Decision making is a day to day process in all sectors of life. Matters vary in the weight hence decision-making approaches are divergent. A business that desires to prosper and increase profits need to make sound decisions. Some decisions, according to Mind Tools, are complex while others are simple. Many considerations are made for the complex decisions. Decision making may involve taking risks and choosing from alternatives. The video Decision-Making Techniques and the article Decision-Making Techniques highlights closely related steps in decision making.
Consider the Environment
It is important to consider every other person that would be affected by the decisions that would be made. In an organization setting, various stakeholders need to be consulted. Allowing all members to participate in the process from this very beginning is prudent since the implementation process would need every person’s input. In the article How to Make Decisions, the authors suggest the use of debates, discussions, and analysis to get ideas from everyone, thus ensuring fairness (Mind Tools,2018,p.1). The Charette Procedure can be utilized to gather and develop ideas from many stakeholders.
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Understand the situation
This is a step that involves asking questions to understand the current state of events and the desired changes. Some results of a decision-making process occur in isolation while some will affect other interrelated factors. In understanding the problem, one needs to question it from all perspectives. Mind Tools in the article How to Make Decisions posit that the use of the problem-definition process is helpful in this step (Mind Tools, 2018, p.2).
Identify choices
Arriving at any decision requires selection of the best alternatives from many. Great and innovative ideas can be generated through creative thinking and thorough brainstorming. This step also requires that other stakeholders are involved, regardless of their positions in an organization. “The Round-Robin Brainstorming provides a structure in which everyone’s ideas are heard and given equal weight” (Mind Tools, 2018,p.2). People outside the organization can also be given a chance to give their perspectives if the decision being sought would affect them in any way. All the collected ideas are then organized in respect to their relatedness.
Analyze the alternatives
With the list of all the realistic alternatives, this step guides in identifying the pros and cons of each. It is important to consider the risks and the approximate cost of each. Any option settled upon must have consequences. Therefore, the decision makers need to know that which would be fit for the organization’s objective, is cost-effective, and the duration it would take to implement. “The ORAPAPA (Opportunities, Risks, Alternatives and improvements, Experience , Analysis, P eople, Alignment, and ethics) analysis tool is best suited for this step” (Mind Tools, 2018, p.3).
Pick the best option
Preference is usually that which stands out from the rest. However, some situation will provide closely attached alternatives that require more considerations. The Mind Tools, article suggest the Decision Trees, Decision Matrix Analysis, and Paired Comparison Analysis approaches in making the best selection between the contending alternatives (Mind Tools, 2018, p.3). Some decisions may necessitate unanimous group agreement. It is critical to reaching a consensus for the success of the decision-making process. When the best decision has been arrived at, then it must be communicated to everyone who will be affected by it.
The decision making steps above are majorly suitable for long-term implementations. Some simple decisions only require choosing from the alternatives and communicating the changes. Decision-making process is very important, and any small mistake may be detrimental. According to Carmela Sammi, author of Techniques and Tools to Help You Make Business Decisions, poor decisions are caused either by rushing or delaying in implementing them (Carramela, 2017, p.2). In my professional and personal life, I would consider three steps; understanding the situation, analyzing the alternatives and settling on the best option. Some processes take unnecessarily long time to make, yet the result would be the same. Surbhi Rawat recommends m arginal analysis, financial analysis, break-even analysis, ratio analysis, operations research techniques, linear programming, waiting-line method, game theory, simulation, and decision tree, techniques for proper decision making (Rawat, 2017, p.1).
The tips in both the video and the article are very essential in decision making. The steps include considering the environment, understanding the situation, creating a pool of options, examining the options, settling on the best alternative, communicating the changes, and finally taking action. Depending on the situation, decision makers may choose not to follow the whole procedure as provided in these tips. For an organization, proper considerations need to be made so that every stakeholder feels part of the process and supports it fully during the implementation period. Since it carries much weight, decision making has to be given the seriousness it deserves.
References
Carramela. S. (2017 July). Techniques and Tools to Help You Make Business Decisions. Business News Daily.
Mind Tools Videos. (2016 May 11). Decision-Making Techniques. [Video file] Retrieved from https:// youtu.be/YqWiHtX2-z0 .
Mind Tools (2018 May). How to Make Decisions: Making the Best Possible Choices. EssentialSkills for Excellent Career.
Rawat, S. (2017 June). Top 10 Techniques of Decision-Making. Business Management Ideas.
