Rationalised Emotions
Decision making and the human mind
Written by Remco van der Sluis
CEO at VBAT
Did this happen to you too?
A very interesting, involving, highly energised meeting has taken place. Each and everyone leaning in. No further discussion necessary; we take route XYZ! This is by far the best choice and will bring us the results we are looking for.
Does it really?
The other day I was involved in a discussion on the rational of decision making. The opinion was offered that in business decision making is always rational. That analysis, numbers and long reports are the basis of great decisions. It is true that a lot of decision making is underlined with reports, analysis and numbers. It is the rationalisation of the decision making. However, I challenge the idea that the decision itself is taken rationally.
A company, and business in general, is organised on rational principles. Rules are put into place to make processes run and systems are designed to analyse performance, financially, operationally, etc. Every quarter a big statement comes out with rationalisation of results: what made ABC happen, this causes that, we all know how it works.
But…
As long as robots have not taken over, it is people making decisions. And that, according to me, makes the claim that all decision making in business is rational, incorrect.
Put stronger: I think that all decisions in business, as in private life, are taken emotionally. Based on gut feel. Based on likeability. Based on persuasion. Because we are human. Even if we are wearing our business suit. We are human. And the human brain is not made to make rational decisions. The human mind is creative, inventive and intuitive. Afterwards we rationalise.
In The Rough Guide to The Brain (2007) Barry J Gibb writes
“…as the mind moves through a number of possible choices, it is the emotions that give the thumbs up or down, by fleetingly providing an insight into how the consequences of a specific choice would make us feel. However much it goes against our conception of ourselves as rational creatures, the role of the emotions in decision-making cannot be overstated.”
Back in ancient times we had art to take our mind off daily life. To inspire and to dream. And we had the skilled talker, the salesman, or saleswoman for that matter. In the 20th century marketing came into place and combined the skilled salesman with art into a creative communications arena. Beautiful pieces of applied art came to market, the economy grew strongly and innovation boomed as it had not before. It has brought us to where we are today. A highly competitive market looking for further growth and expansion. And this is how our system works. All good? Not all of course. The difference in wealth in the world is absurd and the earth itself is suffering from us humans.
Take a look in the mirror. Are all decisions taken rationally in your business life? Honestly now. My assumption is, they’re not. The decisions are rationalised after being taken.
To be able to assure shareholders and stakeholders that you, and everyone around you, are doing the right thing. But to take the decision you have had a dream, a vision or you have been inspired or seduced. Because that is what we do as humans. We sell stories and by that sell opinions, products and what not. We create beautiful pieces of applied art to seduce one to buy.
Imagine.
Imagine that one day we all admit that we are being seduced to do whatever we do. That we like to believe in a dream and dream big. If we do that and don’t rationalise. Could we create something beautiful?
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written by Remco van der Sluis
CEO at VBAT
