Over the years I’ve seen many occasions where companies hired or promoted what I viewed as clearly inferior candidates. And, these were very deliberate and considered selections.

In each instance I happened to be unusually knowledgeable of the job requirements, final candidates and hiring managers. Many times even knowledgeable outsiders raised eyebrows at these obviously weak choices.

The only uniform theme making sense of the selections was the fact that those people hired were well-known to the hiring managers; in truth, warts and all.

We see this over and again. Obviously bad choices are regularly made primarily through familiarity; despite blatant alarms sounding because of this same familiarity.

Humans tend to favor the familiar when making decisions. It’s a natural tendency. But we wouldn’t make poor choices knowingly, would we?

Actually, I believe we do. We’ve all tolerated and opted for the devil we know on occasion. Sometimes we live with what we can tolerate, rather than carefully decide what we need. Certainly this is neither a good general recipe for life, or business.

It’s commonly accepted that when someone doesn’t act it’s for one of three reasons. But if that lack of action (or, defaulted choice) will become detrimental in the long-term then we need to be very careful to not just accept the familiar.

Reasons not to act or fail to make better choices are that we:

Don’t Know how

Don’t Want to

Are Lazy

These barriers are equally appropriate whether we are derelict in adequately searching out better job candidates, or are hung-up making a basic decision for our personal lives.

But just how entrenched are we in more readily accepting the familiar, rather than exploring more deeply?

Late last week I found myself needing repairs on a household heating/cooling system. I rooted around looking for the name of a vendor I used previously. Sadly, I didn’t find a direct paper trail to identify them.

However, when digging through Angie’s List (and others) I finally recognized this previous supplier’s contact information. I was literally overjoyed; familiarity in a sea of unknowns. Now I had in-hand both this rediscovery together with a handful of other viable and researched options.

Then there came a strong a strong realization. The vendor I was so pleased to track down had previously presented me with several unacceptable problems. I should be avoiding this company, not feeling excited to reconnect. In all honestly I had known of my concerns even when I originally searched for them.

Such is the power of familiarity. Familiar does not mean great, or even tolerable. Often familiar is nothing more.

Fortunately I made my adjustment and went in another direction. I know how to go about finding alternatives, am not naturally lazy and do want to make good decisions. So, I avoided all the (previously noted) reasons that often block our actions.

Despite my lucky escape and (hopefully) new awareness, I have to wonder how often each of us just settles for an inferior outcome, or unwittingly accepts a poor choice. And, all this is because of familiarity.

Such liabilities can be many, even within a single day.

Are you allowing familiarity to make your decisions? Do you even know when this is happening?

I recommend you take a look at all the important aspects of and decisions occurring in your life and business. Be certain you make good choices and don’t just go with the familiar.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh