"Vast sums of money are spent to make decisions that realize no ultimate value for the organization," said Paul Nutt, professor of management sciences at Ohio State University's Fishers College of Business, "and managers make the same mistakes over and over again as they formulate the decisions."
"The rush to judgment blunder crops up when managers identify a concern and latch upon the first remedy that they come across."
I think that we can all relate to that temptation. In hindsight I think that most of us would admit that major mistakes are made because of trying to find a quick, easy solution rather than a permanent one.
Nutt's research shows that managers who make any of these blunders find themselves caught in one, and sometime several, traps. The managers got ensnared by traps that arise from:
- failing to uncover concerns and reconcile competing claims
- overlooking people's interests and commitments
- leaving expectations vague
- limiting the search for remedies
- misusing evaluations
- ignoring ethical questions
- failing to reflect on results to learn what works and what does not
This rush to judgment inevitably comes from not looking at the whole picture, that's what Nutt's findings really show as listed above. We as managers always have to look at things at the Macro level; at the overall picture and how decisions will affect everyone involved.
This doesn't mean that we can possibly know everything, but rather that we take in enough information to be able to make an informed decision. To not do this is to basically abdicate responsibility and to trust things to chance. That has never worked in the past and never will in the future either.
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