Is it a Decision Worth Making?

Decisions, decisions. Some of the decisions you face in life are big, while most are trivial. Which ever way you look at it, you're confronted by too many decisions: at work, at home, on the weekend, while traveling, when you wake, when you retire at night, when you're on vacation, and when you're with either friends or enemies.

Why are you facing an increasing number of decisions? Is it because you're getting older and have more responsibilities? Is it because you have a bigger bank account? Or is something else accounting for the change? Everyone holding a responsible job may feel time-pressed; we're all in the same boat.

More Choices Mean More Decisions

In a world of six billion people and counting, more information is being generated and sped your way more readily by worldwide media coverage, and in various forms of print. The immense amount of information results in the unrelenting pressure to make choices.

It's not hard to understand why you face too much information. Society spews it in abundance. For example, the White House is covered by 1,800 reporters. You'd think that maybe three or four hundred could do the job. When the media covers something in society that they can sink their teeth into, they sink them deep.

Consider "Packwood Gate": The Senate Ethics Committee, in its pursuit of sexual harassment allegations regarding Senator Bob Packwood, presented him with 16,000 pages of documents after a 30-month probe. The alleged misbehavior of one guy resulted in 16,000 pages--the equivalent of 60 hardbound books, the size of a complete encyclopedia set. If that isn't an indication of how information flows in overabundance, I don't know what is.

When you go to the drug store to buy something as inconsequential as shampoo or skin care lotion, watch out. There are more than 1,200 varieties of shampoo on the market, and more than 2,000 skin care products. Choices abound in other arenas. More than 6,000 popular videos are available for your viewing, and more than 64,000 if you include management training, aerobic fitness, and all manner of how-to instruction.

Three thousand books are published in the USA each week--more than 600 a day. Ten times as many radio stations exist today than when television was first introduced. If you have to choose a software program for your work, or an insurance policy, or even a coffee maker, dozens of choices will be available. Few will stand out so much more than the rest that the choice will be immediately clear.

In his 1969 landmark book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler said that in the future, too many choices would be competing for your time and attention. Today, it appears that Toffler was correct. The ability of manufacturers to engage mass-customization means that you could have a product with whatever bells and whistles you desire. When Lee Iacocca was the chief executive officer of Chrysler, he converted all of the company's car dealers to the concept of mass-customization. A customer can now come in, order a basic car, and then add the specifics (from among several dozen options)--tinted glass, white walls, automatic steering, and power brakes.

Mass-customization is the ability of manufacturers to create thousands of uniform products, and then add a few specifications to conform with the individualized needs of the consumer. With the perfect information, theoretically, after having whittled down your search to the essence of your needs, you could purchase any product you seek. Unfortunately, you hardly ever get to have even semi-perfect information (at least in this life). You are forever besieged by too much information, much of it conflicting, and all of it impeding your ability to choose.

The unrelenting task of having to choose is not likely to recede now, or for the rest of your life. The key to making big decisions quickly and win back more of your time, is to determine the decisions worth making, and those worth forsaking.


-----------------
Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, is a popular conference speaker and author of 28 books, including Breathing Space (Feb 2000). For books, videos, cassettes, or presentations, visit http://www.BreathingSpace.com, FAX (919) 932-9982, or call (919) 932-1996.