Michael Krogerus - The Secrets of Great Decision Making: Information, Intuition and How to Keep Moving

How do you approach decisions in your life? Are you the cut and thrust type or do you agonize over every decision? We make decisions every day but do we have a good strategy for making those decisions? Even fast decision-makers can struggle with a weighty decision from time to time. 

Today’s guest, journalist Mikael Krogerus, struggled with decision making. Sometimes he made his best decisions with preparation but other times gut decisions led to better outcomes. So like any good journalist, he decided to do the research to find the answers. This search became the basis of his best-selling guide “The Decision Book”. In this book, he and co-author Roman Tschäppele walk the reader through proven strategies for decision making, sharing secrets like how to make decisions under pressure and why too much information is just as debilitating as not enough. 

Today’s Guest Mikael Krogerus

Mikael is a Finnish citizen who grew up in Sweden and Germany.

He is currently the editor of Das Magazin, the weekend magazine for leading Swiss newspapers.

He has over 20 years experience in journalism, writing for newspapers such as NZZ (Zurich) and Der Freitag (Berlin) and even started his own sports news portal. He has won seven journalism awards.

He has co-written five books with long-term friend Roman Tschäppele including the Decision Book and The Communication Book.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from Freie Universität Berlin and is an Enterprising Leadership graduate from Kasopilot.

Website: https://rtmk.ch/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=644436972

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikaelkrogerus

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mikael-krogerus-0406906 

“The problem with decision making is not only the fact that we can make a mistake but that we can spend too much time and energy to avoid making that mistake”.

“People agonize too much over things that don’t play a big part in their lives”.

You’ll learn

• How humans differ from animals in terms of decision making i.e. we think long-term and worry about the past and future decisions.
• What decision fatigue is and how to avoid it.
• The importance of setting limits on your information gathering.
• The TMI paradox is: why having too much information is similar to having not enough.
• Why we are often happier when we limit our options and set a deadline for decisions.
• The importance of recognising the unknowns. Taking the time to think about things you might not have considered, preferably before you need to make a big decision.
• Why the pressure of making a “perfect decision” can be paralyzing - and how to avoid it.
• The role of gut decisions in helping us make complex decisions - and the need to be sceptical: as gut decisions can be based on experience and prejudice. 
• How to make decisions better under time pressure - you often have more time than you think so step back, breathe, and focus on the goal of your decision.
• Why not making a decision IS a decision.
• Expectation vs satisfaction: the more we expect from a decision’s outcome, the harder it is to be satisfied with the outcome. 
• Maximizers vs. Satisficers: How maximisers make the best decisions - but satisficers are faster and happier with the decisions that they make. 
• The three phases of good decision making: the preparation phase (do I have enough information), the timing phase (is this the right time for a decision) and the reflection phase (how do I feel about the decision in hindsight). 
• Why we waste a lot of our decision making time - and momentum - looking for the Loch Ness monster. That being the illusive ‘perfect’ choice or option.
• The truth that we become the decisions we make. When faced with two good but hard choices, choose the one that speaks to who you are or who you want to be.

References and links mentioned

• Danish-Icelandic artist Olaf Eliasson’s 2020 exhibition was called: “Sometimes the river is the bridge”
• The supermarket- jam experiment can be found in the paper: 
• Iyengar, Sheena S. and Lepper, Mark R.,(2000), ”When Choice is Demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, Vol. 79, No.6, p995 - 1006.
• Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh: first European to discover black swans.
• Daniel Kahneman quote: “intuition is thinking that you know without knowing why you do”.
• Simon Yates cut the rope on climbing partner Joe Simpson who wrote the book, “Touching the void”.
• Alan Watts quote, “muddy water is cleared by leaving it alone” comes from his book “The Way of Zen”.
• Previous podcast with Brandon Webb: “Get off the X”
• Loch Ness monster
• Philosopher Ruth Chang’s Ted Talk “How to make hard choices”
• My new ebook The Influencer Code

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