Make effective decisions, avoid the ‘status-quo’ trap: tales from Jesse’s house

A friend of mine once sent me a 1998 Havard Business Review (HBR) article titled – the hidden traps of decision making. I found this an interesting read and years later, linking this article with certain occurrences in the bible opened my eyes to certain historical truths which I wish to share with you today. So, based on this article, there are nine traps or biases in decision-making, and one must consider them in order to make effective decisions.

Decision-making is basically the process of making decisions (this doesn’t sound very technical right…lol?) and it is usually based on values, preferences, beliefs and past occurrences of the decision maker. Of all 9 hidden traps of decision-making, I will discuss one today – the status quo trap. Here, when considering a decision, the mind tends to consider the previous situation, person or circumstance as a yardstick for making another decision.  In other words, this previous decision or experience that has been ingrained in our minds tends to affect our next decision-making exercise. A perfect example occurred in Jesse’s house.

Sometime between 1200 and 1050 BCE (1 Sam. 16), King Saul, the first king of Israel had blatantly disobeyed God’s instructions and did not repent despite opportunities offered him to do so. God was angry and had instructed the nation’s prophet Samuel to anoint him another king. So, the hunt began, and Samuel was instructed to go to Jesse’s house who was of the tribe of Judah. Now, Saul was Israel’s first king, he was tall and handsome (I Sam. 9:2 NLT), in fact it was recorded that he was taller than everyone else in Israel (such a hunk!).

When Samuel got to Jesse’s house, Jesse assembled all seven of his sons and made them pass before Samuel starting from the firstborn – Eliab. Eliab was tall and handsome (1 Sam. 16: 7 ERV), does this ring a bell? This must have been an aha! moment for the prophet because the bible records that he thought in his heart “surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him”. Please turn to your neighbor and say “lie”. Prophet Sir, with all due respect, you fell for the status quo trap. Please understand that having Saul as first and only king of Israel had probably primed Samuel’s mind to think that kingly attributes were just as Saul displayed them including the physical make up. This was how most revered Samuel would have emptied his horn of precious oil on Eliab’s head and that would have been IT! The emergence of a new king! But thank God for God who stepped in at the nick of time and saved the day and an entire nation from the hidden trap of ‘maintaining status quo’.

 

As an individual, in your family, workplace, as a leader, a policy maker? What biases do you hold dear? These may be covert and so require an intentional search to uncover. Why don’t you want to rock the boat? Is it because no one has ever done it? Why won’t you employ the deep wisdom of God that teaches ancient truths and of course to your faith, add knowledge by learning the art of combining discernment and scientific reasoning, contemplating various courses of action and arriving at a decision. Maybe we will discuss the art of decision-making another day.

See you soon.

The end…

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