INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 64
Decision-making
STORY JESSICA MUDDITT
DECISIVE
ACTION
STRATEGIC CAREER MOVES
Being bold and decisive at work can be key to
career satisfaction and success. Going with the
flow can lead to dissatisfaction and cause projects
to stray off course, say workplace experts.
64
DEC 2022
JAN 2023
INTHEBLACK CAREER, ELEVATED SPECIAL EDITION
Decide, don’t slide is advice typically
given to people stuck in stagnating
romantic relationships, but it is equally
relevant to careers. It is all too easy
to move from one project to the next
without stepping back to evaluate the
bigger picture and addressing feelings of
unhappiness. Those who constantly slide
at work or at home run the risk of waking
up one day and realising that life has
been unfulfilling.
In Logan Ury’s bestselling book How
to Not Die Alone, the dating coach and
behavioural scientist highlights research
that shows that couples who make a
conscious decision to commit or break up
are happier than those who coast.
Ury, director of relationship science at
dating app Hinge, previously led Google’s
behavioural science team. She contends
that data-driven relationship science also
applies to professional relationships and
achieving success at work.
If that is the case, how can we apply
relationship science ideas at work?
FIND MEANINGFUL BENCHMARKS
In Ury’s view, the “secretary problem”
behavioural science riddle proves true. If
a company is hiring a secretary and there
are 100 applicants, they should interview
37 per cent of them and identify who is
the best. That person is the “meaningful
benchmark”, and the next interviewee who
seems even better should be hired.
Ury says it works the same way with
romance: those who date between the ages
of 18 and 40 have dated 37 per cent of the
people they will ever date by the age of
26. Their best ex-partner at the age of 26
is their meaningful benchmark. The next
person they date who is an improvement
on the meaningful benchmark is who they
should choose as their life partner.
However, most of us would balk at the
idea of using this life-changing strategy,
even if it seems to be the right one.
Most of us are inclined to stick with
the status quo, says Kathryn MacMillan,
managing director of CIRCLE
Recruitment and HR.
