COMPLEX DECISIONS MADE SIMPLE

In his best-selling book, Blink (2005), Malcolm Gladwell invited the world to take a peak
behind the "locked door of the unconscious" to show us all how we really make decisions.
The 3 R's of decision-making are your keys to unlocking that door.
(1) Research is your skill at discovering what pieces of information really matter to make
a good decision. Determining what causes the outcome you hope to achieve is the critical
first step toward devising a good decision strategy.
(2) Rules refer to how well you devise a system to guide your instincts. It is about
protecting yourself from making predictable errors in judgment.
(3) Rehearsal is how well you train your instincts. It's about practicing using your rules
over and over again until they become habit.
HOW DO THE 3 R's WORK TOGETHER TO HELP US MAKE GOOD DECISIONS?
Each of the 3 R's play a different, but equally essential part in guiding our decisions. The
context surrounding a given situation determines what you research, how you make your
rules, and under what conditions you need to rehearse your rules.

YOUR IQ SCORE IS...

78
YOUR IQ (Impulsivity Quotient) is an overall indicator of your decision making ability. The
best decision makers have a clear and conscious set of rules they follow when making
decisions, yet they are flexible and adaptive in response to changing circumstances. Your IQ
score measures the degree to which you demonstrate these abilities.

The quality of your decisions peaks when you are neither too impulsive nor too rigid in your
decision making. The best decisions come when your method for approaching the situation
balances the ability to act with the patience to know when it's the best time to move.

YOUR TENDENCY
Now, your Impulsivity Quotient, is just a single number - it can't reveal whether you tend to
be too impulsive or too rigid in your decision making. The IQ is measured on a scale of 1 to
100, where the greater your score is, the better you are at taking a balanced approach to
decision making. Since a score of 100 is incredibly rare, most everyone has room for
improvement in maintaining this balance.

A lower score indicates less balance in your decision making, but it doesn't tell you whether
you are too reliant on caution or impulsivity in your decisions. The graph below reveals how
you tend to make decisions, and whether you need to be more flexible or more structured in
your decision making.

Your graph indicates that you tend to be overly cautious in your decision making. The
effectiveness of your decisions is inhibited because you tend to do the following:

Place too much emphasis on playing it safe.

Become paralyzed by overanalyzing situations.
Delay making a decision out of fear that you might be missing something.

Let opportunities pass you by because of your insistence on having all of the facts.

NOW FOR THE 3 R'S...

Your Impulsivity Quotient (IQ) on the previous page revealed your tendency to be overly cautious or
impulsive in your decision making. You can use the 3 R's to improve the quality and balance of your
decisions. Leading researchers and scholars have discovered that practicing the 3 R's-Research,
Rules, and Rehearsal-is the key to honing your decision making ability.
Consider your scores for each of the 3 R's of good decision making below. The Action Plans that
come later will teach you how to improve each of these skills, and bring them to life with clips from
Hollywood movies, television, and historical events. As you review your scores below, remember:
All scores on snap are measured on a 0 to 100 points scale.
Higher scores will fall in the 80's and 90's
Lower scores will fall in the 50's and 60's.

Research

Clearly define what you want to achieve from a situation.

Test your assumptions.

Identif y the best predictors of an outcome.

Rules

75

Disregard irrelevant information.

Trust clear evidence more than your gut instinct.

Set guidelines that let your instinct operate at full potential.

Rehearsal

73

Expose yourself to tense situations.

74

W ork to change your bad habits.

Make good, quick decisions automatically.

WHAT THE SCORES MEAN

Scores on snap come from a "normed" sample. That means your scores are based on a
comparison to the global population to discover where you fall in each skill set. Read the
following descriptions to better understand what your scores mean.
SCORE

90-100

MEANING
A STRENGTH TO CAPITALIZE ON
These scores are much higher than average and indicate a noteworthy strength.
These strengths probably come naturally to you, or exist because you have
worked hard to develop them. Try to use these skills whenever you can to
maximize your success. You are highly competent in this skill, so work to
capitalize on it and achieve your potential.
A STRENGTH TO BUILD ON
This score is above average. There are many things you've done well to receive
this score and a few that you could improve on with some practice. Study the
behaviors for which you received this score and consider how you might perform
these behaviors more often.

