Leadership

Is There a Checklist for Better Decision Making?

By Jessica Stillman

Updated on: January 7, 2010 / 8:17 AM EST / MoneyWatch

With the recent publication of Dr. Atul Gawande's book The Checklist Manifesto, checklists having been getting a lot of press lately. Gawande claims that, done correctly, checklists help surgeons and other professionals engaged in complex tasks improve outcomes. But is there a checklist that can improve the outcomes for individuals and organizations faced with tricky decisions not involving open heart surgery or a jumbo jet?
According to Ralph Keeney, a decision analyst at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, the answer is yes. In a lengthy, far-ranging and totally interesting Q&A on the Freakonomics blog, Keeney provides a checklist for how those facing complex trade-offs and difficult to forecast outcomes can best ensure they make the best decision:

Identify your real decision problem.
Specify your objectives.
Create a full range of alternatives.
Understand the consequences of the alternatives.
Make explicit the inherent value tradeoffs.
Clarify the relevant uncertainties.
Account for your risk tolerance.
Consider implications for interrelated decisions.

All of which sounds sensible, but I wonder if humans with our teeming brains full of buried anxieties and emotional pit falls could ever actually implement something so analytical. At the end of the day, don't most calls comes down to gut feelings to some degree? There is certainly scientific evidence that emotions play a positive part in decision making. On the other hand, we can't rely on intuition alone and Keeney's checklist may provide a framework in which our hunches can form and act.

Whatever your views of Keeney's checklist, there's plenty else on offer in the Q&A, including what Tiger Woods may have been thinking when he made some terrible decisions, a discussion of whether crowds are really wise and help for those whose decision making is hampered by an inability to figure out what they want.

Read More on BNET:

(Image of party checklist by phunkstarr, CC 2.0)