A632.3.4.RB_HansardCarey

Frame blindness occurs when decision makers view an issue through one mental window (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, p. 139). The danger of doing this, of course, is that other points of view, ideas, or related issues may be missed. Three of the dangers posed with frame blindness are overconfidence, the illusion of completeness, and frame conflict (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, pp. 140-141). 

The illusion of completeness happens when the decision maker believes he/she has all of the necessary information to make the decision; the, “I’ve got this. I know exactly what to do” attitude. In my personal life, I had a situation like this with my son, who was 11 at the time. He is a shy kid and I am an overprotective mom. One day, he came home from school and told me that a kid was picking on him in school. My son’s friend, Keith, stood up for him and told the other kid to leave my son alone. This led to an invitation to meet behind the cafeteria to fight after school. My son was afraid and he and his friend decided not to go. However, when he got home, he told me all about what happened. I thought that the other kid told them to meet him behind the cafeteria and was afraid for my son and his friend. I wanted this boy and his parents contacted and talked to about bullying. So, I called the school and spoke with the assistant principal who, in turn, spoke with my son, Keith, and the other boy. While the boy admitted to calling my son names, he said that it was actually Keith who extended the invitation to fight. Keith reluctantly admitted it when confronted by the principal. The other boy was afraid to fight, too, and did not go to the cafeteria either. Looking back, had I known that it was Keith that was looking for a fight, I would have probably just called his mom and worked it out with her and our sons and asked the school to discuss the incident with the child. Instead, I probably appeared to school staff like a crazy woman demanding that something be done to this kid. Believing that I had the complete picture in this instance caused me to do something that I may not have done had I had all of the facts.

As for overconfidence, this occurs when we misjudge what we know. My husband and I are currently evaluating whether or not to sell our small 2 bedroom house and buy something larger. We are confident that we know what we can/cannot afford. We differ on some things, though. I would like to buy a piece of land in town and build a house on it. My husband, on the other hand, feels as though it will be too expensive to build a house. Neither of us has actually checked into the cost of building; we are simply making assumptions. We have also not checked into interest rates, etc… although we still think we know what we can afford and are looking for. I am sure that once we finally do contact professionals we will find out that we don’t know as much as we think we do about any aspect of buying, building, or financing.

Finally, there is frame conflict. This happens when individuals’ agendas clash.  This happens frequently in my current position. Unfortunately, people always think they know how other people’s jobs should be done based on the effects on their own. From my point of view, EagleVision training should be just-in-time training because, let’s face it, if you don’t use it, you lose it.  We want instructors to train in the term just prior to their scheduled EagleVision course. Many Directors of Academics feel as though instructors should receive training any time they want so that they are available whenever a campus needs them, even if it is at the last minute.  Instructors want to receive training because they have had experiences in the past with their courses being canceled due to low enrollment and they feel as though EagleVision training will help them solve that problem. This has caused friction and much discussion throughout the years but there have not been any changes made to when instructors train. I think that others are looking through a single mental frame…one that suits them. This frame conflict and lack of consideration of other frames can create problems.  I try to influence others to see the issue through my mental frame.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes, it doesn’t. My feeling is that you cannot please all of the people all of the time.

In these instances, I see the benefit of using other mental frames. They may not always change my mind but doing so will at least allow me to consider the perspectives of others and make more informed decisions. It is very tempting to make decisions solely on my first instinct. After reading this chapter, I think it is essential not to make decisions blind to the possible frames.  I have learned that there are many strategies that can help me eliminate my mental frames. Strategies such as focusing on the objective and not getting pulled in to other issues along the way can be helpful. Thinking about assumptions I already have about the issue that may or may not be accurate and trying to move past those. Asking others for their points of view will give me other ways to see the issue and allow me to make a better decision because of it.

Reference: Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on making decisions. (1 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

A632.2.3.RB_HansardCarey

Sometimes, choices can be overwhelming. Consider going to the hardware store in search of paint for your house. Standing in the paint aisle looking at the unbelievable number of vendors and paint colors could be enough to send you packing without paint, leaving your house to flake apart bit by bit. Sheena Iyengar, in her TED talk “How to Make Choosing Easier”, proposes four methods to make choosing less painful for people. First, she introduces the fact that less is more and some choices should be eliminated before introducing them to a decision maker. Second, she discusses linking the consequences of our choices to our emotions. Third, she claims that grouping choices into categories that make sense to the users helps people make decisions. Finally, group choices together, starting with few choices and gradually increasing the amount of choices in each subsequent group.

