As we begin the closing quarter of another year, it seems to me that this century is more and more being defined by the ability to make decisions.
Technology is becoming more adept at running tasks. I would venture to guess that in my lifetime, most (if not all) business functions that can be done by a robot or machine, will be. You can see it prevalent already in manufacturing, traditional office functions (e.g. answering phone, taking messages, and dictation) and health care. Jobs that require mere physical ability will be dying away; you’ll need to use your smarts.
“Smarts” is critical in making decisions. Note that I didn’t say all decisions must be right, because that’s impossible. However, the process of rapidly assessing a complex situation, breaking down the upside and downside, trusting your brain and instinct, and then implementing will be more important than ever as we race through this century. We learn through decisions that both succeed and fail.
We need to be teaching our children to think; to be problem-solvers; and to be resilient (overcoming failure and adversity and turning it into opportunity). We are going to need them when we get old! That means we’d better be good at it ourselves.
As a post-script, assess your business (whether you own it or not). Is your organization full of decision-makers and problem solvers, or do you have a bunch of human robots mindlessly performing tasks for a paycheck?
The age of decision-making is upon us…you might want to rush through that open gate and be unleashed into it with a full artillery.
Quote of the Week:
“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
~ Saint Francis of Assisi
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