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Decision making process

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18 views5 pages

Decision making process

Uploaded by

farrelotieno993
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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7 important steps in the decision making process

Summary
The decision making process is a method of gathering
information, assessing alternatives, and making a final choice
with the goal of making the best decision possible. In this
article, we detail the step-by-step process on how to make a
good decision and explain different decision making
methodologies.
We make decisions every day. Take the bus to work or call a
car? Chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Whole milk or two percent?
There's an entire process that goes into making those tiny
decisions, and while these are simple, easy choices, how do we
end up making more challenging decisions?
At work, decisions aren't as simple as choosing what kind of
milk you want in your latte in the morning. That’s why
understanding the decision making process is so important.

What is the decision making process?


The decision making process is the method of gathering
information, assessing alternatives, and, ultimately, making a
final choice.
The following seven step process is intended for challenging
decisions that involve multiple stakeholders, but this process
can be used for something as simple as what cereal to pour into
your breakfast bowl in the morning.

The 7 steps of the decision making process

Step 1: Identify the decision that needs to be made


When you're identifying the decision, ask yourself a few
questions:
 What is the problem that needs to be solved?
 What is the goal you plan to achieve by implementing this
decision?
 How will you measure success?
These questions are all common goal setting techniques that
will ultimately help you come up with possible solutions. When
the problem is clearly defined, you then have more information
to come up with the best decision to solve the problem.

Step 2: Gather relevant information


Gathering information related to the decision being made is an
important step to making an informed decision. Does your team
have any historical data as it relates to this issue? Has anybody
attempted to solve this problem before?
It's also important to look for information outside of your team
or company. Effective decision making requires information
from many different sources. Find external resources, whether
it’s doing market research, working with a consultant, or talking
with colleagues at a different company who have relevant
experience. Gathering information helps your team identify
different solutions to your problem.

Step 3: Identify alternative solutions


This step requires you to look for many different solutions for
the problem at hand. Finding more than one possible
alternative is important when it comes to business decision-
making, because different stakeholders may have different
needs depending on their role. For example, if a company is
looking for a work management tool, the design team may have
different needs than a development team. Choosing only one
solution right off the bat might not be the right course of
action.
Step 4: Weigh the evidence
This is when you take all of the different solutions you’ve come
up with and analyze how they would address your initial
problem. Your team begins identifying the pros and cons of
each option, and eliminating alternatives from those choices.
There are a few common ways your team can analyze and
weigh the evidence of options:
 Pros and cons list

Step 5: Choose among the alternatives


The next step is to make your final decision. Consider all of the
information you've collected and how this decision may affect
each stakeholder.
Sometimes the right decision is not one of the alternatives, but
a blend of a few different alternatives. Effective decision-
making involves creative problem solving and thinking out of
the box, so don't limit you or your teams to clear-cut options.
One of the key values at Asana is to reject false tradeoffs.
Choosing just one decision can mean losing benefits in others.
If you can, try and find options that go beyond just the
alternatives presented.

Step 6: Take action


Once the final decision maker gives the green light, it's time to
put the solution into action. Take the time to create
an implementation plan so that your team is on the same page
for next steps. Then it’s time to put your plan into action and
monitor progress to determine whether or not this decision was
a good one.

Step 7: Review your decision and its impact (both good and

bad)
Once you’ve made a decision, you can monitor the success
metrics you outlined in step 1. This is how you determine
whether or not this solution meets your team's criteria of
success.
Here are a few questions to consider when reviewing your
decision:
 Did it solve the problem your team identified in step 1?
 Did this decision impact your team in a positive or negative
way?
 Which stakeholders benefited from this decision? Which
stakeholders were impacted negatively?
If this solution was not the best alternative, your team might
benefit from using an iterative form of project management.
This enables your team to quickly adapt to changes, and make
the best decisions with the resources they have.

Types of decision making models


While most decision making models revolve around the same
seven steps, here are a few different methodologies to help you
make a good decision.

Rational decision making models


This type of decision making model is the most common type
that you'll see. It's logical and sequential. The seven steps
listed above are an example of the rational decision making
model.
When your decision has a big impact on your team and you
need to maximize outcomes, this is the type of decision making
process you should use. It requires you to consider a wide
range of viewpoints with little bias so you can make the best
decision possible.

Intuitive decision making models


This type of decision making model is dictated not by
information or data, but by gut instincts. This form of decision
making requires previous experience and pattern recognition to
form strong instincts.
This type of decision making is often made by decision makers
who have a lot of experience with similar kinds of problems.
They have already had proven success with the solution they're
looking to implement.

Creative decision making model


The creative decision making model involves collecting
information and insights about a problem and coming up with
potential ideas for a solution, similar to the rational decision
making model.
The difference here is that instead of identifying the pros and
cons of each alternative, the decision maker enters a period in
which they try not to actively think about the solution at all.
The goal is to have their subconscious take over and lead them
to the right decision, similar to the intuitive decision making
model.
This situation is best used in an iterative process so that teams
can test their solutions and adapt as things change.

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