Cutting choices is something that I have learned to do in my professional life when scheduling training sessions for faculty. If you schedule them, they will come! When I offer too many training sessions, I inevitably end up with some sessions that only have one person and others where I have 8 or more. So I have learned to schedule sessions based on how many participants I have to train. I am sure to have plenty of sessions to include all and then add one or two more for convenience of rescheduling. Otherwise, there are too many choices for instructors and too many sessions to decide which trainers to schedule. From an organizational standpoint, you want to have plenty of sessions for instructors to chose from. From a personal standpoint, having to do the same thing 20 times is less appealing than doing it 10 times. Limiting the number of training sessions frees my time to concentrate on other types of training and special projects.

It is currently very difficult to find information in ERNIE. Recently, the Worldwide Web Services team made the decision to revamp all of the Worldwide pages and make them more user friendly. The first step to this process was organizing the Student Services tab. They wanted to categorize the links on this tab to better serve the needs of students. Therefore, they conducted a usability test, a survey type instrument that asks users where they would look for certain pieces of information. The results of this test allowed the team to decide which categories made the most sense to users and which links to include under each category. The organization needs categorization like this on the website to improve the users’ experience. This has been beneficial to my department as well. Our EagleVision information is now easier to find and more accessible to those who need it. I anxiously await the improvements to the rest of the site.

I agree with the techniques that Ms. Iyengar proposes. I think that another way to improve one’s decision-making is to inform oneself about the choices and consequences of a particular decision. I find that researching a topic, both by consulting with others who have experience with a similar issue and by searching for information on the Internet, I tend to make better decisions. Decisions will never be perfect in every situation; however, employing some of the methods that Ms. Iyengar proposes will eliminate many of the troubles associated with making decisions.

Reference: Iyengar, S. (Performer) (2012). Sheena iyengar: How to make choosing easier [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html    

A632.1.4.RB_Hansard_Multiple Decision Making

I can honestly say that I could not see myself ever using a mathematical equation to make decisions. There are several reasons for this; one being that I am not the greatest at math and think it would be much too confusing for me to identify variable mathematically, and the other being that too much can be left to chance that way. However, it appears that either way, I have a high likelihood of making a good decision. Hoch & Kunreuther (2001) argue that fact stating that, eventually, making a decision mathematically (optimally) and making the same decision with the way people would actually make them converge at some point (p. 51). To me, making the decision mathematically is like deciding who to employ simply by looking at a resume. Meeting people and taking other factors about them into account would help me make a better, more informed decision about who to hire.

The way in which I make decisions varies depending on the issue’s level of importance to me. I do notice a couple of trends, however. I frequently ask other’s opinions and consider them in my decision-making process. For instance, recently, I led a project at work to update some of the training materials we use. I use the software that I was creating training materials for every day; therefore, I asked other members of my department who were not as familiar with the software to evaluate my materials. The decisions made about what to include or omit from the training were a direct result of feedback from others on the team. The initial decisions about what to include and how to include it had been made based on my past experiences learning the software myself. Getting input from other people enabled me to make decisions based on many different perspectives.

Something else I do when making vital decisions is deliberate a long time. My tendency is to ask for opinions, consider them all, do more research, and then make my decision. This process involves multistage decision making on my part. This has occasionally led to problems because a decision needs to be made quickly. When forced, I can quickly make a decision but always second-guess myself. However, I need to learn to take all of the knowledge I have into consideration and make effective decisions in a more timely manner. I am always concerned with making the right decision…even though I know there is not truly a perfect decision.

The formula outlined by Hoch & Kunreuther (2001) may help in my forward planning, though. If the formula can narrow down my choices, it may help me focus my critical questions in only one or two areas, thereby making the decision easier and faster for me. On the other hand, Hoch & Kunreuther also state that, “everyday reasoning provides nearly optimal decisions” (p. 61). In my life so far, I have made adequate decisions. Although my opinion may change as the class progresses, I do not see myself making significant changes to the steps I normally follow. As they say, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on making decisions. (1 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc.