Catastrophic decisions live on in the business lore as testament to the perennial difficulty of making good decisions. From the AOL-Time Warner merger to Blockbuster rejecting a partnership with Netflix, from J.C. Penney eliminating coupons to the debacle that was New Coke, these fiascos remind us that as leaders, we are often not nearly as smart as we think. While there is no way to guarantee that a decision will turn out well, we can improve the odds by following five steps.
There is often an unavoidable tendency to fall into what I call ‘the conclusion trap’. In a fast-changing environment, executives often feel pressured describes, and you have a perfect recipe for jumping to incorrect conclusions or solutions that can sink an organization.
