DECISIONS = TRADEOFFS

Decisions require choices: You decide by selecting from a defined set of alternatives.

Criteria guide the choice: You evaluate alternatives against explicit criteria.

Criteria always conflict: A gain in one criterion comes at the cost of a loss in another.

Tradeoffs mitigate conflict: To make the right decision for you, explicitly articulate tradeoffs that express the relative importance of criteria (i.e. which criteria matter more and to what extent).

Tradeoffs are highly personal: The results obtained are hyper-personalized. They yield the right answers for the decision maker.

 

Conclusion: To make the right hyper-personalized decision, it is essential to explicitly articulate the tradeoffs.

 

Note: To gain insight, justify, or understand a decision, it is equally critical to reverse engineer a decision: from the observed result, derive the tradeoffs in order to become fully aware of the consequences and implications of each decision.