Root Causes of Bad Decisions

It’s self-evident that misguided decision-making processes can lead to bad decisions.  Here are some root causes of bad decisions:

• lack of data
• wrong or incomplete assumption set
• incorrect framing of an issue (“Are we asking the right question?”)
• not admitting that any problems exist
• interference by emotions
• asking the wrong question
• cognitive biases
• groupthink
• politics of an organization
• short-term thinking
• waiting for a crisis to happen before acting
• failure to rigorously debate the proposed solutions
• failure to gain input from those who will be implementing the decision, leading to lack of ownership during implementation

From your perspective, what’s missing from the list?

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