Perspectives

More ideas from Smart Thinking for Crazy Times: The Art of Solving the Right Problems by Ian Mitroff:

DecisionPlanner allows you to consider various perspectives in your decision making process. It probably seems obvious who, or what, the perspectives are for a decision, but often times we fail to consider people that might object, or disagree, with our preconceived hunch regarding our decision. These perspectives might give us the best insight in our quest to arrive at the right solution. Mitroff offers some suggestions for how to treat those perspectives (he calls them stakeholders):

“1. Never assume others will see a situation as you do.

2. Don’t respond to stakeholders as if their actions or demands are totally unreasonable; don’t respond to stakeholders in a way that leads them to act even more unreasonably; always ask what you can do to reduce, and not increase, the tension inherent in any situation.

3. Listen sincerely to your opponents by opening your mind and closing your mouth as much as possible.”

The bottom line is that we should not ignore people that may disagree with us. We should treat them with respect. And most importantly, we should listen and understand their positions. This doesn’t mean we have to agree with them, but if we want to arrive at the right decision, we should not dismiss their ideas without understanding them.

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