The principal focus of this episode centers on the imperative nature of intentional decision-making within the realms of business and personal life. Ben and Syya elucidate how individuals often default to reactive choices, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes and a state of analysis paralysis. They contend that the essence of effective decision-making lies in pausing to assess the situation thoughtfully, contemplating the ramifications of various options, and establishing a structured approach to decision-making.

The discussion further underscores the importance of understanding the broader impact of decisions on stakeholders and the necessity of aligning choices with core values and objectives. By fostering a culture of intentionality, leaders can navigate the complexities of decision-making more adeptly, ultimately enhancing both personal and organizational efficacy. Ben and Syya articulate a profound understanding of the psychological underpinnings of decision-making within the realm of business.

Drawing from personal anecdotes, they highlight the tendency for individuals to oscillate between instinctual and analytical approaches to decision-making. The hosts share their own experiences with rapid decision-making in everyday scenarios, contrasting these with the weightier decisions that impact businesses significantly. They caution against the pitfalls of analysis paralysis, where excessive deliberation stymies progress. Instead, they promote a balanced methodology that incorporates both intuition and data-driven insights. The discussion culminates in a recognition that inaction can often be a decision in itself, with real consequences.

By advocating for a conscious approach to decision-making, Ben and Syya encourage leaders to reflect on the implications of their choices and strive for a balance that respects both urgency and thoroughness in their decision-making processes.

Takeaways:

• In the realm of business and life, the unpredictability of human behavior serves as a distinct variable influencing outcomes and decisions.
• The necessity of intentionality in decision-making is paramount; we should avoid reactive choices that stem from panic or haste.
• It is essential to pause and reflect on the implications of our decisions, considering their impact on ourselves and others.
• Effective decision-making requires a systematic approach, incorporating clarity of purpose, mission, vision, and values to guide our choices.

Links referenced in this episode:

• IamBenBaker.com
• BrilliantBeamMedia.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Cheesecake Factory

If there's one thing we've learned about business and life is that people are the X factor.

They constantly surprise us.

Both in amazing ways and not so much.

We're Ben and Sia and welcome to the Gnaw this Business Bites podcast.

This show is all about real life, things we all deal with every day, how they relate to business, and how to make some sense out of our daily chaos.

Welcome to the show.

Foreign.

Welcome back to another episode of Non this Business Bites.

I'm Ben and this is Sia.

And the question is decisions by design.

Are you intentional or are you reactive?

It's amazing to me how many decisions are made day to day, week to week, year to year in a reactive mode.

This has happened.

We have to make a decision.

We have to move forward.

We have to.

We have to put this out.

We need to better press le.

Whatever.

It's amazing to me how many people make decisions in panic mode.

Instead of taking that 10 seconds, stopping, pausing, figuring out where they are, figuring out what the real problem is, what, what are the intentions, what, what are the ramifications of moving forward in this versus that and then moving forward.

You know, it doesn't always have to be six months of analysis paralysis.

It sometimes can be as.

As little as a couple of minutes of conversation.

And we need to get better at being intentional in our decision making process.

We need to think about it.

How are we making decisions?

What are the factors that we're using to make our decisions?

Do we have a decision making tree?

Do we have a purpose, mission, vision, value?

Statements that we sit there and say, okay, these are not just words on a wall.

This is how we make our decisions based on these ideas.

These are our customers.

This is what our customers want, need, and desire.

This is how we help them get better.

Okay, make the decision based on that.

We need to be intentional at how we make decisions.

So, Sia, let's nod this.

Oh, boy.

So I'm a fly by the hip kind of girl.

So I'm laughing.

I was laughing when you first posed the question because I was like, I'm a big fan of just like where my gut is for that moment in time to make a decision.

Typically you order food, for example.

Like, I'll just like, like, I'm not the kind of person that stares at the menu and reads every freaking dish.

I'm like, like, literally the first dish I see that goes and I'm done.

Usually I. I'd say I don't look at a menu longer than 30 seconds.

I will have made A decision.

If it sounds good, I'm going for it and then I put it down and then I listen to everybody else talking about the menu and whatnot, right?

And if it tickles my fancy, I might relook at it.

But.

But I am like the kind that's like, that's it.

I'm done, I'm decisive, and that's it.

Never mind.

It could be literally a list of all my favorite foods all at once.

I just don't want to waste my brain energy more than I need to.

It's good enough whatever dish I pick, you know.

Now that being said, that's great for food and restaurants.

It may not be the best decision when you're running a business, right, or you're running a department or you're putting together a project or whatever for a client and.

Or for yourself or whatever.

