Bryan Hattingh

Bryan Hattingh

By the time we reach our middle years, we will look back on a life that is either rich with fulfilled potential or one of lost opportunity and compromise.

Good decision-making is imperative for success. Our lives are the summary of the decisions we make and the choices we take. From early in our lives we are faced with choices. As we add these up, so our lives are formed.

But because of wrong choices, we live with regret, remorse, compromise, bitterness and sadness.

It need not be this way. If children were taught to think through decision-making and goal-setting, if they were taught how to set their sights in life, they would be better equipped to make the right decisions set against the context of a grand life plan.

Regrettably, this seldom happens and we see the consequences all around.

How often do we in business see decisions that have been made on the basis of speculation and assumption rather than knowledge and insight, or have been driven by short-term gain or greed?

This is because people who were not taught problem-solving and long-term decision-making at school are now faced with decisions involving millions of rands, hundreds or thousands of employees, and their own lives.

For most people decision-making is a linear process with little consideration for alternatives. This must change, and so must people's ability to think out of the box and to take responsibility for their actions.

lBrian Hattingh is chief executive of Cycan