AxTenk Blog

Key Criterias for effective decision-making processes:
    It acknowledges both subjective and objective factors and blends analytical with intuitive thinking;
    It is easy to use, straightforward, reliable, and flexible.
    It focuses on what is important;
    It requires only as much information and analysis as is necessary to resolve a particular dilemma;
    It is logical and consistent;
    It encourages the collection of relevant information and informed opinion;

Key Elements  for making effective decision:
1.    Consider all risks and consequences.
2.    Deal with the right problem and work on that.
3.    Understand all relationships and inter-conectivity between all decision elements.
4.    Clarify all areas of uncertainties.
5.    Specify goals and objectives prior to embarking the decision process.
6.    Create options and alternatives.
7.    Willing to make trade-offs.
8.    Understand risk tolerance and impact.

Methods of Decision Making:

1) Input to others    Leader provides input, and others decide
2) Input to leader    Others provide input to the leader, and the leader decides
3) Autocratic    Leader decides
4) Consensus    Everyone supports the decision
5) Self-directive    Others decide without leader input

While we understand that no organization typically uses only one style, we suggest that you examine your organization’s predominant decision-making styles.
At various meetings, assess how decisions are made. Observe and Develop a pattern out of what you’re observing. You’re likely to see one or two basic styles emerge. How does this compare to your own way of making decisions? Being politically savvy means adjusting your decision-making style after the organization’s style.

If there is a highly participative decision-making process, study key members’s behaviours, focusing on how they like to receive information. If a committee structure is involved, decision making is likely to be slower. If driving/dominating individuals are at the decision-making hub, the process will be faster. Adapt your style accordingly. Demonstrate the appropriate behavior of a proactive political leader.

Most Managers find ways to cope with uncertainty by adopting strategies to simplify complex situations so that they can make decisions quickly and effectively.

Here are Techniques you can use for simplifying decisions:
1.    applying rules of thumb: using a simplifying measure (e.g. mortgage lenders assuming that consumers should spend no more than a particular percentage of their income on mortgage payments);
2.    reasoning by analogy: drawing from past experiences when faced with a complex problem;
3.    reformulation: reframing one complex problem as a sequence of smaller problems enabling small wins to be achieved in order to build up momentum towards achieving the objective of solving the overall problem.
4.    imitation: emulating the strategies and practices of other highly successful organisations;

It is good developing a simplifying approach when you are deciding how to handle a mass of analysis. However, too much focus on simplicity does have its own dangers, where interesting and novel solutions are often ignored. Decision maker should welcome and work with complexity to try to find new solutions and move on from predictable and unattractive solutions.