Strategy & Innovation

A leadership dilemma

A decision is a judgment, a choice between alternatives. It’s rarely a choice between right or wrong, at best a choice between almost right and probably wrong, but more often a choice between two courses of action.

Effective people do not make a great many decisions, they concentrate on important ones. Rather than solving the problem, they see through whether it’s strategic or generic problem.

A decision needs to be based on principle or merit of the case and pragmatic, a trickiest choice between right and wrong compromise.

The Decision Process – elements of effective decision process

• A generic problem could only be solved through a decision that sets the rule, a principle.
• Setting up the “boundary conditions” i.e. specifications that the decision has to satisfy
• Think through what is right decision before getting into the compromises, adaptations, and concessions to make decision acceptable.
• Carry out the decision action – building process
• Feedback to test the validity and effectiveness

Challenges in Effective decision making –

Identifying a generic situation or an exception – it’s important to identify the correct situation to make a right decision, spend time to determine them.

Setting the boundary condition – a clear specifications as to what the decision has to accomplish. If the decision does not satisfy the boundary condition, it’s ineffectual and inappropriate. This also sets the parameter when a decision has to be abandoned. IT’s done on interpretation and not facts.

One should start with what is right rather than what is acceptable, at the end it’s a choice between right and wrong compromise.

Converting the decision into action – a decision is just a good intent if not put into action, one needs to build action commitments into decision from the start.

Feedback has to be built into the decision to provide actual events and exceptions occurrence during the process.

Effective decision making starts with opinions, these are untested hypotheses. Facts comes into force basis criteria of relevance, an appropriate measurement.

Effective decisions come from clash and conflict of divergent opinions and competing alternatives and not from flow of consensus on the facts. Three reasons to encourage disagreement are –

1. It safeguard against decision maker’s becoming the prisoner of the organization.
2. It provides alternative to a decision
3. It stimulate the imagination

But there is always a question first “is a decision really necessary” one alternative is always the alternative of “doing nothing”. Act only if the balance of benefits greatly outweigh cost and risk.