80-89

WITH A LITTLE IMPROVEMENT, THIS COULD BE A STRENGTH

You are aware of some of the behaviors for which you received this score and you
are doing well with them. Your skills here are right on par with the majority of
people. Now that you know where you stand you could really excel here.

70-79

SOMETHING YOU SHOULD WORK ON

This is an area where you occasionally demonstrate strong decision-making
skills. Your score means that you probably have a good handle on which
behaviors are not very comfortable for you. That knowledge should help you to
zero in on what you could do to get more favorable outcomes.

60-69

59 or
below

A CONCERN YOU MUST ADDRESS

Chances are that you have been devoting most of your efforts to areas other than
this one. This one area is likely causing you to make some significant errors in
judgment. Some focused effort here, will go a long way toward improving the
quality of your decisions.

IMPROVING YOUR SKILLS

Knowing where you stand today is essential for taking the first step toward where you want
to go tomorrow. Now that youre armed with that knowledge, what you choose to do about it
is up to you.
Making even the smallest decisions is essential to your daily existence. Sometimes the
complexity of it all can be overwhelming. Fortunately, you can help simplify the decisionmaking process by working on the three Rs of quick decisions: Research, Rules, and
Rehearsal.
Follow your Action Plan on the next page, and remember that people increase their skills the
most when the following conditions are present:

A strong motivation to learn or change.

Consistent practice of new behaviors.

Good feedback on progress.

ACTION PLAN
An analysis of your score profile suggests you will get the most from your skill development effort by
working on Research first. Research is your skill at discovering what pieces of information really
matter to make a good decision. Determining what causes the outcome you hope to achieve is the
critical first step toward devising a good decision strategy.

Keep in mind throughout your skill development that the three R's build on each other. This means
that mastery of all three skills is the only way to consistently make good decisions. For example, you
may be a stickler when it comes to following rules, but if you haven't adequately researched those
rules, then you're probably basing them on biases and an imperfect memory of your past
experiences. Similarly, well-researched rules help you only when you have rehearsed the rules over
and over again until they become habit.

RESEARCH ACTION PLAN

Decision-making starts with your emotions and your perceptions of a situation. Emotions such as fear, anxiety and
excitement have a lot to do with this.
Try to discover the emotional patterns that affect your judgments.

These responses to people and situations may be positive or negative.

W hy do you tend to react this way? W hat is it about the person or situation that elicits your response?

STEP 2: Discover your biases.

There are also misleading thought patterns that nearly all of us fall victim to, called "biases." Getting to know your
biases helps combat their harmful effects.

Pay attention to the patterns in your decision-making

Ask someone you trust to observe you and give you feedback on some of the more common biases listed
below.

You may find that when you make decisions you:

Try to preserve the status quo.
Fail to see contradicting evidence.
Give too much weight to your past
experiences.

Continue wasting good resources on failing

projects.
Ignore alternative ways to view a problem.
Are overconfident in your estimates.

Some people are more into data gathering and experimenting than others. We all have some natural ability to test
our assumptions, but if research isn't your strong suit don't be afraid to ask for help. You probably have a friend or
colleague who has a knack for it.

Now that you know what to look for in a researcher, it is time to get help.

Before asking for help, make sure you have clearly defined the situation and the desired outcome.
Researchers like to have clearly stated goals.
Once you've provided the researcher with clear goals, stand back and let them work.
Once the researcher has gathered and tested the data, work with him/her to interpret what they've found.
This is where you need to step back in to look at the results to establish what matters most.

Click on any of the three skills in the image below to try an activity that teaches strategies for
improving that skill and brings the skill to life through Hollywood movies and a virtual coach.
Begin your skill development with: Research

ACTION PLAN: RULES

Rules refer to how well you devise a system to guide your
instincts. It is about protecting yourself from making predictable
errors in judgment.

