Mitten Shaped Flights

Deception As children, we learn that lying is not acceptable. We’re taught at an early age that we must grow into upright, truthful citizens in order to be successful. In many instances, we learn from religion that a higher power doesn’t want us to be dishonest. However, later in life, we learn that deception is a key element to many parts of life and in small and specific instances, it is acceptable. Deception of some kind is an inherent part of human interaction ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 189). I have learned that being honest and authentic is one of the most important parts of who I am, and it is part of where I get my power of positivity. I don’t feel that I could be deceitful and carry on being positive. Deceptions in negotiations There are so many examples of people using deception in negotiations, it is easy to find in nearly all areas of life. Whether it be in the courtroom, the boardroom or schoolroom, we find ourselves being subjected to or using dece...

Avoiding framing traps If you’ve concluded you need to prepare and protect yourself from misusing frames, please keep reading. The following three examples are cases in which I failed to avoid framing traps in my life and I think it could help you to understand where I went wrong. Frames are crucial because they simplify and focus our attention on what we deem is most relevant, making it possible to decide more quickly and efficiently than with widespread attention ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 133).  Example 1 – Airport Maintenance Manager During my time as a maintenance manager at the airport, I fell pray to frame blindness many times. I had not yet fully understood all the elements of the budgeting process and because of this, I made several errors because I was only seeing things through one frame of view in my maintenance world. Being unaware of our frames poses an enormous risk ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 139). As an airport maintenance...

At the nation’s 18 th busiest airport, Detroit Metro Airport is not immune to complex decision-making. Simple decisions can sometimes turn into much more complex issues and vice versa. Complex issues can seldom be solved within a single frame ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 154). As I’ve learned, frames not only work as a tool to understand problems from different points of view, they can also provide clarity, especially when dealing with complex issues. For example, take root cause analysis (RCA) and how simple methods of determine how and why something failed can be applied to the organization so that you can prevent the same mistake from happening again and again. As simple as the method is of asking why something failed, you’d think we were teaching skilled trades personnel Latin. Incorporating a change like RCA takes a lot of time and patience. They way in which we approached our teams to include RCA in their routines first involved identifying and analyzing a...

In Sheena Iyengar’s TEDx video (2011), she describes four techniques you can use to improve choosing or decision-making. These techniques included cut, concretize, categorize and condition. Each technique is unique, and I have used these at one point or another in my life. As Iyengar describes it, she says to “be choosy about choosing” (Iyengar, 2011) which is a brilliant statement that summarizes her video about making choices. Whether you’re a child or an adult, everyone goes through each day having to make many decisions. All too often, we over complicate scenarios in which we could have used these techniques to improve our decision-making. The two techniques I’d like to discuss are cut and categorize. Cut or cutting, involves reducing or outright eliminating choices from the decision matrix. In order to make choosing easier, we must reduce the number of choices. Iyengar (2011) points out the choice overload problem, where as consumers, we are overloaded with far too many choice...

I have reflected on my decision-making and found two recent examples of how I think about my decision-making processes. The first example involves me thinking “on the fly” or making quick decisions in a limited amount of time and sometimes with limited amounts of information. In no other area of behavioral decision theory is there a greater gap between how a class of decisions should be made and the rules of thumb that describe how they actually are made ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 39). My quick decision making is flawed and if I had to average the gains I’ve made with this example, I would bet I’m at or below 50% of making the correct choice. Managers often rely on instinct rather than careful deliberation ( Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, p. 15).  The second example is when I have carefully thought through and evaluated multiple avenues my decision-making could take me. In both examples, I’m aware of and concerned with making the correct or prope...