Decision making: distinguishing what is right from what is acceptable.

One of the fundamental starting points in decision making is distinguishing what is right from what is acceptable.

And you should always start with defining what is right first of all, because compromise is usually necessary in the end.

So in order to understand what “right” looks like, you need to set boundary conditions. Without these, you can never know if the compromise you are going to agree to is the right compromise or the wrong compromise.

What are boundary conditions? An understanding of the constraints necessary to reach a conclusion. In decision-making or in the context of negotiations, they are “what you need to achieve, to satisfy your outcome”.

Let me give you a few examples, first of all with these two expressions:

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and “half a loaf is better than none”.

And secondly, with the story of the judgement of Salomon, where Salomon must decide which of the two mothers should get the baby and proposes to split the baby between the two.

Or this analogy from Chris Voss in his book Never split the Difference:
“I think I should wear black shoes with a suit, and you think I should wear brown shoes. We compromise, and I wear…