A632.2.3.RB – Sheena Lyengar: How to Make Choosing Easier
According to Lynegar’s (2011) research, a typical American makes an average of 70 choices typically in a day. I was even more amazed when Lynegar (2011) disclosed that an average CEO takes on 139 undertaking on a weekly basis where every project involves multiple choices. She further stated that 50 percent of the CEO’s were made out of nine minutes or less and 12 percent of those determinations took an hour or more of their time (Lynegar, 2011).
Lyengar (2011) recommended or identified four methodologies to mitigate the challenge of choice overload. First, she said to cut the number of options to relieve us from irrelevant preferences. Second, she stated that we need to concretize the choices we make, which meant in layman terms, we need to make our choices authentic or real. The third recommendation was to categorize our choices. Manage larger categories with lesser options. For example, if we are shopping for coffee, we can categorize our choice not by brand but by coffee blend i.e. bold, breakfast blend, columbian, etc. Lastly, we need to condition ourselves to be acclimated with complexity such as the compound nature of deciding what software and vendor to contract for a business model or recruitment software.
Personally, it would improve my decision-making skills if I consider practicing at least two of the methodologies that Lynegar (2011) recommended. The choices that I faced daily from the personal and professional points are too overwhelming that at times, I can sense that I am physical, mentally, and emotionally spent or exhausted. Cutting and concretizing my choices or options to arrive at a proper decision will help me to be a better decision-maker.
An excellent example of cutting my choices will be my cable television. After listening to Lyengar (2011), I revisited my mobile monthly expense. Reviewing my current plan with a Sprint customer service, I discovered that I am paying $250.96 monthly, not including applicable taxes. My monthly Sprint bill averages to $320 a month including Sprint surcharges and government taxes and fees. The client's support informed me that she has 3 options for me to save me money and lower my current monthly Sprint bill. Following Lyengar’s (2011) recommendation, I cut my choices and ask the lady on the other line to give the plan that can save me most in comparison with my current monthly bill and the closest to the plan I currently have. She told me that she can change my plan to unlimited everything with 4 lines, 3 tablets. If we added the family locator of 5.99 per month, total equipment insurance of $11.00 per month, 5.99 for international calling for one of the lines and estimated of government taxes and fees, my monthly bill will average to $180.00 monthly. I will be saving an average of $140 monthly, $1680 annually. Then she said I will be eligible to change to this new plan as long as I maintain my automatic payment set-up. I would be crazy if I say no to the savings presented to me. Then I went wiser, I canceled one of the tablets for $5 a month, the family locator for $5.99 a month and the total equipment insurance for $11 a month. That is an additional $263.88 savings for a total of $1943.88 annual savings in our household expenses.
At work, if I apply Lyengar’s (2011) recommendation of cutting, I can recommend to our HR Specialist to refer all walk-ins that need assistance with application for Leave of Absence, Payroll and Benefits questions. Since we moved into our new Shared Services model, HR local offices were required to refer all employees to call Shared Services for any employee questions. Our HR Specialist seemed to defy that instruction. She always tries to help employees to get answers to their issues of which often times, a waste of her time, the employee’s time and my time. Whenever she can’t come up with a solution or answer, she would come to my office and get me involved with her “quest” for resolution. Often times, my resolution for her is always have the employee call Shared Services since we, at local HR, have no access to the employees’ personal account in People Soft like changing their direct deposit, viewing their check stubs or adding a dependent due to a Life Event. In between her persistence to assist employee walk-ins, I have to answer all incoming calls and other walk-ins that were only coming in to submit their renewed licenses and certifications required for their positions. If our HR Specialist would follow protocol, I could save at least 2 hours day that I can use for more strategic tasks. I am currently behind reviewing job descriptions as well as reviewing and developing our recruitment and onboarding processes for physicians and mid-levels (physician assistants, Advance Registered Nurse Practitioners, and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist). For an extra 260 hours of work annually that I can save from performing transactional activities, my productivity will increase, and I can be a more strategic HR Business Partner for my Executive Team.
The other methodology that I can practice based on Lyengar’s (2011) recommendation is to learn how to concretize. According to Lyengar (2011), concretizing is having people to understand that every choice they make has an underlying consequence. Reflecting on the personal decisions that I have made, every single decision did have its own consequence. Just the other day, I was running a fever and profusely coughing and sneezing. Wednesday of last week, I can sense that I was going to get sick or something was coming. I refuse to accept that I was going to get ill and mentally psyched myself that I am physically well. Come Thursday, I woke up with a sore throat. Still, I decided not take any precautionary measure such as calling my primary care physician and make an appointment and drink medicine to relieve my sore throat. By Friday morning, I woke up with a fever and at this time my sore throat was worse and a combination of a migraine and sinusitis. Now, I am self-diagnosing, I thought. So, I kept no mind of what I felt and went to work anyway. By Friday mid-afternoon, that was when I realized that not unless I want to suffer from whatever this is real, I better call my doctor and make the appointment. So, I did secure an appointment with my PCP first thing Monday, January 23rd.
Friday night, I got home shivering and suffering from a severe migraine. I tried to spend a couple of minutes to do some school work, but mentally, I was out. I gave myself a bad scolding. Why didn’t I make my PCP appointment Friday when I started feeling sick on Thursday. Why didn’t I drink medicine to relieve me from pain and reduce my fever when I woke up Friday morning. The signs were all over the place, but because I refused to pay attention to the reality or the fact that I was getting sick, now I have to suffer the consequence of my wrong decision or choice.
Concretizing the decisions that I need to make at work is essential to my professional success as well as to my organization. Whenever a Director of Practice Operations consults with me with a decision to terminate one of their employees, and I agree with their decision without further investigating how and why he or she arrived at a decision to severe employment, there will be a great consequence for the organization if we terminate the employee without cause. My office practice, when confronted with this type of scenario, is that I am transparent to the leaders. Whether they like my decisions or recommendations, I make it a point that my job is to advocate for the employee and the organization equally. Terminating employment always comes with a consequence. One loss of income to the individual if terminated, and two, if the cause of termination was not appropriately documented, it may cause the organization an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claim which may cost the company financial losses.
I agree with Lyengar’s (2011) comments that the most important aspect in making decisions is to be pickier about choosing the appropriate decisions for the situation at hand. Practicing and perfecting the art of choosing can benefit us in making our lives easier and less stressful. The key factor here is consistency and diligence with the methodologies of my decision-making. Also, to improve my ability to make appropriate decisions, I could incorporate reflective, patient decision making. As Hoch & Kunreuther (2005) wrote, one way of learning to take reflective decision-making approach is by habitually monitoring my own behavior to deflect my focus and energy, creating a peace of mind and subdue emotional negativism that envelops decision making.
Reference:
Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on making decisions. (1st edition.).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Lynger, Sheena (2011). How to Make Choosing Easier. Retrieved from:
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