How We Make Better Decision

By Bikash Paul

Decision-making is a process that takes place in all managerial activities: planning, organization, motivation, and control. The decision is the basis, the source of these processes in management. Through decision-making, goals and objectives are determined, as well as ways to achieve and measure them. In modern business and in modern literature, more and more attention is paid to the methods and methods of decision-making.

 

Every day we make choices that affect our lives. How not to be afraid to make decisions that affect our future? From Henry Ford and Margaret Thatcher to Pablo Picasso and Muhammad Ali, Fortune 500 Business Consultant Robert L. Dilenschneider takes you through the success strategies of people who have impacted the world. Through their example, you will learn how to make informed and effective decisions, think ahead and remain calm. The skills you gain will help improve your personal life and career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bikash Paul
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215047071

Bikash Paul

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and the only thing you have to offer. Bikash Paul from India is a content writer and digital marketer, also working with My Recharge Ayurveda for several years. I helped people solve their problems. My education qualification is MBA in marketing and an HR minor. Writing books is another profession.

Book preview

PART ONE. WAR AND PEACE

Chapter 1. Harry Truman

That's my decision.

Harry Truman

Years later, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remain significant events in the chronological straight line. It was a turning point in history that meant that life on Earth would never be the same.

Also, the seemingly lonely figure of a man who made a decision to take a step that successfully completed the massacre of the Second World War and entailed a new type of massacre stands out sharply. The bomb instantly unleashed a barrage of horrific deaths, injuries and destruction on people.

Since 1945, the eternal specter of total man-made catastrophe has haunted the world and is perhaps the most characteristic feature of modern life.

We know that Harry S. Truman was behind the decision to drop the bomb. This sentence almost asks for the word hid instead of stood for – who wants to tarnish the memory of themselves with this kind of decision? Wouldn't it be better to become invisible or at least anonymous? However, in today's parlance, this decision belonged to Truman. He accepted it, acknowledged it, and never looked back.

And this statement, while seemingly true, makes us wonder: how did he do it? How could he decide to do that?

It is because of this decision that our book begins with truman's story. Because he was president, America gained a global influence that continues to be felt today. He left us with a model of how a country should maintain the leadership needed in this era of uncertainty. I hope that some of the reflections in this chapter will influence the thoughts of prominent political figures, and I am ready to share the contents of the book with leaders around the world.

The atomic bombs were dropped on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Just four months earlier, on April 12, President Roosevelt had died, and Vice President Truman had taken the oath of office. Roosevelt had just begun his unprecedented fourth term when he appointed a new vice president (a position held by two other men in his previous twelve years). Evidence confirms that Roosevelt was barely familiar with Truman; in fact, he didn't really know him, only met him once during the 1944 campaign and twice after they were sworn in. Not the best move for a wartime leader who knew his death was near and too visibly exhausted under the weight of his position.

History tries to tell us that Truman did not learn of the existence of the atomic bomb until two weeks after he was sworn in; perhaps he was told about it, but only in passing. (Truman seemed to contradict himself on this point.) In any case, the meager four months he spent as president was the only amount of time – hardly enough – to think about the situation.

A friend once told me that the most important decisions are made in the first 10 seconds of realizing the need to make them. I couldn't find it myself and honestly didn't ask which source supports this fact. But I quickly realized that my friend did not mean that such decisions are superficial – they were the product of lifelong training.

Truman possessed this life training, and many factors worked in his favor and against him. He was what I would call a capable man, a complex person. Every reader has a life preparation, in some ways good, in some ways insignificant. Consider the following facts about Truman.

• Intelligent but not well educated, he knew how to accept new information and how to learn.

• He loved reading and music, and was also a fighter.

• As a child, he was encouraged to be a mama's boy, this status was promoted by shyness and poor eyesight.

• In his prime, he was brisk, healthy, athletically built and dressed well.

• At a fairly mature age (he was thirty-five when he married Bess, whom he first met when he was eight years old and she was five), he formed a strong family and led a stable, unassuming personal life.

He was a man of habits (which in those days in the White House included a glass of bourbon after morning exercises and wiping before breakfast).

• After a difficult childhood (poverty and shattered dreams), he knew himself and was quite comfortable in his own skin.

• A man of deep, but not ostentatious faith, he was highly moral in all situations, public and private.

• He was frank and straightforward, openly saying what he meant and meaning what he said.

• His work, followed by his political life in Missouri (he worked odd jobs, was a farmer, a soldier, and a judge) and in Washington, D.C. (ten years as a senator), formed years of experience analyzing controversial options in order to choose the only correct one.

