Whether reflecting on our professional lives or personal lives, sentences starting with “I regret” are far too common. Regret is an interesting emotion – typically it’s an expression of sadness or disappointment about something that did or did not happen in past. Just reading the word probably brought a memory or two to you mind just now. And I am fairly sure it wasn’t a good memory.
When I talk to folks about their regrets, I consistently hear a common theme: the regrets are centered around outcomes. Ill give a broad business example from a story most of you know. The head of Coke from the mid-80’s has spent the rest of his career regretting his decision to change from Classic Coke to New Coke which they reversed within months (77 days to be exact). The whole scenario has been hashed, rehashed, dissected, studied, and quoted in far more detail and with far more skill than I can muster.
That being said, there are some clear takeaways from the story that are relevant to this discussion. First, as an avid Coke drinker, Classic Coke is a far superior product. To quote Ron Burgundy, “It’s Science!”
Second, and a little more relevant, it is amazing that 30+ years later that this story is still relevant in so many ways. The level of disappointment the organization felt for this decision actually shapes how they make and message decisions today. In the past few years, the organization has seen (and tried to avoid) ghosts of decisions passed when they changed the formula for Coke Zero and when they chose to trim their product portfolio. In both cases, they made the changes with far less pomp and circumstance than happened around New Coke. In both cases, they shared their rationale for the decisions beyond “you are going to like it even more”.
Third and most relevant for our discussion today: the regret about the decision is obvious from nearly everyone involved and still lingers today beyond those who were directly related. The regret his largely related to the outcome – people hated the change from Classic to New. The regret manifests in how the organization approaches decision making and messaging today.
I would argue that the regret is misplaced. Why? Because with all the information that was available at the time of the decision, it was the right decision! The market tests were fantastic – the message, the taste tests, everything. The product was objectively better. But when the results are this abysmal, we tend to regret the decision.
As both a person and a leader, I rarely have regrets. It isn’t because I do everything right. It’s not that I don’t take time to reflect. And I am clearly not special. What I do have is a different way at looking backwards. I don’t grade my decisions based on the outcomes. The question I ask:
“Based on all the information I had at the time I made the decision, would I make a different decision if I could?”
The answer to that question is nearly always a resounding “No!” As a result, I don’t regret my decisions. Simple as that.
But……
That doesn’t mean all my decisions were any better than the New Coke decision. Often they were as bad. Or worse! I have made more mistakes than I can count, often with impacts in my life similar to New Coke for Coca-Cola. So once I absolve myself of regret, I go about the business of using my hindsight as a learning tool and considering more relevant topics such as:
Did I even need to make a decision?
Was I deciding on the right problem/question?
Did I make the decision at the right time?
What other information should I have tried to get prior to making a decision?
What questions didn’t I ask?
What alternatives did I consider or not consider?
The answer to those questions and many others often can help me understand the failed outcome that came from a decision. It also gives insight in how to avoid making similar errors in the decision process. While relitigating a failure isn’t fun, it’s actually a really educational process that helps inform future actions/decisions.
And while I may bemoan an outcome…I won’t regret the decision because I can say with a clear mind that I would make that same (bad) decision every time with the information I had at the moment. Next time however, I will make sure I have better information.
Now you can put this into practice – do you regret spending the last 5 minutes reading this? You clearly didn’t know what you were getting into when you started so it may have seemed like a good idea!
View from the Middle 