How many times have you had to decide whether to do something and then told yourself that you’re going to weigh the pros and cons? Maybe you get out a piece of paper and start brainstorming. Maybe you just think through them in your head, or talk about them with a friend or family member.
Eventually you have a list of pros and cons. But what do you do with them?
If you’re like most people, you count them. How many arguments are in favor of the idea? How many ideas are against it?
But we don’t talk about counting pros and cons. We talk about weighing them to help us make a decision.
When you purposely consider the relative weight, or strength, of each pro and con, then you’ve moved from a simple list to a more nuanced decision-making tool that’s often called a “Force Field Analysis.”
Simply rate each pro and con on a scale of 1 to 5 to indicate how strong of an argument it is. This rating is its weight, or the strength of its force on the decision, either in favor of it or against it.
Then, instead of simply counting arguments on each side, add up those forces.
The Force Field Analysis is still an extremely simple tool. But by considering the total amount of force instead of just counting arguments, you can make better decisions.
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