Decision Roadblock #6: Reducing Complexity
February 16, 2023 | By David M. Wagner
“I’ll have a double tall triple mocha skim for here.”
To be honest, I have no idea if that’s a real Starbucks order or not. I’m not typically a coffee drinker. So all the choices at the coffee shop leave me dumbfounded and I stumble at the most basic of prompts – “what’ll you have?”
Complexity tends to make us feel overwhelmed, and is one of many roadblocks to decision making.
Difficulty may arise from having too many options to choose from. Or there may be so many moving pieces or tradeoffs that no one alternative seems better than the others.
Here are three techniques to simplify complex decisions.
Identify Overlapping Decisions
Sometimes one choice is really several in disguise.
Consider the decision to rent an apartment or buy a house. Some obvious considerations include affordability, opportunity cost, and trends in pricing.
But buying a house also implies a longer-term commitment compared to renting. So the decision really overlaps with other choices – such as your desire to continue living in the same location, whether you’ll need more space in the future, and your career plans.
Does your decision really consist of multiple choices to make? Where are there dependencies and implied commitments? Determine which questions need to be prioritized, so you can isolate and answer them first.
Introduce Sorting Questions
Other times the options we consider make a choice complex. Open-ended questions like “where should we go for vacation?” quickly give rise to varied choices that may be difficult to compare.
There may be no one best choice. Each option has its pros and cons.
Identify distinguishing factors to sort your options, starting with what’s most important to you. In the case of choosing a vacation, you might want to minimize traveling time, so you rule out international options. Maybe you’d like to spend a decent amount of time enjoying a single destination, rather than take a shorter or multi-destination trip.
These sorting questions are a type of decision criteria. A few criteria might be all you need to cut down your options and simplify the choice. For more complex choices, consider using a formal decision-making tool like a trade study.
Look For Emotional Roadblocks
Still other times, a decision feels difficult because of some emotional hangup on our part – and not because there are too many moving pieces or options or tradeoffs. We sometimes introduce complexity as a way of putting off a decision we’re not quite ready to make. Be on the lookout for:
These techniques can simplify complex decisions, or at least help you identify and deal with the source of difficulty. If you still feel stuck, schedule a free call to talk through your decision making challenges.