Making a decision can be fraught with tension.

What if it’s a bad decision? What if it’s a good decision but there was a better one?

The trouble is that fear of making a less than perfect decision often means that no decision is made at all and that can be even worse. Organisations can become dinosaur-like simply because decision making at the top is so painfully slow.

Or, maybe you know the decision you should make but there is something holding you back.

So how can we make decision making less painful?

We all make hundreds of decision each day – what to wear (don’t get me started), what to eat, what to watch on TV, who to speak to, which tasks to do first and so on. So we clearly all have the ability to make decisions. That isn’t the problem – so something is getting in the way and making the decision difficult.

Here are three quick and easy tips for unsticking your thinking and making that decision:

1. Head, Heart or Gut

Working out what is blocking the decision making process is a good starting point. It might be a logical, an ethical or an emotional block. Of these the least common is the logical block. If the logic is clear it should be an easy decision to make, so if you’re stuck it’s often because there’s an emotional or ethical reason that’s muddying the water.

In an organisation, it might be a political agenda that gets in the way, or fear of change. On a personal level, it might be that you think something is unfair, or that you’re worried about what someone will think. None of these are logical problems.

Here’s a quick way to check things out: Suppose you’re thinking about whether to take on a new project but can’t decide. Using a scale of 1 to 10, check out how keen your head is on the project, then your heart and your gut. The one with the low score gives you an indication of where the problem lies. Then you can think about how to fix it, compromise or abandon the project.

2. Toss a coin

Where it’s a simple either/or, toss a coin to decide. Then notice how you feel about the decision. It’s not the coin toss that makes the decision for you, it’s how you feel about the result. If you’re delighted on you go. If you’re not, ask yourself ‘Why not?’ Then you know what you have to do…..

3. What’s the worst thing you could do?

Where there are choices in how you can do something, make a list of the worst decisions you could make, then make a list of decisions that are better than the worst ones. Choose a decision from the second list. You will have the consolation of knowing that even if it doesn’t work out perfectly, things could have been a lot worse.

If you’d like more tips and techniques for decision making, especially in the workplace, check out our Line Management Public Course, or call us about an in-house tailored course. We do a great in-house bite-size session on decision making that fits neatly into a lunchtime.