by Charles Ray

Created on: February 02, 2009

MAKING EFFECTIVE DECISIONS

Leadership is all about decision making. As a leader you must decide the what, where, why and who for your organization. Effective decision making leads to success for the organization, and by extension, for the leader.

If you look at the history of organizations, most failures have been the result of faulty decisions by the person in charge. The Vietnam War is a prime example. While there have been many reasons given for why the U.S. lost that war; political meddling, unfriendly media coverage, and the like; much of the fault lies at the feet of those making the decisions. From the top down; Presidents who tried to run' the war from the White House; senior defense leaders who focused on numbers rather than what was actually happening on the ground; commanders who were fighting the wrong war. While the courage and tenacity of the enemy can't be ignored, better decisions could have given a different outcome.

The key to making good decisions is to have a sound process or series of steps from start to finish. A study of leadership and management texts provides a number of processes from a simple three-step process to as many as seven steps. A process is a series of steps that are interrelated and follow a specific methodology. Over the past 45 years, I have found use of a four-step process most useful in guiding me to sound decisions.

The four steps are:

1. Define the problem

2. Gather data

3. List and evaluate alternatives

4. Chose and implement the best alternative

Define the problem

In getting any job done, it is best to start at the beginning. The first step in making a decision is to have a clear understanding of the problem that is to be solved. This could be thought of as The Job to Be Done. In this part of the process you establish the context of the problem and set goals. It is extremely important to have a clear understanding of what you are trying to decide.

This is the step in the process where you must determine if, in fact, any action is needed. Don't waste time trying to solve problems that don't need to be solved, keeping in mind that not doing anything is in itself a decision.

Gather information

During this step in the process, we determine what information or data is applicable to the job to be done. Information gathering can be done through research, experimentation or brainstorming. It is important during the information gathering phase to consult with all actors who have equity in the problem to be solved.

As data is

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