• He was popular and sociable, had both many buddies and close friends. Not all of these people had an impeccable reputation, but somehow their dirt did not stick to him.

I say all of this (and I could add more) to show that Truman was not a saint and that not everything came easy to him. In fact, the circumstances he endured in his youth could have ruined the future of many, and as an adult, he did not win every battle. But I think his experience has been exceptionally helpful when it comes to making a decision that is key to his life and the lives of millions of others.

Take a look at the points listed here. Which ones apply to you as well? What would you add?

According to many, including Truman himself, he was good at making decisions. And he developed a whole philosophy that included taking into account all the available information and finding suitable advice.

This clarification about philosophy is so important that I will refer to what Truman wrote on the subject in This Is My Decision: "The Chip Doesn't Go Any Further." He meant primarily presidential decisions, but check if his advice is relevant to you. It always seemed fitting to me.

The ability to make decisions seems to speak for itself, but in reality, everything is not so simple with it. First, the president must gather all the available information about what is best for the majority of people in the country, and this requires both integrity and self-education. He will have to decide what is right, in accordance with the principles on which he grew up and studied, he needs to listen to a large number of different people and understand how the decision he is going to make will affect them. And, when he decides on the right decision, it is important not to deviate from it under any pretext. He must move his own course, not reacting to the pressure of those who believe his decision is wrong. If it is really wrong, he needs to get even more information and make a different decision, while still being able to change HIS mind and start over.

If you look back at 1945 from the height of the past seventy-five years, it sometimes seems that Truman's decision to use a bomb and thus end World War II was made suddenly. In fact, there were many prerequisites for him.

The technology for the production of the bomb was developed over the years by the Allies and the Americans with the aim of using it in wartime, and not in peacetime, for example, to generate electricity. The situation in the Pacific theater of operations, already terrible, was rapidly deteriorating – and all options were over. It was almost obvious to Truman's colleagues, the leaders of other countries, that a terrible weapon was to be used. In a way, it was a fait accompli.

But since the bomb reputedly belonged to the U.S., there was only one person's finger on the trigger button: the American president. Only Truman had nuclear codes.

When it came time to make the decision to use the atomic bomb, Truman had plenty of resources. Among them are his philosophy, his character, his cohort of advisers, reality.

But still...

I can't help but think about how lonely and frightened Truman must have felt at that second. I think you and I are familiar with this, though certainly not to the same extent. We all face meaningful decisions in our lives. At a certain point, no matter what support you have, all the responsibility falls on you and only on you.

According to most, the critical point for Truman was the inability to accept the number of human casualties that it would cost to refuse to end the war as soon as possible. Yes, the Japanese were retreating; they were probably only months away from defeat. But Truman's military advisers estimate that continuing to pursue the Japanese from one small Pacific island to another and eventually to large populated islands allowed the enemy to set the pace and dragged the Allies behind him – this would double the number of deaths and injuries already received during all hostilities. Cruel mathematics, where behind the numbers are human lives.

It was immediately clear that the consequences of the nuclear bombing were even more horrific than anticipated. This caused public condemnation, which persists to this day. Even as more countries have nuclear capabilities that are not exclusively military in nature, the fact remains that very few countries are able to exploit the full destructive potential of this bomb. Two such states, as we know, are the United States and North Korea.

So far, I have emphasized in my book that Truman had to take and took full responsibility for the atomic bomb decision. But it didn't work in a vacuum. He had a group of advisers, both informal and formal. You and I have exactly the same tool.

Many were happy to advise Truman what to do. He smoked cigars and often played cards late into the night with these consultants. Some of them were his close friends from his youth or from his time in the Senate – the history of their relationship was long. We all have people like that in our lives.

By the way, informal groups of advisers, such as Truman's, are called the kitchen cabinet. This colloquial expression is now widely known, but it was the first time it has been used to attack President Andrew Jackson's ginger group – another great expression. As a result of the scandal of 1831, known as the Eaton case, or the case of the lower skirts, Jackson cleared the official Cabinet, then called the living room (English parlor cabinet). Information about this, as Casey Stengel often said, you can look for. Some things don't change.

What about Bess, Truman's wife, whom he called his closest political adviser, the boss? In fact, she knew nothing about the bomb and was very angry and deeply concerned, just like much of the world when she heard about its use. Again, very recognizable.

By taking the oath of office on April 12, 1945, Truman inherited Cabinet members from the Roosevelt administration and the generals who waged the war—I would call them official advisers. His trusted colleagues in the Senate, colleagues on the world stage, the leaders of the Allied countries, Churchill and Stalin, have been preserved. Most of the generals – including George Patton, Douglas MacArthur and others – willingly shared their opinions. If you think about it, you and I also have a lot of these official advisers. Nevertheless, we should be careful. Truman assessed the interests, intentions, and motivations of his advisers. Their recommendations were not always given with the best of intentions. We should also take this into account.

In his new role, it took Truman some time to establish sincere personal and political trust, but apparently he realized that those around him knew more than he did. He had no intention of undermining the process in which he was suddenly involved. And, of course, he was acutely aware of the need for national stability in a period of hard war; a New York Times article announcing Roosevelt's death noted that Mr. Truman immediately made it known that Mr. Roosevelt's cabinet remained in service at his request. (It wasn't until 1946 that he made his appointment to the Cabinet for the first time.)

The presidency, politics – and career-related business – are areas of life where you can one day meet someone, shake hands with them, communicate through an interpreter if necessary, and then call them my very good friend.

How flippant!

Let me remind you that I have already talked about Truman's loneliness. I think he had to rely a lot on his own common sense, which was innate and well honed.

It's important to consider that Truman was vice president for five months. He was president for barely four months when he made the decision to drop the bomb. It is not known that he attended any meeting involving Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, and there was only one face-to-face meeting between Truman, Stalin and Churchill. Perhaps these world military leaders could have used secret telegrams and phone calls, but the era of instant communication that we take for granted today was not even on the horizon.

It seems that Truman was very secretive towards Stalin. It was no secret that the United States was rapidly developing a usable atomic bomb. But Truman did not admit this directly to Stalin, and He apparently decided that the Americans would do whatever was necessary to fight Japan.

Churchill spoke bluntly about the use of the atomic bomb. Referring to the July 4 meeting of military leaders, he later wrote:

The british's agreement in principle to use these weapons was given... The final decision was now to be made by President Truman, who held the weapons. But I didn't doubt for a moment what that decision would be, and since then I've never doubted that he was right... There was unanimous, automatic, unconditional agreement between us, and I also never heard the slightest suggestion that we should have done otherwise.

This first meeting between Churchill and Truman could also have been their last official communication. The Conservative Party lost the general election on July 5, and Churchill was thus no longer Prime Minister. (All this despite the fact that it always seemed very interesting to me that Germany surrendered on May 7, a success that Churchill could rightly claim, but other factors were decisive, of course.)

As for Truman, he didn't look back: All my life, when I had to make a decision, I took it and forgot about it ... That's all you can do.

In his seven years as president, Truman has led the United States through many other turning points. Surrender of Germany. Potsdam. Surrender of Japan. The Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan. Cold war. Communism. Civil rights movement, including desegregation in the military. National Security Act. Creation of the State of Israel. Blockade of West Berlin. Fair course. Korea. Macarthur. (And much more!)

These are the main lessons I have learned from Truman's decision-making process.

1. It is necessary to have your own code, created on the basis of your life experience, education, conscience and other constituent elements of character. This is often referred to as the moral compass.

2. Being bold in making big decisions is not easy, and you will receive a lot of advice. Follow your beliefs. Be bold.

3. Try to find out as many facts as possible. Try not to point your finger at the sky.

4. Get a group of trusted advisors who are already nearby – family, friends, colleagues – and do not be afraid to go beyond this close circle, if necessary, involving experts. Consult with these people! Always evaluate their motivation and then compare their advice to your own judgments.

5. Make a decision when it needs to be made. Life moves much faster, and everything in it is much more interconnected than in 1945. These factors can put pressure on us, forcing us to follow someone else's plan. Do not show impatience and do not rush with the decision, but also do not hesitate. Carpe diem in the best sense of this aphorism – move when you need to move.

6. When you make a decision, make it. Discard indecision. Stick to the decision. Direct all the necessary resources to succeed. Don't hesitate.

7. Always draw a conclusion: what did your decision mean? Do I need to do something else?

I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from Truman's situation in 1945. Even though you may feel lonely when making a decision, you're probably not alone. In fact, how do you appeal to others when you make a decision? And more broadly, what do you do when someone reaches out to you?

For others, I would say, engage them – but don't rely on them. (The exception is family members, which I'll talk about separately.) So:

1. Think about the people who have already served as good advisors to you and the level of intimacy between you. Correctly evaluate the relationship with them.

2. Contact the experts, clearly formulating the questions. If you don't know a specific expert, try to find a mediator to introduce you – or write a letter to the specialist by introducing yourself. Personally, I would respond to such an