Advancing the Art and Science of Decision-Making: A Guide (2026)
Chapter: What Derails Good Decisions?
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Helpful Shortcut or Harmful Bias?
Suggested Citation:
"What Derails Good Decisions?." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2026. Advancing the Art and Science of Decision-Making: A Guide. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/29265.
What Derails Good Decisions?
Anything that prevents or distorts factual competence, values competence, adaptability, or practicality has the potential to derail a good decision.
Challenges to factual competence:
- Misidentification of the problem or decision;
- Lack of data or analysis;
- Bad data or analysis;
- Input not sought from experts and key stakeholders;
- Information presented poorly or in a way that is deliberately misleading;
- Substitution of opinions for facts;
- Cognitive distortions and biases;
- Cognitive limitations and information overload;
- Emotions, fatigue, attitudes, and motives;
- Ignoring risk;
- Innate uncertainty of future events and consequences; and
- Lack of adaptivity: Not updating facts and information when circumstances change.
Challenges to values competence:
- Unexamined personal values,
- Disconnection from the organizationʼs values,
- Failure to obtain information on othersʼ values,
- Inappropriate prioritization of stakeholdersʼ values,
- Undue influence by entities with misaligned values, and
- Lack of adaptivity: Not updating relevant values when circumstances change.
Challenges to practicality:
- Not acting soon enough to affect outcomes, such as when in a state of “analysis paralysis”;
- Acting too quickly and reaching a decision prematurely when there is no urgency;
- Acting at a time when emotions are high;
- Not including important stakeholders along the way;
- Not following an accepted and trusted process;
- Not communicating enough or effectively throughout the decision process;
- Not sufficiently communicating why a decision was made;
- Not understanding or meeting stakeholdersʼ expectations;
- Not following through on decision implementation; and
- Lack of adaptivity: Not updating the understanding of the situation when circumstances change.
The advice in the following sections addresses these common challenges to reaching good decisions.
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