In support of his thesis, Rav Levine quotes a verse from Kohelet (7:8): “Better is the end of a thing from its beginning.” This verse cautions us that the best decision making approach is to see the possible “ends” of a process at its beginning. An evil person acts without thinking about the future. A righteous person thinks continuously from beginning to end.
We all want to be good decision makers. By taking our time when possible and evaluating our options and their various consequences we increase the chances of our decisions resulting in good outcomes. Even when there is time pressure we can still better our chances of making good decisions by asking ourselves whether we have to make a decision immediately and by considering at least two alternative outcomes. If we can only envision one outcome, then our warning lights should start blinking. And when it comes to strategic decision making the words of Peter F. Drucker should guide us. “Long range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”
