Making decisions is hard. When you are making decisions that affect the lives of others, the process becomes even more challenging. Sometimes we can suffer from decision paralysis.
An ethical dilemma case was presented to a group of physicians. The problem was created by Donald Redelmeier, a physician, and Eldar Shafir, a psychologist. The physicians were asked to consider the medical records of a 67- year old patient who had chronic hip pain from arthritis. The patient had been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so the doctor was forced to consider a more drastic option: hip -replacement surgery. Recovery from this is long and painful. Then came an unexpected surprise. A final check with the patient’s pharmacy uncovered one medication that had not been tried. Now the doctor faced a dilemma: Should he prescribe the untried medication, even though the other medications had failed, or should he go ahead and refer the patient for surgery?
Another group of doctors were presented with almost exactly the same set of case facts, except this time, the patient’s pharmacy discovered two untried medications. But when the doctors were presented with two medications, only 28% chose to try either one. This doesn’t make sense. The doctors were acting as if having more medication options somehow made medication a worse option than surgery.
This is a perfect example of decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us up and make us retreat.
Here’s another example of this: In a gourmet food store, a display table showcased 6 different types of jams for sampling. At another time, they displayed 24 jams. Although the 24 jam display attracted more customers, shoppers who saw only 6 jams on display were 10 times more likely to purchase the jam.
In schools, administrators and teachers have to make dozens of decisions every day. One of the most important decisions we have to make is on curriculum. Research is clear that when we are crystal clear on what we have to teach, we are the most effective. Collaborative curriculum planning must be done to plan a road map that is easy to follow. If we offer no directions, we will wind up with decision paralysis—often resulting in behavior and practices that are well worn, comfortable, and sadly, ineffective.
Much of this material was adapted from the book Switch–How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
