HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
11 Myths About DecisionMaking
by Cheryl Strauss Einhorn
Published on HBR.org / April 20, 2021 / Reprint H06B43
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images
Can you imagine life without your smartphone?
So many of us can’t. We depend upon them for everything from directions
to telling us the temperature outside to tracking our daily steps and heart
rate. Our “Hey, Siri” culture has conditioned us to equate speed with
efficiency and efficacy — and it’s changing how we process information.
Our brains have become conditioned to respond with pleasure to the
bings, pings, and dings our phones and computers provide.
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
1
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
While Siri and Alexa and Google are great when we’re jonesing for Italian
food and want help finding a restaurant, they’re not great, or even
desirable, when it comes to complex decision-making. In fact, they help
enable a series of counterproductive ideas and reactive behaviors that
actually impair your ability to make informed decisions.
For example, let’s say you want to buy a car. Maybe you’re weighing a
Prius versus a Crosstrek. Siri and Google can give you all sorts of
information, such as fuel efficiency or the current interest rate on your
loan. But a search engine won’t know why you’re buying the car, how you
intend to use it, or what impact the purchase will have on your budget.
Ultimately your decision needs to come from a clear understanding of your
needs, values, and goals — information that’s outside the reach of their
algorithms.
11 Myths About Decision-Making
I’ve been studying decision-making for more than 20 years and have
identified a number of deeply ingrained and counterproductive myths that
harm our ability to make decisions. The most common of these myths
include:
1. I like to be efficient. So many of us think efficiency means jumping
right in and making a decision. But to be truly effective, we need to be
clear on what we are solving for. Rushing can lead you to make a decision
based on the wrong factors, which ultimately will lead to regret. For
example, walking into a car dealership and buying the first car you see may
feel efficient, but may mean you end up with the car the salesperson wants
to get rid of, not the car that best fits your needs and budget.
2. I’m too busy; I don’t have time to give to this decision. Putting off a
decision is a decision in and of itself. However, intentionally slowing down
to get clear on what you’re solving for will speed up your efficacy. You’ll
save time later by spending quality time now to avoid having to revisit the
decision. For example, taking a little bit of time to research prices before
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
2
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
visiting a car dealership will better help you negotiate the price of the
vehicle.
3. I just need to solve this problem at this moment. This is the classic
example of “losing the forest for the trees.” Our problems sit in a context.
A narrow focus may solve the wrong problem, or only partially solve the
problem. If your car breaks down unexpectedly and you rush out to buy a
new one, are you considering your needs beyond the present?
4. This is my decision alone; I don’t need to involve others. Our
important decisions do involve other stakeholders. Avoiding this bigger
picture of who else is affected by a decision can, at best, only partially
solve the problem, and may exacerbate it. For example, if your spouse or
child can’t drive a stick-shift, do you really want to buy a manual
transmission car that no one else in the family can get out of the driveway
in an emergency?
5. I know I’m right; I just want data or an opinion to confirm my own
thinking. Known as “confirmation bias,” this decision-making flaw has
been behind notorious failures from the Bay of Pigs to the subprime loan
market implosion to the NASA Challenger explosion to the Deepwater
Horizon environmental catastrophe. In each case, disconfirming data was
available and should have raised concerns, but groupthink set in, and no
one wanted to raise the red flag. To better understand and define the
limitations of what you think you know, look for contrary examples and
evaluate rival explanations. These techniques can prevent “frame
blindness” to keep you from seeing what you want to see rather than what
may be present. For example, maybe you’ve settled on the Crosstrek in
your car search, but you decide to look around anyway. Could your
preference for the Crosstrek influence how you evaluate the other cars?
Could you be looking to confirm your inclination rather than buy the best
car for your needs? To pry open cognitive space, first consider your needs
and then look for cars that fit those parameters.
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
3
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
6. I trust my gut. It’s great to rely on your instincts when picking a
breakfast cereal. But for larger, high-stakes decisions, when we rely on our
gut, we are relying upon bias and faulty memory. Important decisions
benefit from prying open cognitive space to allow for new information and
insight. You may have set your mind on the Suburu Outback because you
have fond memories of your family having one years ago, but some drivers
find the driver’s seat uncomfortable. Skipping the test-drive may result in
a car that doesn’t work for your long drives.
7. Decision-making is linear. In fact, good decision-making is circular; it
needs a feedback loop as we gather information and analyze it and our
thinking. At times we need to go back to find information we’ve glossed
over, or to gather new information or conduct a different kind of analysis.
When buying a car, for example, you might think that doing your research
first and then going to a dealer and negotiating a price is enough. But there
are many dealers, and they each have leeway to negotiate a price, so
circling around and comparing offers may get you a better price.
8. I can pull my ideas together well in my head. Large decisions are
made up of multiple smaller decisions. When we try to keep all of those
moving parts in our mind, we end up relying on a faulty memory and a
distracted mind. Our emotions can also get in the way, leading to biased
thinking. Keeping a record is an important part of thinking and analysis;
both Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci kept notebooks. We may never
be as brilliant or creative as either of these great thinkers, but we can take
a page from their notebooks and write things down to create a record of
our thinking and our work.
9. I have all the information I need. While we may want to forge ahead,
we can improve our decisions — and our satisfaction — by investing in a
little bit of research and confronting assumptions with evidence. Your best
friend might love her car, but that doesn’t mean it’s the car for you,
particularly if it won’t fit your daughter’s hockey equipment. Looking to
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
4
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
the experts, such as Consumer Reports, which does substantive research,
can help you make an educated decision that’s also right for you.
