How Quickly Do You Make Decisions?
Last night I listened to a re-broadcast of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. One of her guests was the author of How Doctors Think, Jerome Groopman MD. Dr. Groopman’s main point was that doctors tend to latch on to the first thing that a patient says with the idea of making a diagnosis within the short period of time in which health plans now expect physicians to see a patient in an office visit , approximately 12 minutes. He cites the significant number of incorrect diagnoses that occur because most physicians fail to ask the simple question , “what else could be going on?
While listening to Terry Gross’ interview with Dr. Groopman was sobering, it made me wonder about the listening skills of most decision-makers in the business world. In a world that seems to insist on a fast pace and short-term expectations of success, how often do they latch on to the first piece of data that gets presented and make a quick decision only to find that they’ve missed a key piece of information that would suggest a completely different course of action. When I work with managers at all levels on the topic of decision-making, I share a line from a poem by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi: “Stipulate with every transaction that you need three days to make sure! Sniff with your wisdom nose. Get clear. Then decide. I think we could all learn from this advice.