Comments on: Elephantine Decision Making

By: Vikash Pareek

Vikash Pareek — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:53:54 +0000

This is truly interesting story and reflects the bitter truth that is still followed like a ritual. The best example is the indian political scenario where elephantine decision making is a regular practice. The new concepts and culture must be adopted for a better grwoth.

By: ATLUR KUMAR

ATLUR KUMAR — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:46:45 +0000

This article is realy interesting and it is true fact till date, most of the seniors are in a same loop of keeping there old concepts and running the show with out realising the changes and new enviorment of working.

By: On Decision Making and ‘Elephantine’ way of doing it « Insights

On Decision Making and ‘Elephantine’ way of doing it « Insights — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:47:46 +0000

[...] this context, it was interesting to read a management story (though it is an old one) on Elephantine Decision Making – I read it earlier and read it again today at Management Stories Blog. Here it goes – A [...]

By: Tanmay Vora

Tanmay Vora — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:36:53 +0000

Great to read a story after a long time – I look forward to read more of such inspiring/engaging stories here.

There are numerous examples of people who engage in elephantine decision making. Elephantine decision making generally takes place when:

- One strongly holds on to your past experiences (e.g. I did this at XYZ place 10 years ago and it worked)
- One does not keep his/her eyes/ears open enough for new ideas to come in. Business climate changes, market situations change and if you are not adaptive/open to these, you are bound to take decisions based on your limited knowledge. Ignorance, in this case, is not neccessarily blissful in this case.
- One is not connected – to right resources and right people. Reading contemporary material, connecting/networking to people is very very essential to break barriers of old thoughts and unlearn/re-relearn.

There are cases where even after being aware – people still do such decision making because taking any decision involves risk of getting out of your mental comfort zone – not something all are comfortable with.

Thanks again for such an insightful post.