Effective Decision Making
Purpose: To help you reach the best business decision in a given situation.
Directions: You can use this template in various ways, for example as a checklist to remind yourself of the key points, as a tool for teaching others, or as the starting point for a visual representation of a specific situation. Modify it according to your needs.
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Related OpenMind templates:
* Change Management
* Critical Thinking
* Presenting Effectively
* Problem Solving
* Risk Management
1 Understand the background
Identify options: See section: 2 Identify options
Understand why the decision needs to be made (does it need to be made at all?). When does it need to be made? Who will it affect -- customers, staff, others?
1.1 Reason(s)
1.1.1 Customer needs
1.1.2 Market changes
1.1.3 Underperformance
1.1.4 Reduce costs
1.1.5 New process
1.1.6 ...others
1.2 Timing
1.2.1 Immediate
1.2.2 Medium term
1.2.3 Long term
1.3 Organizations affected
2 Identify options
Analyze: See section: 3 Analyze
Set up a process for arriving at a list of possible options. Do not weed out any of the more off-the-wall ideas at this stage.
2.1 Process
2.1.1 Involve colleagues?
2.1.2 Brainstorming
2.2 List
2.2.1 Option 1
2.2.2 ...others
3 Analyze
Assess: See section: 4 Assess
Analyze each of the options you identified in the previous step. Summarize the benefits and risks of each (both long term and short term). Include your personal feeling about each: the intuition of an experienced manager is valuable even though not quantifiable. Be as objective as you can: do not rule out new ideas.
3.1 Option 1
3.1.1 Impact on sales
3.1.2 Impact on people
Customers
Staff
Competition
...others
3.1.3 Impact on processes
3.1.4 Financial impact
3.1.5 Press reaction
3.1.6 ...others
3.1.7 Summary
Overall benefits
Overall risks
Personal feeling
3.2 ...others
4 Assess
Decide: See section: 5 Decide
Use the summaries created in the previous analysis phase to make a final assessment of the main pros and cons of each of the options. Give a rating to each option, from 1 (best) to 10 (worst). Focus on the factors that have most impact, for good or bad. The 80/20 rule often applies: 20% of the factors account for 80% of the overall impact.
4.1 Option 1
4.1.1 Pros
4.1.2 Cons
4.1.3 Rating
4.2 Option 2
4.2.1 Pros
4.2.2 Cons
4.2.3 Rating
4.3 ...others
5 Decide
Implement: See section: 6 Implement
Review the assessments, taking account of any late developments that may be relevant, and make your decision. If necessary get approval from senior management.
5.1 Your decision
5.2 Gain approval
5.2.1 Meeting agenda
5.2.2 Presentation
6 Implement
Once the decision is made and approved, set up a team of people to implement it. Create a plan and give different people responsibility for different parts of it. For successful implementation communication is key: people need to understand why the decision was made and why it was the right decision.
6.1 Set up team
6.2 Plan the implementation
6.3 Communicate
Be as open as you can in your communication to those affected by your decision. Be sure to allow plenty of time and opportunity for questions and answers.
6.3.1 Presentation
6.3.2 Meetings
6.3.3 ...others
6.4 Monitor progress
6.4.1 Regular meetings
6.4.2 Presentations
6.4.3 Action items
6.5 Deal with objections
6.6 Make changes?
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