The Pain of Closing a Door

In an article today John Tierney details new research that explains why people cling to options that we don't really need. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/science/26tier.html?th&emc=th

"You don’t even know how a camera’s burst-mode flash works, but you persuade yourself to pay for the extra feature just in case. You no longer have anything in common with someone who keeps calling you, but you hate to just zap the relationship. Your child is exhausted from after-school soccer, ballet and Chinese lessons, but you won’t let her drop the piano lessons. They could come in handy! And who knows? Maybe they will. "

In business we often only think about opening doors. But forgetting to close doors can leave us scrambling, wasting money and distracted from our larger goals, whatever those may be.

Ask yourself where does your business/organization cling to options it doesn't really need? Are you taking on clients outside of your niche? Are you working on projects outside of the scope of work you've set out to do? Maybe you said, "we'll just do a little of this on the side." Perhaps you just have clients or customers that aren't worth the hassle? When was that last time you looked at your budget and started from scratch? Where is your business keeping doors open to "avoid the immediate pain of watching a door close."

Dr. Ariely, the MIT professor of behavioral economics from Tierney's article suggest creating social checks to avoid overbooking. 'He points to marriage as an example: “In marriage, we create a situation where we promise ourselves not to keep options open. We close doors and announce to others we’ve closed doors.”'

What kind of checks can you create in your organization to avoid the phenomenon of overbooking?