Decision making is a core job description for any manager. How can we ensure effective decisions? We look at a few effective decisions example to learn from years of research to help us learn this skill.
Are we taking too many decisions?
We make about 35000 decisions every day. Therefore, we find it difficult to make correct decisions one after another. Also, more number of decisions also means that we expose ourselves to the risk of burnout and fatigue.
Making Effective Decisions Example and Tips
1. Makes fewer decisions
Some of the seasoned executives and business leaders know the secret. The more decisions you make every day the quality of your decisions suffers. It is for the same reason that some people minimize the number of decisions that I have to take every day.
One such popular case is that of Steve Jobs. It’s a simple case that highlights how to make effective decision example. One of the distances that we face every day is about clothes to wear. Steve Jobs wore the same set of clothes every day. Even during his presentations, he would wear denim jeans and a black tracksuit t-shirt. He said that this helped him focus on more important things ahead in the day.
2. Delegate less critical decisions
This is another good practice that needs to be followed by executives. One of the reasons we get bogged down by the decisions is because we take too much on our plate.
The delegation will reduce your workload. Additionally, it will also help you unload some of your decision-making burdens. It will in turn increase productivity. Vistage research conducted a study on 1000 CEOs. They found that the most important decisions involved managing talent, customers, and finance. Everything else can take a back seat if you have these things sorted.
3. Peripheral decision making
Research shows that faster decisions may give you the best outcomes. Eminent researcher Gerd Gigerenzer demonstrated that intuition is our biggest strength. Affiliate link to buy this book on Amazon.com
The decisions that come from the gut could also save a lot of time. Also, recently, researchers have shown that they can also be right a lot of time. It is the result of thousands of years of evolution and we must capitalize on it. A major part of the decisions made by executives could fall into this category. However, there would be some important decisions that may require a deep dive.
4. Prescriptive decision making
In these kinds of decisions that there is an assumption that the decisions have one correct answer. There are many ways of finding that correct answer. Making effective decisions example would be using quantitative methods.
However, at the root of this style of decision making is pure maths. What are the simplest ways to arrive at the correct answer is MCDM. Multiple Criteria Decision Making. In this type of decision making, we assign importance to each of the decision criteria. Then we rate or score each of these criteria. Consequently or total score is found by a weighted mean of all these scores.
5. Deflecting the decisions
One of the ways in which the executive can reduce the workload is by reflecting the decisions. Deflecting the decisions is different from delegating work. When you delegate work, you assign the tasks to someone else, while you are still answerable. This means that you have to take key decisions. People will get back to you. When you deflect decisions, you are shifting decision responsibility to someone else.
However, it is one of the most difficult to handle strategies. Often there is a negative connotation associated with deflection. It is because deflection generally serves as a post-facto mechanism to defend oneself and blame bad decisions on others. The decision to shift responsibility must be done beforehand. Also, a consensus must be reached as to why it being done. Transparency can help you gain trust and respect.
6. Be analytical
We often base our judgments on hunches. Experience helps us develop powerful and fast hunches. However, it may be a good idea to spend time on most critical decisions. Decisions that have a major impact on finances, a large number of people, or effect long term strategy may fall into this category.
There are several methods like Cost-Benefit analysis, risk-reward analysis, etc. Once you pick up a method, you can work it out. Half an hour spend judiciously, may help you get closer to an optimum decision. Another making effective decisions example would be to pool in people and call for brainstorming. It is especially helpful for projects.
Effective decisions examples from leaders & experts
Faster realization of bad decisions
How many times has it happened, that you realized that you made a bad decision but took you too long to respond? We tend to take much more time to judge ourselves than others. This delay can be more dangerous than a bad decision. Mike Whitaker says that effective decision making is about realizing that you have made a mistake
Learn to solve out of the box problems
Dominic Barton, the global managing partner at McKinsey & Company said that CEOs are exposed to novel situations. This calls for an out of the box thinking because CEOs are not expected to go by a playbook.
Embrace failures of decisions
Embracing failures can be the best strategy, especially for innovative companies. Satya Nadella joined as CEO of Microsoft. One of his first initiatives was to allow more freedom to propose ideas. This helped the turnaround of the company and regain momentum.