RULES ACTION PLAN

LIMBIC LIMBO
Antonio Damasio's team of neuroscientists at the University of Iowa showed how us how quickly the primitive parts of
our brain pick up on patterns in our surroundings. Palms began sweating, and hearts picked up the pace, long before
people in the experiment consciously knew that something was awry with the stacked deck of cards.
To understand how your brain makes snap decisions, imagine you are walking a dog. The dog smells a harmless rabbit
in the bushes and leaps into action. You feel the tug on the leash so you tighten your grip and let your dog know that
she needs to stay put. Now imagine a similar scenario. Only this time a mugger is bearing down on you from behind.
Your dog senses the attacker before you do and saves the day.
Instinct is your dog. You are the slow but rational front part of your brain, always lagging one leash-length behind.
Instinct can send you chasing rabbits, or it can be your best friend. Rules can tell your instinct when to sit and when to
attack.
Here's how it works .
Here is w here the limbo happens:
Rational, complex thinking happens in the blue area, at the front of the brain. Emotions are felt as electric impulses
funnel through the limbic system, the small red area of the brain. Can you see it?
W hen you experience something, you begin to feel the emotion before you have a chance to think about it. This is why
setting rules to guide you through emotionally arousing situations is so important.
The front of your brain can regulate your feelings. This is the limbic limbo. You are constantly in a state of limbo
between what you are feeling (in the limbic system) and your thoughts about your feelings, which happen at the front of
your brain.
W hen you have the luxury of time to think, use it to set rules for the future. Let the front part of your brain teach your
instinct the commands to be obeyed. In the moment, your emotions make it too hard for you to think objectively.

Use these strategies to make long term decision rules.

Set aside some time in your day for rule creation and polishing. Unprepared decisions made while hurrying through the d
are seldom as effective as those made during moments of clarity. Use those moments to create structure for future
spontaneity.

Think about some tough decisions you might face in the future and what rules you can set to guide your instincts.
Plan where you might be headed if you choose different courses of action. Plans based solely on instinct may lead you
down the wrong path. But the right combination of deliberation and instinct increases your chances of success.

ACTION PLAN: REHEARSAL

Rehearsal is how well you train your instinct. It's about practicing
using your rules over and over again until they become habit.

REHEARSAL ACTION PLAN

Small doses of anxiety can actually sharpen your focus. Too much anxiety, on the other hand, can stop good judgment
dead in its tracks.

Observe what you are feeling and doing as the situation unfolds. Don't wait until things go so far that your
anxiety makes it hard for you to think objectively.

Don't wait until the feeling goes away either. You need to recognize anxiety in the moment to learn about it.

Monitor the thoughts and physical signs that accompany your feeling of anxiety. These aren't the feelings themselves,
but the thoughts and sensations that go with them:

Do you sweat?
Does your heart beat fast?
Do you feel tense?
Do your thoughts race?
Does your throat get tight?

Do you get tunnel vision?

Does your mind go blank?
Do you shake?
Do you feel numb?

Snap decisions stem from your emotional brain. Sometimes your emotions have a lot to tell you that your logic has not
picked up on yet. Use strategies that help you digest the message your emotions are sending you.
Try practicing these in the moment:
Listen - During difficult conversations, always let the others finish speaking, even if it takes a while. This greatly
decreases your chances of rushing to an inaccurate judgment, calms the other person down and gives you time to
think about what to do.

Step Back - Picture the current situation in your head as if it weren't happening to you. If you were watching this in a
movie, what would you recommend the main character (you) do to get the best results? An objective look at the
situation will help you to think clearly, decreasing the chances you'll be led around by your emotions.
Breathe - W hen all else fails, breathe! W hether you are happy, sad, anxious or mad, focusing your attention on
gradual, deep, even-paced breaths will relax your body and clear your mind. W hen your head is clear you are better
able to see and choose the best course of action.