10. I can make a rational decision. Psychologists far and wide, such as
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, have demonstrated that as much as
we’d like to believe it, none of us are rational. We all operate through a
dirty windshield of bias based on past experiences and feelings. You might
think you won’t get taken in by a car dealer, but they are professional
salespeople who know how to evoke an emotional response.
11. There’s just one way to do this. Whether it’s how the bed should be
made, which diet to follow, or how to divide up your retirement account,
there’s always more than one way to get to “yes.” We’ve been conditioned
out of listening to other voices, siloed in our information, environment,
and social (media) circles. But getting outside your routines and patterns
leads you to seeing things differently. You may always have gone into the
dealership to buy cars, but more and more, people are negotiating car
purchases online and through texting and email.
Take a Time Out
Underlying these myths are three common and popular ideas that don’t
serve us well: First, as busy people, we don’t need to invest time to make
good decisions. Second, we are rational human beings, able to thoughtfully
solve thorny and high-stakes problems in our heads. Third, decisionmaking is personal and doesn’t need to involve anyone else.
All three of these assumptions are false — and problematic for clear
thinking and analysis. We are not computers. We are social beings who
operate in community. We need time for reflection, an ability to confront
unconscious biases or to consider the bigger picture.
One way to combat these biases is to put a speed bump in our thinking — a
strategic stop to give us time to pause, to see the whole picture, and to
reflect on what we’re experiencing. Slowing down can help improve
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
5
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
efficacy by steering us away from our reliance on these decision-making
myths and reflexive behaviors.
I call these strategic stops a “cheetah pause.” I came up with this term after
learning that the cheetah’s prodigious hunting skill is not due to its speed.
Rather, it’s the animal’s ability to decelerate quickly that makes it a
fearsome hunter. Cheetahs habitually run down their prey at speeds
approaching 60 miles per hour but are able to cut their speed by nine
miles per hour in a single stride. This allows them to make sharp turns,
sideways jumps and direction changes.
In decision-making, too, quality thinking benefits from periods of
thoughtful deceleration. These calculated pauses empower you to check
and challenge your biases, consolidate your knowledge, include others and
enable you to decide whether to pivot and move in a new direction or stay
the course before accelerating again.
Here are five questions to ask yourself in these cheetah pauses:
1. Which decision-making myths am I relying on to make this decision?
2. How will this decision move me toward my life goals?
3. Are my feelings related to this decision based on what’s actually
happening or do they reflect my learned patterns of behavior?
4. What information is out there in the world that could help me make
this decision better?
5. How can I better understand the perceptions and perspectives of others
involved in the decision?
The next time you’re speeding toward a decision, let the cheetah pause
remind you of the value of taking a strategic stop. This vivid cue can help
you see past decision-making myth “trees” and beyond the “forest” of
biases that they rely upon, improving your decision-making skills. The
right complex decision result for you is out there in the jungle — and you
(not your smartphone) have the tools to find it.
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
6
HBR / Digital Article / 11 Myths About Decision-Making
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn is the founder and CEO of Decisive, a
decision sciences company using her AREA Method decision-making
system for individuals, companies, and nonprofits looking to solve
complex problems. Decisive offers digital tools and in-person training,
workshops, coaching and consulting. Cheryl has taught for years at
Columbia Business School and Cornell and has won several journalism
awards for her investigative news stories. She’s authored two books on
complex problem solving, Problem Solved for personal and professional
decisions, and Investing In Financial Research about business, financial
and investment decisions. She is currently working on a book about
different decision-making approaches called How You Decide. For more
information please watch Cheryl’s TED talk and visit areamethod.com.
Copyright © 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
7
Copyright 2021 Harvard Business Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Additional restrictions
may apply including the use of this content as assigned course material. Please consult your
institution’s librarian about any restrictions that might apply under the license with your
institution. For more information and teaching resources from Harvard Business Publishing
including Harvard Business School Cases, eLearning products, and business simulations
please visit hbsp.harvard.edu.
Assignment Instructions for Part-I:
Title:
“11 Myths About Decision-Making”
Author:
Strauss Einhorn, Cheryl
Date of Publication:
April 20, 2021
Published:
Harvard Business Review
Assignment Question(s):
(Marks 10)
Part-I
Read the attached article titled as “11 Myths About Decision-Making” by Strauss
Einhorn, Cheryl, published in Harvard Business Review, and answer the following
Questions:
1. Summarize the article and explain the main issues discussed in the article. (In 500600 words)
(Marks 3)
2. How will these myths help you improving decision-making and problem-solving
skills? Explain in relation with the text you learnt in the course. Use additional
reference to support your argument. (In 400-600 words)
(Marks 3)
Part-II- Critical Thinking Question
3. You can take a problem-solving approach to resolving conflicts in an organization.
Suppose you and your colleague are working together on a high-profile project to
develop software for handling orders at your company. You want to adapt existing
software and your colleague wants to develop new software. How would you apply
the problem-solving steps to resolve the conflict?
(Words 300-400; Marks 2)
4. Built-in obsolescence means designing products that will degrade over time or
otherwise need to be replaced. Many products depend on built-in obsolescence to
ensure sales, such as light bulbs, batteries, and electronic devices. Do you think
selling products with built-in obsolescence is an ethical way to do business?
(Words 200-400; Marks 2)
Answers
1. Answer2. Answer3. Answer-

Purchase answer to see full
attachment