The Regret Grid

DAY 25/30/25/JUNE/2020 

What should I wear today? What would you like for breakfast? How should I plan my day today? Should I go for the concert in the evening? Should I go for a new car now? Where should we go for vacation this summer?


Questions, they rise with us and rest with us. Some questions, don’t even let us have that peaceful sleep.

And one thing that is common with all these questions is that they all need answers. In order to give those answers, we need to make some decisions, day in day out. Oftentimes I wonder, it would really help to have some tools of decision making which can be easily used to resolve our regular dilemmas. 


I have a friend who is a trainer in soft skills and behavioral skills. I happened to meet him for some training work we were planning to do for our organization. After we finished our discussions, I casually tossed up my question on tools for decision making. He told me there are a variety of tools available to help at different stages of decision making. He said that there is one tool, which was his favorite. It was called the ‘Regret Grid’ tool. The name sounded quite negative. I asked him about the name and he said that I would understand further.


So the ‘Regret Grid’ is a tool made of four boxes and measured on four parameters.


  1. What is that I would regret, if I opt for some option?

  2. What is something that I would regret, if I don’t opt for some option?

  3. What is that I would not regret, if I opt for some option?

  4. What is that I would not regret, if I opt for some option?


It might sound like a mambo-jumbo of words right now. So let me show it to you diagrammatically.


THE REGRET GRID: Evaluating consequence of each option


DO IT

DON’T DO IT

BENEFIT



REGRET




Regret Grid is the analysis of what the decision will mean:

  • What will I regret if I do this – or not do this?

  • How much will I regret this?

  • When might it happen?

  • How might it happen?


How to Use the Tool:

This is a simple tool to use. You need to take one option at a time and apply the grid to it by answering the relevant questions in the grid as shown below.


For example, if you would like to evaluate the consequence of giving up smoking. Here is how the grid would look like. 



GIVE UP 

SMOKING

DON’T GIVE UP 

SMOKING


BENEFIT

  • IMPROVED CASH FLOW

  • IMPROVED SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE

  • CLEANER TASTE BUDS

  • NO SMELLY CLOTHES

  • IMPROVED HEALTH

  • SOCIAL PROP

  • PHYSIOLOGICAL PROP

  • KEEP WEIGHT DOWN



    • REGRET

    • NO SOCIAL PROP

    • NO NICOTINE PLEASURE

    • NO PHYSIOLOGICAL PROP

    • PAIN AND ANGUISH


    • SEVERE ILLNESS

    • REDUCED SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE

    • MARRED TASTE BUDS

    • SMELLY CLOTHES



    Key points

    This tool helps analyze if you can handle the loss that might accrue from taking the course of action. It's effective while deciding to a) invest in stocks b) lend money to someone c) insure someone or something.


    That was certainly quite educational. I loved the tool for its simplicity yet a great enabler for arriving at effective decisions.  Without any further ado, I decided to use this tool wherever relevant.

     


    © - Rahul Shinde 25/JUN/2020 



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