The Art Behind Decision-Making
As human beings, we are hit with decisions each day; big and small. As leaders, certain decisions we make may have more impact due to the weight they carry on others. It’s important to follow a smooth process when hit with a difficult decision, and here are some helpful steps.
In his most recent article, John Spence provides a decision-making map that helps those who find themselves in a rut with a decision:
Spence first addresses that the first aspects of a decision to think about are its probability and impact. Specifically, what is the likelihood that something could go wrong with this decision, and if it did, how bad/significant might the impact be? He categorizes these into three levels:
- Low probability/low impact: I don’t give the decision too much thought and would typically delegate it to someone else.
- Mid-level probability and a mid-level impact: I would involve a few people in the decision and spend a little time to make sure that I was making an appropriate and thoughtful decision—but I would try to make the decision quickly and move on to other more important issues.
- High-probability/high-impact decision: I want to take every step of the decision-making process carefully, pull in all the right people, look at my information carefully, and make a very thoughtful and well-reasoned decision.
When faced with a high-probability/high-impact decision, Spence offers a list of critical questions to ask yourself before finalizing. These include:
1. Am I the right person to be making this decision, or is there someone else who is in a better position to make this specific decision?
2. What is the real time frame to make this decision?
3. Do I have all the information I need to make this decision? If not, where can I get it?
4. Can I trust the quality of the information/data?
5. Who else will be impacted by this decision?
Spence also recommends creating a checklist before beginning this entire decision-making process. It’s important to make this list clear, specific, and binary so that your needs are met in the process. This is a crucial step as it sets standards and you do not come up short on the latter end.
As leaders, we need to be well-informed when making decisions for ourselves and the good of our organizations. I encourage you all to create a system that works well for you so you can make the best decision for all stakeholders involved.