Have you ever experienced a nagging feeling before you’re about to finally make a big decision? You’ve weighed all the data, you’ve considered every angle, but something is keeping you from moving forward. Rather than ignore that nagging feeling and forge ahead, Shelley Row says we need to get to the bottom of it.

Row, an author and expert on executive decision-making, addressed a group of loss prevention professionals gathered for a recent NRF Conference.  In researching and interviewing executives about their decision-making process, Row related what she heard to neuroscience and the mechanics of how we use different parts of our brain to make different kinds of decisions.

For most of us in this data-driven world, the biggest problem in the workplace is overthinking decisions, which wastes time and compounds stress. The key to relieving this pressure, Row said, is to find the balance between using data and intuition to make decisions.

Row explained that as we weigh all the data that goes into making a complex decision, the logic and language part of our brain is working hard, accessing our working memory, which is limited to a handful of things. But that nagging feeling? That’s a different part of the brain that’s shut down while we agonize over the pros and cons and facts and stats. Row described that nagging feeling as all the other experience and intelligence we’ve gained that we’re not able to access simultaneously.

This is not saying to throw out the data just because it says something you don’t like.  Intuition based on solid experience though is something you shouldn’t ignore.

The important thing is to be self-aware enough to know when this is happening so you can discover the insight behind a gut feeling. “You have to resolve the nagging feeling to solve overthinking,” Row said. Investigate the root of that nagging feeling — does it feel like there’s something you’re missing, or is it simply that you’re afraid of something? It could be a fear worth overcoming or an invaluable insight locked away in your brain.

The next time you’re circling a complex decision with a lot of data involved, resist the urge to stall by gathering one more data point, and instead probe deeper to understand what your gut feeling is all about.

Based on an article by Jennifer Overstreet, June 2016