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The effectiveness of the Decision-Making Process
Decision making is a critical competence within a business organization, especially for those in leadership positions. Making critical business decisions requires executives to exercise sound judgment to distinguish strategic information from “noise” and arbitrary patterns. Unclear responsibilities and undocumented assumptions add unnecessarily to the decision process complexity.
Our Special Decision Effectiveness Strategies and Programs
Decision Effectiveness
Clarifying roles and objectives is critical for effective team performance. The more complex and divided the job, the more challenging it is to determine what are the key requirements to be done. If an organization holds clear rules and guidelines showing how the work should be done, who is responsible for a decision, and who needs to be involved as stakeholders, then team members understand a clear path to deliver the overall task. Functional teams are most efficient when members share a common vision and understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities. We work with organizations to assess and design specific process guidelines and set up clear roles and objectives, supporting executives to build an effective team that ensures high performance and results.
Making decisions in an agile way means working collaboratively and with clarity. Agile decision-making is flexible, and one of the keys to successful adoption is to modify how decisions are made to be more inclusive while still being quick and considered. In agile project teams, managers, leaders, and executives are encouraged to release the control and empower project teams to make decisions. The idea is to have the right stakeholder participation and review the path and its alignment with the chosen objectives. We work with organizations to support executives and their teams to develop dynamic governance and the right decision-making process, boosting their focus on productivity and outcomes.
Good governance is about an clear route for making and implementing decisions. Effective governance and accountability structures are essential, especially if teams are remote or dispersed in different locations. Dynamic and clear governance rules increase output and overall create better decisions. In dynamic governance, the authority is delegated to small teams of stakeholders with distinct goals and rules to determine the relevant and necessary decisions. We work together with organizations to build a space of dynamic governance in the decision-making process and to implement change in a way that transforms the organization.
Clear and diligent Decision Documentation is vital to support the acceptance of decisions, monitor and evaluate the status of initiatives against expectations, and improve business outcomes. A robust documentation system facilitates the decision-making process. It documents why an option was preferred, provides a record of accountability, and supports decision-makers for future reference. It empowers the decision-makers and teams to align on expectations and path. We work with decision-makers to build out their decision documentation system and better understand decision rationales and recommendations.
Overcome challenges for a better Decision-Making Process
Commonly any decision-making process is divided into several steps, and challenges can appear in each of them. Leaders need to apply a best-practices mindset for each decision to be made:
- Understand the decision needed and any prior decisions made
- Gather the right facts and information needed
- Define possible alternatives
- Evaluate the evidence, based on facts and information gathered
- Document the evidence
- Assess the impact and define the outcome expectation
- Select and implement the best alternative
- Monitor and evaluate outcomes
Any decision-making process requires a proper evaluation of potential challenges, improvement opportunities, and an exact route for the implementation process to support the teams and stay on track with all identified expectations.
Clearer and faster decisions, elevate productivity, and bring value to the organization:
- Clarifying roles and responsibilities across the organization
- Establishing decision governance
- Streamlining and strengthening decision processes
- Digitalizing and making available decision documentation
Overall, leaders should grow their teams’ decision-making abilities and defining a shared decision-making process supporting and creating a robust strategy consensus.
About Decision Effectiveness
Decision making is a critical competence within a business organization, especially for those in leadership positions. The decision-making process supports leaders, managers, and other business professionals to solve problems by analyzing different choices and deciding on the best path.
Using a step-by-step approach is an efficient way to make thoughtful, informed decisions that positively impact the organization’s short-term and long-term goals.
We work side-by-side with leaders and managers to understand the current challenges they face in the decision-making process and support them to find alternatives that provide sustainable solutions.
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How constructive are the decisions made in your organization?