So I do think making educated decisions is going to be the key.

The balances between is how much education you need, how much data you need to make your decision.

Because what you don't want to be is on the other pendulum swing, which is again, like you had mentioned analysis paralysis.

Where, I mean, like I said before, it took me three years to buy our car, right?

Like, and by then the models all changed.

I had re up that Excel spreadsheet was a total joke as far as I was concerned.

But it tickled my brain that I, I thought I did the research I needed, but I ended up going with the car I always wanted from the jump.

Just so you know.

You know, so that is the, that is the easy happy now when you're under time of duress and you have to make a split decision.

That is when I find for me, my personality type is make that quick snap decision, which hasn't proven itself to be the best route either.

And I think that is something where certain personality types might just fare better under those types of conditions than others.

So how is it that they are do, you know, able to do it and make better snap decisions versus me?

You know, for me, my answer is slow the f down.

Like, just slow down.

Like, if there's a situation going down, don't make a rash, don't jump off that, you know, cliff just yet and build the parachute, which is my mouth, slow down because sometimes that's not the right way to go.

And, and, and if anyone's curious what's going on this noggin, the visual is literally me and my boyfriend not arguing constructively, conversing with one another in Paris.

Healthy conflict.

Yes.

Oh, yes.

Let's Go, everyone go back to the healthy conflict conversation.

But we were.

I won't say we were lost.

We were in indecision of where we wanted to go, and we also didn't quite know where we were located at the same time.

So it's really hard to get to where you want to go if you don't know where you are.

But that's, but isn't that the root.

Of, like, that's the root of this whole conversation.

So.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

So reacting to a situation may or may not be the best move.

It just really ultimately depends.

Again, back to what the, what is the insight too, though?

Like, if it's really important, I would like to think people are taking the time to make the decision and give it the respect it needs.

If it's something that's not important to you.

Flash decision, reactionary, I don't think it's a problem.

No, and I agree with you.

I mean, when it comes down to what are you going to have for dinner?

Yeah, analysis process.

I'm like you.

I look at the cheesecake, et cetera, and says, okay, I've had this, this, and this before.

Those were all, okay, I'll take that.

You know, I tend to be the one that keeps the menu closed.

Listen to everybody else decide what they're going to have, and then I'll say, I'll have a number 14.

You know, just like I'm one of these people that says, you know what, it's food.

You know, it's the Cheesecake Factory.

They probably don't make anything badly, you know, and if it's, if it's something that, if it's something bad, guess what, I'll have something else.

Or the next time I'm there, I'll order something different.

And there's, there's very little ramification when it comes to stuff like that.

But when it comes to, Is it going to affect somebody else?

Is it going to affect business?

Is it going to affect clients?

Is it going to affect somebody matter, your team?

How is it going to affect the matter person?

Like, yeah, you know, why is, why is, why is your decision more important than, than, than their, you know, gaining their information before you, before you move forward?

There's all these things that think about, you know, analysis.

Paralysis is the other side of things where people just, you know, gather information.

Gather information, Gather information, Gather information, gather information.

Then never make a decision, you know, and that.

That's a, That's a problem too, right?

That.

That's a problem too, because sooner or later, as leaders, we need to be willing and able to pull the trigger.

Even if that pulling that trigger says we're not moving forward with this.

You know, eventually we say, you know what, we've, we, we've gathered enough information.

There's, this is not viable.

There's no ROI.

Sorry.

I know we, I know we've spent $10,000 getting to this point, but barely spend $10,000 now than a hundred thousand dollars later, later, 100, you know, so there, there's that.

But you got to eventually pull the trigger.

And when you do pull the trigger and you do pull the trigger negatively, you got to be able to communicate why you decided what you did.

You don't have to give everybody all the hay in the barn, but you need to sit there and say, you know what, we've looked at this, we've, we've ran the analysis.

We, we, we looked at market share.

It didn't make a lot of sense.

You know, we thought this was going to be a viable product.

It's not, this is what we learned from it.

We're moving forward and we're moving forward without, without this program.

And, but that's analysis and that's taking the time to figure out what are the key decision making criteria that I need to be able to make a good decision.

What are, what are the things that are pertinent, what are the things that are not all the fluff because cousin Joe had a, had a problem with a blue car once.

And so I'm never, I'm never going to buy a blue car because one time, one day, cousin Joe had had a problem with a blue car.

So therefore we're never going to buy a blue car ever again.

You know, that's, that's not relevant data, but what you need to do is you need to be able to step back and say what are the things that I need to, to know and understand to be able to make a decision quickly gather that information as human as humanly possible.

