A client recently shared a growing concern of hers; she was uncomfortable with her decision-making process & wanted to make sure she was making the best possible decisions. I have heard this more & more lately from clients regarding their decision-making process. It seems everyone is feeling the pressure to make faster decisions that they are confident in.
We all make a lot of decisions everyday & most of us would like to make the best possible decisions we can. To improve your decision-making, I recommend a 4-step process.
Start with a simple series of questions designed to narrow your focus:
What is the Risk/Reward tradeoff?
- What is the relationship between the Effort & the Impact of the decision?
- What does the Cost/Benefit Analysis (CBA) to you?
- Which tool(s) would be most appropriate for this type of situation?
- After you have answered these questions, choose the best tool(s) for the situation:
- Brainstorming
- In-person
- Online (anonymous)
- Affinity diagram
- Cause-effect diagram
- Check sheet
- Force filed analysis
- Motion map
- Multi-voting
- Priority matrix
- Successive Why’s
Each of these tools has a different approach & is dependent on the information available to you. When you select the one that is the best fit, it will lead you to a logical conclusion: your best decision for the circumstances.
The results of steps 1 & 2 will guide you to the most logical, reasonable conclusion/decision.
Now add just a dash of your personal experience & judgement and the quality of your decisions will be dramatically & consistently improved.
For more on these tools or samples contact me at DanielFeiman@BuildItBackwards.com