Do you handle business decisions like chess or poker?

A downfall for many business owners is falling into the trap of trying to predict the outcome of their business decisions. 

Not sure you do this?

Ok, answer this question,

“What was your best and worst business decision you made last year?”

I am guessing that you answered that question based on the results you got. If you got a good or great result then you said it was a good decision.

And if you got a terrible result, well, was that your worst decision?.

What does this have to do with chess and poker?

Most business owners make business decisions as if it is like a game of chess. 

You might wonder what is wrong with that. Chess involves critical thinking, strategy, etc.

All true. However, chess is played where every move is seen by both players with predictable outcomes. 

About the only way to lose a chess match is by making a mistake or playing someone who understands the strategy better.

However when we make business decisions, or any decision in life for that matter, we don’t get to see every move played out before us nor can we predict the outcome. 

That is how the game of poker is. We can be the expert in the room with years of experience. We can have a great strategy. Yet many unknowns still exist in poker. 

We can make the best decisions possible and still lose.

That is how running a business is like.

However, far too often business owners will allow the outcome of a decision affect how they make future decisions.

That is called resulting. 

We also fall into the trap of hindsight bias and say things like, “I should have known better, or, I should have made a better decision.”

Here is what I want you to take away from this…

• • Be careful about aligning the results of your decisions closely to your decision process. 

• • Focus on having a good process for making decisions.

• • Learn from the results without allowing the results to influence your decision process.

Want to read more about this? Get the book, Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.

Feeling stuck in your business and want to talk about it? Schedule a free one-time call with me HERE.