A632.3.4.RB – Reflections on Decision Making

According to Hoch & Kunreuther (2005), the frame is a logical cognitive structure for organizing and simplifying the intricacy that managers face in their daily business operations.  They further stated that framing is a mental representation that consents human beings to act, perceive, decide, and interpret information or data presented to them.  Frames impact the way we think by creating highlights and shadows, just focusing our awareness on the particular angle of a problem and at the same time leaving other options in the shadows.  Hoch & Kunreuther (2005) further stated that frame is also a cause of distortion of our thinking by creating boundaries on choices and by establishing points of references and yardsticks.

Hoch & Kunreuther (2005), identified three interrelated traps that are detrimental to the success of our decision-making and control of our frames.  One, we need to guard ourselves against the false sense or illusion of completeness.  My husband and I decided not to buy the house that we were currently renting about five months ago.  We had a definitive plan about when we will start packing and schedule movers.  Everything was written down since that was just how I am.  I needed to see where we are and what we need.  Unfortunately, the house that we were supposed to move to become unavailable and for months, we are at the mercy of the current tenant to move out.  Thirty days ago, we received news from the landlord that we are set to make progress into the house anytime after January 15, 2017.  Our current residence has been paid until January 31^st, so we decided to move to new location at least six days before our contract for the old house expires.  Enough time to move out and clean up.

My checklist from thirty days ago was not making progress as I have anticipated.  Packing was not checked although the requests to move services and utilities like water, electricity, the internet, cable television, and scheduled the movers who will move our furniture, fifteen days prior from today, Jan. 26tth.  I was not very successful in understanding the frames of my husband.  We have talked about the move almost every day, and I thought he had it handled.  For thirty days, I packed the things that I would like to keep; threw out stuff that I did not need; and donated clothing, shoes, and electronics that were stored in closets, and we have never used.  My husband just kept on assuring me not to stress out, and he will handle the packing, but I have been observing any movement.  Low and behold, I saw the movement of packed boxes beginning Monday, Jan. 23^rd.  In addition to my checklist not being accomplished, I had bronchitis since Thursday of last week and was fragile and bedridden Jan. 23^rd and 24^th.  The stress was killing me, and I definitely felt trapped.

Today, January 26^th, the day of the move, I have to go to work while my husband picks up the keys to the new house.  At work, I have everything ready for my meeting, and everything went the way I have framed what needed to be accomplished.  After my meetings, I went home and met my husband in the new house with his first load of boxes.  Still frail, I was able to help him out pack our kitchen and bathrooms.  Packed another load with our two trucks.  The plan was not working for me especially when I started getting dizzy by 5, and we have to stop.  My plan was during this move, we will load and unload in the morning and afternoon, then write my assignments that are due this Sunday, January 29^th.  Since being so weak, I lost Monday and Tuesday since my mind was not in a condition to read and understand my book.  Long story short, here I am with another stressor on my plate.  My husband’s illusion of completeness had caused both of us suffered from panic and feeling failure. 

If I could turn back the clock, I could have framed the situation differently.  I should have made sure that my husband and I were on the same page by adequately defining what was his frame of mind in preparation for this move.  When he said “I got this,” he believed that he had the entire situation covered and had complete control.  My framing was very ineffective, and I have not fully laid out the plan to my husband exactly the way he could have understood my expectations as our guiding point to a successful transition from one house to another. 

Another trap of frame blindness is overconfidence of our view.  I was overconfident that I had fully laid out the plan to my husband and he fully accepted my frame for a successful team work.  Due to such overconfidence, I was neglectful of the very obvious fact of the absence of my husband’s acceptance and understanding of my plan or decision to pack and be ready fifteen days on January 26^th.  His false sense of completeness that packing is very easy and straightforward, and it does not take that long to accomplish the task made cost us to exert more energy, effort, and work than we should.  His frame of mind says, he had four days to do this and was oblivious to the fact that we have more stuff than what he thought. 

