrapolate out possible solutions before making a choice. This can be fine in situations where there is plenty of time and plenty of data available. At other times, we have limited information and even more limited time to make a decision. In these situations, the required technique is to accept a certain amount of risk and try to choose the "most likely" to succeed or the least objectionable solution and move forward.

When you are unsure of the path to take or do not have enough data, you may be able to make a tentative decision-choose an approach and proceed cautiously with the intention of gathering more information and data as you go along. This is a good choice if you will have the option of changing direction or amending your choice when more information becomes available. For example: you may be in the market for a new house; after looking at many houses, you find one that is not the "perfect" house, but it is the one that meets most of your requirements and seems the least objectionable of all the houses. You need a house and need to move forward with finding a place to live. You make an offer and move forward through the sale process. Before closing, you discover that there will need to be substantial repairs to the house to bring it up to code. With this additional information, you decide that the house is not for you and cancel the sale. You made a decision based on the requirements of the situation but were able to make changes when more information became available.

It is important to learn how to make choices and decisions under a variety of conditions since the perfect circumstance seldom arises.