Status Quo Rum

Making decisions is hard. Students would not like to have a 100 question exam if they can have a 50 question exam. Also I would bet that most students would rather have a 100 question multiple choice exam over a 20 question essay exam. People want to have as few good choices to pick from when they make a decision. Also if they do not have to make a change and can keep doing what they always have been doing then there is a good chance they will not even opt to take a chance on a new solution.


As a company you should always try to develop a competitive edge and be a better, more agile, and hopefully more profitable company. What happens when a company keeps doing the same tried and true thing over and over? It becomes stagnant and when you fall behind your competition you are now at a severe disadvantage. Not only do you have to catch up to your innovative competition but you have to work that much harder to get ahead.

So in a business environment how do you make a good decision? What do you do after you make a decision? Most companies would try to keep the new decision (assuming it even was a new decision) as secret as possible and make sure to prevent the competition from having an inside edge. I work in a retail environment now and further believe that high executives would want to keep their decisions away from the lowest level employees because it either does not concern them or the possibility of a leak. This may not be the best decision.

My best analogy to how a business makes a decision would be to use a personal example. A company I work for wanted to evaluate new options for a PC imaging server. They had choices between a new version of what they currently used, a few free solutions that needed some extra work, and ultimately to just stay with what they have. To cut the the chase the company decided to just stay with the current solution. When the option to do nothing and limp along the current system became viable the conversation was over. All the benefits of the free solutions and the free labor I would have provided still was not enough. As Prof. Ariely made a point of when a similar but less attractive option is presented, the original option becomes inversely more attractive.

Knowledge Management means that businesses should look for a way to gather, disseminate, and refine the knowledge the company has. If companies keep doing things the way they have always been done then the results will eventually start to diminish. New ideas should be cultivated and allowed to spread. If we do not attempt change when it is needed then our company will become so stiff it will break under pressure from the competition. Evaluate all alternatives equally. Make decisions because they are the right decision, not because they are easy.