Mystic Mantra: Why do our decisions fail?

What is so special about the decision-making process that it is considered to be a prime quality in a good manager? A quick Google reveals 201,000,000 results on decision-making in management in 0.71 seconds. Clearly it is an important subject, and not only in business but also in our personal lives. So what exactly is it and why is it valued so much? Primarily the decision-maker is also a risk-taker, because he is making a choice from a number of alternatives. The future depends upon decisions made in the present, whether of the company, or of life, so it better be the right one. Books describe how the classic decision-making process involves defining the problem, identifying alternatives, using a particular technique to select the best alternative, and monitoring results. Now if you look at this process you will find it to be a purely mental exercise.

The executive thinks about a situation and finds a solution according to his past experience. He may succeed or fail. Some Osho insights can be helpful: First and foremost, don’t call a problem a problem, call it a situation. Problem is a loaded word. Once you call something a problem you start thinking negatively, your mind closes towards it and a closed mind is uncreative. Second, try to understand the mind. Human mind is vast, and divided into two parts. One-tenth of it is conscious and nine-tenth is unconscious, immersed in deep darkness. It is like an iceberg: one-tenth is visible, nine-tenth is hidden underneath — and those nine-tenths are nine times the more powerful. So you may decide something, but you will not be able to follow it through; that nine-tenths will destroy it in a moment.

The one-tenth decides about the nine-tenths of life, and this goes on throughout our lives. One part decides; the other part cancels. And the part that cancels is the powerful nine-tenths. How often have we decided never to be angry again, yet all our decisions have so far proved impotent because that powerful unconscious is always there, and it won’t allow the one-tenth to take possession, to succeed. We must take a different route to find a solution, and make meditation an essential part of the decision-making process, of management. Once we take the light of meditation into our unconscious mind, and the light grows, so the darkness will disappear, leading to greater clarity and inner strength. This light will grow stronger, slowly diving deeper into our very being. As more and more of our unconscious is reclaimed by consciousness, our decisions will start becoming great fulfilments. We will have more courage in taking a decision, owing to the wise support of our luminous consciousness. Decision-making will be a play: intuitively we will know which the right way is, and will have taken the jump into the unknown.