©Inside Retail
Do you find yourself stuck in a decision-making loop? You need to make a decision, but which one? And the more choices the harder it seems to be. We lose the capacity to focus on action as we are stuck deciding which idea, which choice. This blog aims to provide you with a tool when faced with multiple courses of action . . . Roko’s Grid. Roko’s Grid is named after a Fijian friend who provided me this tool when i was struggling with filtering ideas. Friends would joke that i have an idea every kilometre, but only a good one every thousand. i needed a tool to focus my thinking and work on the concepts that would make the greatest impact. Enter Roko’s Grid.
But before we unpack Roko’s Grid, let’s unpack the Paradox of Choice. This graph pretty much sums things up:
©New York Times
Faced with many choices, it can be difficult to make a decision. Things are easier where there are only two or three options. The more choices presented, the more challenging decision making can be. It becomes a tyranny of choice.
Positive Psychology puts it like this:
You would think that having more options would increase the chances of finding something you really want and to be satisfied with your choice. But in fact, the opposite seems to be true. The paradox is that having more choices can send you into overwhelm and have a negative impact on your wellbeing.
Positive Psychology Training
Know this feeling?
©New York Times
©J2 Solutions
Barry Schwartz book Paradox of Choice addresses this issue and offers a way out of the paralysis that can occur through providing a series of steps as a decision-making process. Those steps are:
- Figure out your goal or goals.
- Evaluate the importance of each goal.
- Array the options.
- Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals.
- Pick the winning option.
- Modify goals.
Schwartz, Barry (2004). The Paradox Of Choice. New York, United States: Harper Perennial.
Essentially Roko’s Grid is a filtering tool. It provides an instrument you can use to implement Schwartz’ steps. Specifically designed to ascertain which idea you run with; the tool allows you to use math to clarify the best option. As has been a theme in the caddying blogs – let math speak.
Let’s say you are confronted with three ideas. Which one is best? As demonstrated in the table below, score each idea on a five-point scale for each of; the probability you can implement the idea, the impact on your organization (or to you personally) and the cost to implement.
| Probability you can pull it off | Impact on the organisation | Cost to implement the idea (high cost = low number) | Total | |
| Idea 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| Idea 2 | 4 (lowest cost) | 13 | ||
| Idea 3 | 2 | 5 (greatest impact) | 3 | 10 |
Idea #2 wins. It is the most likely to be achieved, has the second greatest impact on the organization and lowest cost. In contrast, idea #3 will have the greatest impact on the organization but is least likely to be achieved. Maybe with time, factors will change and this idea may increase in probability. Idea #1 is achievable but has a low impact on the organization and is the most expensive to implement. Can you see the way Roko’s Grid provides a tool to let math speak and clarify the decision process?
And having the grid on paper (or computer) helps you to objectively look at the options against each other.
So thanks to Roko the countless ideas that cross my brain can be filtered, the best ones identified and my thoughts can be focused on implementation, rather than scattered and finding myself in indecision loops.
Try implementing the grid with a decision or series of ideas you are faced with at the moment. The implementation of the tool works best with regular application.
. . . to better decisions that make a great impact on your desired outcomes.
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