I had no choice
These must be very painful words for any decision maker.
And yet, I am gonna ask you to the uncomfortable question: "Really?"
What I saw time and time again is that we miss seeing available choices because one or more of the below:
too focused on details, so much so that we forget the broader context and what else is possible in that context; other times being too caught up in details means that we miss seeing relevant relationships that could have led to new choices.
too anxious about deciding so we procrastinate until we are forced by circumstances to decide; by that time, available options might indeed be reduced cause of time constraints but that was really a choice we made by choosing not to decide earlier. Oops!
too emotional, we bring too much feelings into the decisions and this clouds our judgement especially if we fail to see what those emotions really are. Fear for instance can make us blinded to available choices.
too focused on what we don't want; in this case we are missing direction so our ability to see available choices is limited. If we just want to avoid further loss making, cutting costs might be the most obvious choice. If instead we want to grow revenue to x so that we make a profit of y, our choices seem very different.
too used to seeing existing way of doing things as being the only right or possible way. Some see everything as a routine and their life is by no coincidence filled only with Yes or No decisions. The most obvious example you might have witnessed is the person who is faced with an Resign or Do not resign decision because of challenge X at work; they do not see other choices of sorting out that challenge.
I admit, I value flexibility and having choices so I was relieved to find ways of avoiding the self sabotaging I've described above.
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