work Archives – Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself

‘Hey Boss, Can You Lend Me $4,000?’

Brett F. Whysel — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 11:00:23 +0000

How You’ll Know There’s a Problem Sometimes employees’ financial stresses get so intense, they become unavoidable management issues. They can reduce productivity and engagement and increase turnover, healthcare utilization, absenteeism and worse. Employers’ resources for addressing this kind of issue are typically very limited. It’s not unheard of for employees to directly ask their managers ... Read more

The post ‘Hey Boss, Can You Lend Me $4,000?’ appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

Career Advice from a Stoic

Brett F. Whysel — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 04:00:31 +0000

I recently visited with a 27 year old who asked me for help in figuring out what to do with his life. He is about to start at a prestigious graduate school and is feeling pressure to make some big career decisions quickly. Here’s the letter I wrote him, inspired by Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic. Before you ... Read more

The post Career Advice from a Stoic appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

The Promise and Peril of Group Decision-Making

Brett F. Whysel — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:15:39 +0000

Group Decision-Making is Really Hard Whom should we hire, promote or fire? Who should we put on this proposal writing team and what should we propose? I’ve made or participated in such group decisions hundreds of times and I’ve never felt confident in the process or the outcome. Did we come up with the right ... Read more

The post The Promise and Peril of Group Decision-Making appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

Your Gender: Your Destiny?

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 04:41:28 +0000

How do men and women approach decision-making differently? An evidence-based answer to this question is important: If we want to make better personal, policy and business decisions, the tools and strategies we use will depend on our strengths and weaknesses, which may be correlated with gender. If we want to help others, we need to ... Read more

The post Your Gender: Your Destiny? appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

Your Decision-Making Personality: Myers-Briggs & TAIS

Brett F. Whysel — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 10:49:38 +0000

My college-era friends enjoy reminding me of the time decades ago when I sent the waiter at a fancy restaurant away several times as I struggled to select an entrée from the menu. It was an important decision for me: the dinner out was a rare splurge to celebrate graduation with close friends who were about ... Read more

The post Your Decision-Making Personality: Myers-Briggs & TAIS appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

Choice Architecture: Don’t be Evil

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 03:27:47 +0000

HBR’s recent article, Leaders as Decision Architects, is a detailed investigation of how business managers can improve employee choices by adjusting the framework, context and process in which those decisions are made. The authors draw from two of my favorite books in behavioral economics, “Thinking Fast and Slow” and “Nudge”. There’s no doubt that in the right ... Read more

The post Choice Architecture: Don’t be Evil appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.

Career Decisions & the U-Shaped Happiness Curve

Brett F. Whysel — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 12:41:36 +0000

The Atlantic recently ran this terrific article by Jonathan Rauch about the nearly universal u-shaped path of happiness that most humans and some primates follow: Happiness starts relatively high in early adulthood, declining steadily until late 40s or early 50s, when it picks up again until the final years. It appears to be much more ... Read more

The post Career Decisions & the U-Shaped Happiness Curve appeared first on Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself.