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Ideas for Leaders #438

Mindfulness Leads to Better Decisions

Key Concept

Faced with a decision, we are more likely to take thepath we want rather than the path we should. Thereason is that the want choice is quickly identifiedthrough assumptions, easy categorizations or pastexperiences; the should choice only emerges whentime and effort is made to consider new situations oralternative attributes. Increasing the state of consciousawareness known as ‘mindfulness’ during the decisionmaking process will allow decision makers to see thebetter choice… before it’s too late.

Idea Summary

There is a decision to be made. The decision makersknow what they want to do, and take action. Reflectingon the action later, however, they realize that they didnot make the decision that they should have made. Onreflection, they see the attributes of the should choice— the new elements or special situational factors thatsuggest a better choice to the one they made.

Why, then, did the decision makers not make the wantchoice in the first place? Because they made the‘mindless’ choice. Mindlessness is not taking the timenor making a concerted effort to consider all theattributes of the choices before them. For example,mindless decision-makers will rely on pastassumptions or experiences, without consideringwhether new circumstances point to a differentchoice.

The opposite of mindlessness is mindfulness.Mindfulness is a state of conscious awareness that, indecision-making, means taking the time and makingthe effort to consider alternative attributes and newsituations — without taking any cognitive shortcuts.

Mindfulness is present during retrospection on pastdecisions. That’s why decision makers recognize themistake they made. The key to more rational decision-making, therefore, lies in mindfulness-basedintervention during the prospective phase (as opposedto the retrospective phase) of the decision-making

ShareAuthors

Shenoy, BenPirson, MichaelLanger, Ellen J.

Institutions

Harvard Business SchoolFordham University Graduate School ofBusiness

Source

Fordham University School of BusinessResearch Paper

Idea conceived

February 2014

Idea posted

September 2014

DOI number

Subject

Interpersonal SkillsCareer DevelopmentDecision MakingPsychology

9/23/2014 Mindfulness Leads to Better Decisions | Ideas for Leaders

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to the retrospective phase) of the decision-makingprocess — in other words, when the decision is beingconsidered and acted upon.

Business Application

For leaders who have been disappointed — inretrospect — with the choices that they or theirsubordinates have made, this research offers a path toimprovement in decision-making: mindfulness, inwhich decision-makers deliberately and consciouslyconsider all the attributes of the different choices.

Introducing mindfulness is easier said than done. Timeis often the culprit. It’s easy to take the time to bemindful when the pressure of making the decision ispast. But in the heat of the decision, we are less likelyto time to ponder all the alternatives and the specificsaspects of the particular situation underconsideration; instead we rely on past categories anddistinctions, which distract from the more pertinentelements we should be considering. (This distractionfrom the important elements that should beconsidered can be compared to advertising, whichfocuses us on the concept that drinking Coca-Colamakes us happy, while distracting us from issues suchas calories or other impacts on health.)

To make the best decisions, avoid the distractions ofeasy categorizations and assumptions, or of what mayhave happened in the past. Focus on the present,taking the time to carefully consider all the new andperhaps unexpected attributes of the differentchoices; carefully identify which choices have thepreferred attributes. The result will be mindful, notmindless, decision-making.

© Copyright IEDP Ideas for Leaders 2014

Further Reading

Why We Value Should Choices MoreRetrospectively And How Mindfulness Allows UsTo Make Smarter Decisions Prospectively. BenShenoy, Michael Pirson & Ellen Langer. FordhamUniversity School of Business Research Paper No.2395452; Humanistic Management Network,Research Paper Series No. 14-10 (February 2014).

Further Relevant Resources

Ben Shenoy’s Harvard Business School

Ben Shenoy’s personal website

Michael Pirson’s profile at Fordham University Graduate Schoolof Business

Ellen J. Langer’s profile at Harvard University

Harvard Business School Executive Education profile at IEDP

9/23/2014 Mindfulness Leads to Better Decisions | Ideas for Leaders

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