My way of framing is not very strong and moving forward, I need to be more conscious of being trapped to my overconfidence of my own views.  I will be facing traps in the future until I strengthen my framing ability by practicing framing with consistency, learning from others who are successful in framing and recognizing different assumptions that might occur like in my current situation, having medical issues and my husband’s different way of framing.  I need to understand better other individuals way of thinking, most especially my husband’s so as our future joint venture would have a better outcome.  Being married to the same person for almost 20 years does not mean we have perfected understanding our frame of thoughts.

The last trap that Hoch & Kunreuther (2005) identified that is damaging to our decision-making is frame conflict.  During a conference call with my fellow Board Members of the Volusia/Flagler SHRM, we have discovered that we were neglectful of purchasing a bulk registration for our SHRM Chapter’s 2017 HR Florida Conference.  Every year, we buy 20 bulk conference registration for $652.50 per registration.  The Board Members thought that as the VP of Finance, it was my responsibility to purchase the usual number of conference bulk registration for the Chapter, neglecting the fact that for an expense of more than $1000, a majority vote of the Board Members is of utmost importance.

In this instance, the Chapter had a deadline of January 29^th to purchase the bulk conference registration with the discounted price.  After the deadline, the bulk registration is increased to $725.50.  The regular registration fee for the conference is $1,125.  Board members are panicking since our Chapter Debit card is has a limited daily usage of $5,000 and if we purchase 20 registrations, it will cost $13,050, and the chapter does not have the funds.  I encouraged everyone to not to focus on what we cannot do right now but focus on what we can do.  The primary objective was to purchase a bulk conference registration that will be available for our members to buy.

Based on the availability of funds, I recommended buying 10 bulk conference registration, for $6525.  I further recommended that our VP of Marketing needs to send out an email blast to our members about the availability of 10 2017 HR Florida Conference Registration so we can recoup the money as soon as we can.  Two of the Board members suggested marketing the discounted registration first before we actually purchase the bulk registration not thinking that we were running out of time.  Fifteen minutes of the conference call was wasted on discussing the best action we should take.  I have to interrupt the useless discussion and asked for a vote to purchase 10 bulk conference registration for the Chapter.  Every member voted on the purchase of 10. 

Then here comes the constraints, we were unable to pay for the registration using our Chapter’s debit card because of the daily limit restrictions imposed on the card, and we had a deadline of January 29^th.  I excused myself from the conference call for a couple of minutes and called the HR Florida Council Registrar to inquired if our Chapter can just be billed for the registration.  The answer was yes as long as I process the bulk registration not later than January 29^th, we can just mail out the check.  I joined back in the conference call, and the meeting was adjourned. 

In this situation, although conflict existed at first, the team’s framing was very efficient since we all focused on one objective without discussing any what ifs and eliminated other constraints that were brought up by other members.  Things that came out as a recommendation from other board members were using three credit cards or purchasing 3 registrations at a time or calling in favor by calling the current HR Florida Council President, who just visited our Chapter to ask for the exception of January 29^th deadline.  One call to the HR Florida Council Registrar was all we needed to find a resolution to the constraints and accomplish our primary objective.  I was very confident in my recommendations and actions during the conference call, and I was very glad that my fellow board members understood and accepted my frame of decision-making.

I did not realize that framing my decisions has grave consequences in either making me an effective leader or it can potentially be the cause of my failure as an individual and as a leader.  This exercise made me recognize and learn my own limitations in framing.  I have to appreciate other people’s emotional state most especially my husband’s to avoid being disappointed at him for no apparent reason.  I need to be more understanding about his frame as well as the frames of other people like my colleagues, supervisor, and subordinates. 

The consistency of practicing frame more efficiently is the key.  I have to be willing to adapt to the situation at hand and learn to combine frames depending on the complexity of the problem or the issue.  Decision-making may be a simple matter of moving to a new house, but I have learned that in a complex decision-making it is better to brainstorm with the people that are involved in the particular project at work or even simple moving.  If I had involved my husband in the decision-making, it would have a much easier and peaceful transition.

Reference:

Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on making decisions. (1st edition.).

Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.