Decision making techniques
A good decision maker not only makes good progress in career, but is also regarded
as a good leader. This is because he or she can use the decision making skill in
solving problems. However, you need to remember some vital points for decision making
also regarding decision making.
Taking right decision at right time
a) Any decision that you take will never make everyone happy some are bound to be
dissatisfied.
b) It is difficult to identify whether the positive outcome of the decision will
outweigh the negative effects
However, these do not mean that you should stop taking decisions. Rather you should
revert to the decision making techniques so that you can take the right decision
almost always. The decision making techniques are:
- Pareto Analysis: The basic of this technique is 20% work and 80% benefit. This technique
helps you to choose the most important changes. The basic of this technique is to
find changes for having maximum benefits. To begin with, you need to make a list
of the changes that you should make and then score them. The change that gets the
maximum score should be the first one to be tackled and it will give you maximum
benefit. You can stop bothering about the changes which have got lower scores.
- Grid Analysis: The basic of this technique is choosing best alternative from many.
This technique you should use only when you have many good alternatives to choose
from. Thus you should use it when you are in a situation where you cannot find a
clear decision. For using this tool you need to right the options in a row format
and the factors in column format. Then score each row and column combination, weigh
these scores and you would get the best decision.
- Decision trees: If you are in a dilemma about choosing the right one among several
courses of action, decision trees can help you. To use the decision tree you need
to first draw a small square representing the decision that you need to make. From
this square now you should draw lines and right the solutions over those lines.
At the end of each line write the result that you think might happen. If you feel
that the results of any solution is uncertain, then make a small circle.
- Paired Comparison Analysis: Through this tool you can understand the importance
of available options relative to each other. It is especially useful when you do
not have any objective data for your support. With the help of this tool you can
select the solution that will give you most benefit. For optimum utilisation of
this tool, you should compare one option with another one. After comparing give
a score to the option which you think is the important one.
- PMI: It is always better to check beforehand whether a situation will really help
you or not. For that it is important to know the pros and cons of the decision.
PMI would come to your help here. The full form of PMI is 'Plus Minus Interest'
and for making the right decision, you should write under 'Plus' all the positive
results that might come out of the decision. Under 'Minus' jot down the negative
effects. Under the column 'Interesting' write down the implications and outcomes
of these decisions.
- Six Thinking Hats: It is another important technique since it helps you to look
at one decision from various perspectives. It also helps you become a good decision
maker since it forces you get out of your normal thinking process and think 'differently'.
Also it helps you to understand the complexity of the decision and identify various
issues and see the opportunities lying within the decisions.
Author: Allex;
Use these decision making techniques to become a successful decision maker.