Heuristics

The effect of heuristics, another authority on decision making, is often misunderstood and thus not dealt with. Heuristics are rules of thumb that people develop to help deal with the myriad of decisions they face in their everyday lives. If we went through the full balanced optimizing decision-making model for every decision that we make, most of us would never get out of bed in the morning. We have urbanized numerous short- cuts that help us make decisions quickly and, usually, effectively. However, while these shortcuts initially helped us survive beside predators, and now make our everyday lives easier, these heuristics can work alongside us in the workplace. Stereotypes are a characteristic heuristic: By basing our understanding of a whole group of people on one or two individuals we know, or on story we have here, we are able to make rapid decisions about others. However, the precision of that decision is improbable to be very high. As a manager, be attentive of the shortcuts you are predisposed to use and only use them when it doesn't affect the excellence of the decision.