While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, following the 5-step decision-making process will help you make tough decisions better and faster. The purpose of the decision-making process is ultimately to achieve certain outcomes, to satisfy a need, or to solve a problem. When you’ve identified your options in step 3, you should be ready to move along the decision-making process and weigh your options. With freedom of choice comes great responsibility. My grandma used to say: “You are free to do whatever you want, but only as long as you are willing to accept responsibility for the consequences of your choices.” I believe it’s fair to say that we’ve all made decisions that had unintended negative consequences. Even when we arrive at a decision after due consideration, the decision may still render unexpected outcomes. Yes, we should always strive to make the right decisions, but the right “R” word is responsibility. Be willing to take responsibility for the decisions that turn out well as well as to own those “gone wrong.” So go through the decision-making process with your eyes wide open and with the best of intentions, but recognize the uncertainty and accept the things that are beyond your control. Be prepared to act on the things within your control in hope for a better future. Once all the options have been identified following the brainstorming session, they need to be analyzed and prioritized so that a decision can be made and a way forward will be defined. The evaluation process helps to ensure that each of the identified options is fully investigated as to its suitability. Decision-making is a process of choosing between alternative solutions. Good decision-making involves seeing new options for making life better at the lowest cost to get our needs met. Although the cost-benefit analysis technique is most commonly used on financial decisions, it can certainly be used for almost any decision in evaluating the costs and benefits, the tangibles and intangibles, of each alternative course of action. For each option a list of advantages and disadvantages should be created. By identifying the advantages and disadvantages, unsuitable options can be rejected and suitable options can be compared. What are the likely outcomes or consequences of each of the choices? Do the benefits justify the cost? Imagine what it would be like if you carried out each of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need identified in Step 1 would be resolved and whether the Most Important Goal (MIG) set in step 2 would be met through the use of each alternative. As you go through the analysis process, you’ll begin to recognize the alternatives that seem to have a higher potential for reaching your goal. Finally, place the alternatives in a priority order, based upon your own value system, and make your choice. Here’s how in 4 simple steps:
Weigh the alternatives: define your evaluation criteria.
Select the preferred alternative: which choice/s will best meet your objectives?
Consider the consequences: what could be potential future outcomes?
Identify the best solution: which option is the best for you?
The following are common decision-making tools:
1. Decision-making Matrix
Use this tool to choose between multiple options by scoring them against different criteria. Check out www.weighteddecision.com and watch the video showing how to use the decision-making matrix to decide on a vacation destination. 2. Decision Tree
Use this tool when creating a flowchart or a diagram would help you explore all of the alternatives and their possible outcomes. Each “branch” of the tree represents one of the alternatives. Branches can be extended further when an alternative leads to another decision to be made. Costs and probabilities are added to calculate the value of each set of alternatives to help determine the best choice. Check out Smart Draw for examples: https://www.smartdraw.com/decision-tree/examples/ 3. T-chart
This is a fancy name for the old pro/con list. The idea is to list all the “pros” on the left side of the “T” and all the “cons” on the right side. For a more sophisticated analysis, you may give each consequence a number depending on its importance. Add the numbers in each column and choose the solution with the highest score, or value.
Taking into consideration all the positives and negatives is a crucial step when making a decision. Once you’ve fully uncovered and prioritized your available options, you will have identified the best solution to your problem. When you complete this step, you should be ready to move on to step 5 and commit to action.