One Plan at a Time: How Our Mental Processes Increase the Likelihood of Making Flawed Decisions

By: Sydney Finkelstein and Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell

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Synopsis: If our brains naturally questioned and challenged our assessments and judgments or compared multiple solutions to a problem, we would be much better at spotting errors in our thinking and correcting them. But we do not. We have evolved a brain that assesses the situation, comes up with a plan of action, and then evaluates that plan. We do not consider alternative unless we imagine that our first plan won't work. The authors describe this process as "one-plan-at-a-time decision making" and in this chapter, they explain why this mental habit increases the likelihood of making flawed decisions. This chapter was originally published as chapter 4 of "Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep It From Happening to You."