# Decision Quality vs. Number of Options In *Decisive*, the following study is discussed: Over one particular 18 month period, archives revealed that the executive board had debated and resolved 83 major decisions. Decisions never involved more than three alternatives, and 95% were either a "whether or not" decision (40%) or a two alternative choice (55%). The university researchers discovered the archive many years after the decisions had been made, so it was possible, with the help of the executive board, to assess the quality of the decisions in light of their subsequent success or failure. In an intense rating procedure that involved hours of discussion and debate, the board categorized each of its 83 decisions as having proved to be very good, satisfactory, or poor. When the researchers analyzed the data, the evidence was striking: >When the executive board considered more than one alternative, they made six times as many “very good” decisions. (Specifically, 40% of the multi-option decisions were rated “very good,” compared with only 6% of the “whether or not” decisions.) That is not a small effect. The most important thing to take away from this study is not that 3 options means you have magically found a better solution, hence the better result. Rather, it is to say that by *thinking* of a third option, we organically reframe the problem, increase our conversation and deliberation, and expand our view of solutions. #### References * Heath, Chip and Dan. Decisive: How to make better choices in life and work. --- tags: #decision-making #scientific-study links: [Owning-the-Frame](Owning-the-Frame.md) [Decision](Decision.md) created: 2020-12-01 modified: 2020-12-01