How to Decide What to Do

“What am I going to do?” is a common question frustrated coaching clients ask.


My go-to strategy is:

  1. Devise a plan you think has a chance of succeeding.
  2. Create safe-to-fail small experiments to test your approach.
  3. Learn from the results of your experiments.
  4. Adapt your plan based on your learning.
    In short, you’ll manage your way through it. This process has been how humans have adapted to and overcome change since their beginnings.

You can feel stuck and indecisive because we tend to value not losing something more than gaining something. Some clients find working through the various possible scenarios helpful when they are at a crossroads.

Here are six common outcomes from any decision to take action:

  1. Things get better in expected ways. The situation improves along anticipated lines, following predicted patterns or meeting planned objectives. This could mean steady, incremental progress or achieving specifically targeted goals.
  2. Things get better in unexpected ways. Positive outcomes emerge through unforeseen paths or produce additional benefits beyond what is initially envisioned. This could include fortunate side effects or serendipitous developments.
  3. Nothing happens, and no change. The status quo remains unchanged, either because no action was taken or because any actions have had no meaningful impact on the current state.
  4. Things get worse in expected ways. The situation deteriorates in ways that could have been anticipated, following known risks or vulnerabilities. This might involve predicted challenges materializing or known weaknesses being exposed.
  5. Things get worse in unexpected ways. Adverse outcomes arise from unforeseen circumstances or produce additional problems beyond what was initially considered. This could include unpredicted complications or cascading failures.
  6. Mixed Better/Worse Outcomes. The outcome includes positive and negative elements, which could affect different stakeholders in varying ways or produce contradictory effects that resist simple categorization.

The key is estimating the likelihood of each potential outcome, the tolerance for that outcome, and the ability to respond secondarily if an outcome occurs.

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