Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The direction of our careers and our lives, are determined quite simply by an ongoing set of decisions. There are essentially two categories of decisions; i) What do we want?, and ii) How do we react to circumstance that we create or come upon us? These two things determine our experience and success in life. How can we make the right decisions? How can we be more sure about the decisions we make? How can we make quicker decisions? What follows is a set of experiences and recent history that aim to help us address these questions effectively.

The door handle

In the final semester, I had got the marks needed to complete my Management MSc with a Distinction and had a job offer lined up. I had an extra module I could choose and had had enough of the technical and financial modules, so decided to go with something more philosophical to help expand my thinking. In the first class of this philosophical module, we all rummaged through the doors in typical University fashion shuffling from one lecture to the next. Gradually the noise level dropped, and students became attentive. The Professor looked up, and asked, “Who in this room remembers the shape of the door handle for this room?” Everyone looked at each other in surprise. What was the relevance of this? He then asked, “Who here came through the door to get in this room, raise your hands.” Everybody raised their hands. “Who saw the door as they came through?” Everybody raised their hands. “Who would have therefore, somewhere in their field of vision, seen the door handle, if not have touched it?” Everybody put their hands up. He quickly repeated his initial question, “So who remembers the shape of the door handle?” Not a single hand stayed up. The professor fell silent for a few moments. “I want you to think for yourselves what this means, you’re all smart people” he said. It was very thought provoking indeed. It was clear that we don’t register all of the information coming into our field of vision. We have programmed ourselves, somehow, to ignore certain information as we don’t find it valuable. We then make decisions based on what we register alone. We may miss certain things, until someone like the Professor tells us. We expand our ability to make better decisions by consulting with others to get a clearer and bigger picture from others who are well positioned to. A very senior Partner in our firm was recently asked what the best piece of advice he was given was. He replied, “Taking advice from a diverse group of people that I trust, who can see things I can’t.”

Chop, Chop

It was a rainy day on Friday 12 September 2008, when Hank Paulson, US Treasury Secretary, the ex CEO of Goldman Sachs summoned Wall Streets CEO’s, referred to by some as the Masters of the Universe, to a crisis meeting at the Federal Reserve in Nassau Street, New York with an hours notice at 1800hrs just before the weekend. Lehman Brothers stock was loosing over $8 million a minute. They had right-downs of $2.5 billion of home loans for the second consecutive quarter.  Other Banks were not giving them credit. Should Hank Paulson fund Lehmans to keep life flowing, or allow the forces of the free market to swarm around and devour one of Wall Streets oldest Banks? One of the Executives at the table said, “No-one around that table did not understand the stakes they were talking about.” This was to be the last straw, and Hank Paulson decided to let Lehman Brothers fall. As other participants fell, there was a series of unparalled acquisitions in world banking history. The global economy continues to suffer, 4 years on, from Lehman Brothers, and the set of decisions made that evening, shaped events to follow. Other Banks and Financial Institutions that wrote off similar losses were later saved by the Governments all over the world, and the consistency of the decisions in Wall Street was questioned by many. Perhaps this situation does not illustrate the accuracy of decisions as it is hard to see what would have ensued if Paulson had chosen to save Lehmans, however, it does teach a lesson around volatility and how we are at times pressed to make a decision under pressure, with only a limited degree of foresight being possible. In such circumstance, it is critical that we keep a very clear and objective focus, that can quickly connect cause-effect relationships, learn from the past, and articulate this to others in a way they can quickly get involved. Paulson may have been right or wrong, but we must be on our toes, ready and able to make tough decisions, objectively and fairly.

Shall I, or shan’t I?

 In the episode from the ancient literature the Srimad Bhagawatam, the wife of Lord Shiva, called Sati is persistent that she would like to attend a function held at her Father, Prajapati Daksha’s palace. In normal circumstance, it would be expected for daughter Sati to attend, but at the previous function, her Father had insulted her husband Lord Shiva very seriously calling him many bad things, and that too, publically in an assembly of the demigods and sages. Lord Shiva was hurt by Daksha's words, but had calmly gone back to his quarters in this instance. Sati, seeing many demigods, and other heavenly residents dressed nicely, and in great excitement, in couples, going towards her Fathers palace, she too was eager to go. She brushed aside the previous bad experience in her and her husbands public encounter with her Father. Being so excited and very eager to go, she calmed herself and came before Lord Shiva and asked him if they could go also. She cited all of the great things associated with the function and how much she absoultely could not miss going to this with her husband. Lord Shiva on hearing this recalled his experience with Daksha and felt hurt. But he smiled as he loved his wife. He said however that he would not recommend going as they would be insulted once again by her Father for sure. Lord Shiva concluded that Sati may go if she wanted to, but her future would not be good if she did. Sati did not know what to do; here was one of the most trustworthy personalities in the Universe, and her husband giving her advice not to go, and on the other side were her intense desires to attend a buoyant occasion with her family. Sati was torn in two, confused, and became indecisive. She charted from one side of the room to the other in a state of almost helplessness. Delaying her thinking about the consequences, she left for the function. Once she entered, her Father, publically criticised her husband Lord Shiva, and this pierced Sati’s heart. She loved Lord Shiva, knowing he was the most respectable personality, and in her distraught state, she ended up leaving her body. What can we learn from this incident; many things. Make sure that substantial advice from great people, is not missed like the door handle. Emotion acts as a veil that covers us from seeing what is so clearly in front of us. We can also flip the example and derive a lesson; if we become so siloed in what we’re doing, with a kind of tunnel vision, and fail to understand the organisational priorities, strategies, people dynamics, our efforts will be in vain as the alignment won’t be there. Lord Shiva being a very elevated personality, could see the bigger picture, the people dynamics and his advice was completely considerate of this.

To summarise, we need to begin with understanding the importance of decisions in our lives and careers. We then need to appreciate that we will have varying degrees of pressure on us to make different decisions, and appropriately orient ourselves and consult appropriately given these constraints and knowledge of the stakes. Finally, we need to be very aware of the effect of these decisions, and being bold enough to accept the consequences of our decisions whether they are successful or not. When a strong leader is successful, they are quick not to hold the credit, but to pass it to the people around them who have served them, guided them, and helped them. When a strong leader is not successful, they do not blame those around them, but they accept responsibility, and work to learn and improve.