How a Decision Menu Can Help You Meet Goals
When we get assigned tasks, sometimes we get them wrong. A decision menu will give you more information upfront, so you can get the job right on the first try.
It’s so hard to get people to make decisions!
Let’s say you’re Cthulhu, the world destroying tentacle-mouthed, bat-winged, god-like monster that haunts my every nightmare. Your high priestess has been collecting marketing data from the Cthulhu worshipping population of the world. She comes to you with a new product pitch—the people want a Book of the Dead! Naturally, though, you are mighty Cthulhu and you want some guidance on how to create a Book of the Dead. What the heck is a Book of the Dead anyway?
So you ask: High priestess, what shall I put in this book? Whatever pleases you, the priestess replies. And leaves. Whatever pleases you? Really? You’re not the one asking for a Book of the Dead! You have no idea what your worshippers want. Maybe they want everything. It takes a really long time to write everything, and this could risk cutting into your manicure time. Those nail are looking awfully grungy.
As Cthulhu, you have thousands of years to live, but your worshippers don’t.
But you put in the effort. You give your priestess the completed Book of the Dead, complete with a faux leather cover that looks like real demon skin … And she hands it back with a tolerant smile. “I think the worshippers want something with more character development.” Really? Really? This is what it’s like to be a legendary bat-winged God? Running the cash register at Denny’s is looking more appealing all the time.
When people ask you for things, they usually want their assignment completed in a really specific way. But they’re too lazy to think it through in advance. They need guidance. But simply asking a Yes/No questions like “Do you want more character development?” won’t work. If they say no, you’re where you started and they still don’t know what they want. If they say yes, they probably haven’t thought through the alternatives. But you can bet they will, the moment after you’ve put in the work and given them the result.
You can get them thinking and deciding up front by giving them a menu of choices. A menu of choices forces them to weight the choices against each other. It activates their brains.
Give people a menu of choices for all the decisions that surround the deliverable.
Give Them a Menu of Due Dates
People want the perfect outcome as fast as possible. Of course, being Cthulhu, you’ll deliver when you’re good and ready (er, bad and ready?). But it would be helpful to know when worshippers want this Book of the Dead.
Only offer options you can deliver. Offer a short timeline with lesser quality. Offer a medium timeline with medium quality. And add a third option with the optimal time for the best product.
As Cthulhu, you have thousands of years to live, but your worshippers don’t. Ask your priestess whether this Book of the Dead needs to be done next week, next year, or next millennia. Now that she has to think about it, she realizes that there are innocent kids who will need to find it in the mysterious and slimy basement of a woodland cabin. So the high priestess chooses the “next year” option for a medium-quality, but still effective Book of the Dead.
The time frame is chosen. You also get her thinking more deeply by giving her menus of deliverables.
Deliverables
As Cthulhu, your mind is boundless. You could put all of your timeless deadly spells into your masterpiece Book of the Dead. But as a published author (visit steverrobbins thebook to purchase Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More), let me say from experience, your editor will not let you put all your ideas into one book. Include all your deadly spells and your high priestess will take one look, smile a strained, tolerant smile, and say, “The last few chapters are awesome! Your material is really amazing! I just need you to cut them out entirely, and write a new concluding chapter.”
So before you start, offer options around the content of your deliverable. Come up with many possible options and ask your assignor to pick what they need. Give your high priestess 30 chapter ideas, and she can pick her favorite 10-15. She feels in control, and you won’t have to write a whole chapter on blood stone rituals that she’ll later veto.
A menu of choices forces them to weight the choices against each other. It activates their brains.
Also offer your assignor a menu of options around the style. Should the book be spiral bound or hardcover? Should it be bound in cured human skin and written in the blood of tortured souls, or is waterproof gel ink and pleather sufficient? You can even point out to her that pleather can be purchased by the yard at any reputable fabric store, making it both economical and convenient.
Even gods have to make tradeoffs. Offer up a menu of priorities and tradeoffs in advance so you don’t make the wrong tradeoffs and incur the wrong person’s wrath.
Priorities
Arguably, a Book of the Dead is all important. But it might be more important to include certain things. You may have a chapter on how to safely traverse the ninth circle of Heck. You may have a chapter on the construction of ninth dimensional torture chambers. And of course there’s the chapter for beginners, on how to choose the perfect demonic plushie for use on your home altar.
Have a menu of options around priorities for your assignor. Out of the deliverables they picked, which are the most time sensitive? Which are most important in terms of quality? Which are less important or urgent? You can use a metric I describe in this previous Get-it-Done Guy post to help determine the prioritization of your work’s elements.
Your high priestess says the altar plushie chapter is lower priority. You nod in agreement. Secretly, you and I both know that it’s the most important chapter there is. Even gods need their plushie wushie. But there’s no need to tell her that.
And last but not least, offer a menu of delivery options.
Delivery Method
Provide a menu of options around how to deliver the product. Should it be shipped Express Mail? Drop shipped? Picked up in person?
A Book of the Dead can be delivered many ways. The proper dramatic treatment would be to deliver it from a hideously glowing rift in space-time. But there are other options. Being brought forth by a skeletal hand from a bubbling lake of sulfurous tar makes an impression, but makes for a whopping laundry bill. You can also (and let’s be real—you hope she picks this one) just have it delivered by Amazon drone from a warehouse in Orlando.
Rather than just asking quick yes/no questions, giving someone a range of choices helps them think through what they really do and don’t want. You can give them menus of scheduling, deliverables, priorities, and delivery method. They’ll feel in control because they make the final choice, but of course, you’re the one who controlled what choices were available.
Come to think of it, this is how elections work. Political parties, beholden only to their contributors, choose the slate, and all we do is vote from that slate. Fortunately, in 2016, none of the candidates are Cthulhu. We think.
This is Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com.
Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
