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Decisions, Decisions .......

Although the decision-making process has often been seen as a choice between the rational and the emotional sides of the mind, recent discoveries suggest that the best decisions are a delicate mixture of both. A brilliant and incisive book by Jonah Lehrer (‘The Decisive Moment – how the brain makes up its mind’) looks at the thought processes behind decisions. It explains how we can ‘train our brains’ so that we get the right balance for any particular situation.

For instance, ‘gut instinct’ can be very valuable when making a decision about buying a house, whereas investing in stocks and shares shouldn’t be too heavily guided by intuition. 
 
The principles that Lehrer highlights are very important and should form an integral part of insight thinking - because insight is all about decisions. Yes, we need to understand customer behaviour and attitudes, but this is because we want to understand their decisions. We then need to use our insight to tell the company how to influence those decisions. Ultimately, we want them to make the decision to buy from us.
 
A question of balance…
But how is decision-making affected by the different thought processes? Lehrer’s book explains how to apply the principles to different situations: 
  • Advertising - This often works through emotional rather than rational messages. But do we know when to use emotion and when to use rational approaches? Or a mixture of both? Lehrer helps us to understand and shows us how to ask the right questions. 
  • Presenting insight - How do we present our insight results within the company? Even if we recognise the role that emotion has to play, others in the company (especially those with very scientific or numerate backgrounds) may need to understand and justify decisions – and therefore require a more rational approach.  
  • Influencing decision-making - If we want executives to make good decisions, we again need to understand how to present the information most effectively. Lehrer explains why the rational brain struggles with large amounts of information, whilst the sub-conscious can somehow cope with it. This is why answers often come to us when we stop thinking about problems (whilst in the bath or mowing the lawn). This has huge implications for how we put across large amounts of information to executives who are often expected to take immediate decisions. Give them a lunch break to let ideas permeate and then come back for an action planning session.  
Brain power
Lehrer describes the 'irrational' part of our brain as a super-powerful computer that can process huge amounts of information (whilst we remain largely unaware of this). This enables a batsman to judge the exact speed and angle of a ball that is being delivered. It is also the part of the brain that gives rise to instinct – that indefinable feeling about something. He contrasts all of this with the rational part of the brain, which is much more limited in its approach - but is vital in situations where emotions alone could easily mislead us.
 
We would encourage everyone to read this stimulating book. Indeed, if we were setting up an insight degree course, this would be one of the key items of compulsory reading!
 
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