And that, as I said, it might be an hour, it might be a day, it might be a week, it might be a month.

You know, it, sometimes it takes a month to make that decision, but if it takes a year, it better be a multi trillion dollar project.

Goodness gracious.

You know, you depressed me again, sir.

You need to really stop that.

What did I do this time?

Well, no, you just reminded me of a project that's still not done in our house and we've done our research on it and it's still not done and we haven't incented ourselves to finish it.

And it's.

Everyone knows there's always a honeydew list in the house, right?

Always.

But.

But this is a bigger project.

And for a person that likes to say, I will jump off a cliff and build the parachute, like, there's also complacency when you decide to not make that decision, too.

Right.

And to live with it.

And I just realized I've been living with my non decision for a long time, and it's like, maybe it's time to suck it up, buttercup, and get it done.

You just.

But here's the thought process on that.

Not making a decision is making a decision.

It is true.

Absolutely.

And I've been apparently comfortable with that indecision.

And it's gotten to the point where now in my brain I'm thinking, was it a good call?

Because I'll just say master bath we've been supposed to do.

I've told you about my master bath Renault.

That's never run out.

Exactly.

And.

But I'm chuckling again because it's like, had we done it 10 years ago when you're supposed to 10 years ago, my tastes have evolved.

So now I'm kind of laughing at myself going, I'm kind of glad I didn't.

But what is my taste now?

And then I think about.

I'm like, well, my taste is going to evolve again.

Why bother now?

Now that I went back, now I'm back to the no decision again, which is stupid anyway.

Sorry.

Well, and we all have those projects in our house.

To us, it's the kitchen.

It's the original kitchen.

You know, the.

The cupboards are getting to a point where they need to be done now, but we need to decide, okay, are we going to do this?

Are we going to do that?

Are we gonna, you know, are we.

Gonna paint the wazoo?

Yeah, are we gonna paint.

You know, it's the.

It's the pain of moving out versus, you know, of staying home and all that kind of stuff.

And trust.

The non decision has become a decision.

So we.

It just.

The project just gets pushed, pushed back.

So we've made a decision, mentally or not, that this isn't an.

This isn't a big priority in our lives, and therefore it's not gaining a lot of traction in our lives.

You know, if.

If both Heather and I both said, you know what, this is important, we need a new kitchen and this is what we want it to be, that kitchen would have happened.

Last summer.

And we, we would live through the chaos that would have been done.

We would, we would have hated it during the process, and we would have loved it on the other side.

But because it wasn't a priority, because it wasn't, you know, there were other things to spend money on, there was other things to spend time on, there was other things to spend energy on that got put in the back burner and that indecision became a decision.

And I think that we need to acknowledge that at times is that sometimes we make decisions unintentionally that become that.

That actually have some intentionality.

The psychology behind us is okay, by not making a decision right now, I'm making a decision that this isn't a priority in my life.

Yeah, I'm.

Thanks.

I needed to hear that.

Audience.

Whether you're, Whether your.

Your boyfriend agrees with you or not, that's a different story altogether.

I'm.

I'm totally like, this is not going to be a therapy session for.

See you today, sir.

We are not going down that path.

Because I'm literally just kind of like a. I'm at that.

And, and anyone.

Everyone in the audience, you know that moment when one of you or your partner are just going, I have no comments.

Yeah, I think we're done.

I'm done.

I can't.

I cannot speak anymore.

So.

So I look at this and I go, okay, let's.

Let's look at intention.

You know, intentional versus reactive.

And, and then we could, then we can land this plane.

Is that there are times being reactive is a good thing.

And it's usually when it's low grade, it's low consequence.

It's.

It's something that.

It is absolutely rectifiable.

Very.

You know, either cost effectively or without, you know, taking.

Taking your reputation at stake or whatever it is.

It's something that's easily rectified or easily changed.

And I think that if we, if we just have reactive decisions at that level, those are fine because they don't take up a lot of our brain space.

We could just say, yes, no, maybe go for it, done, and move forward with it.

But anything that I think that takes into consideration other people or, or has ramifications on other people's lives, businesses, clients, et cetera, we need to take a pause and we need to sit there and say, okay, what is our intentionality behind this?

Why are we doing this?

Why is this important?

Who is this going to affect?

How is this going to affect them?

And is this going to make our lives better by moving forward and is this going to make the lives of the people that we're trying to to influence lives better as well?

And if we can do that, then we probably have got a good decision making tree.

I love it.

I love it.

So let's leave it there.

I'm Ben.

And I'm Sia.

And we'll see you soon.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

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