Making decisions are part of everyone’s life, be it at personal or professional level. Some decisions are small while some are major.
At workplace too, making decisions is a part of every employee, especially at the managerial level. Organizations wants their employees to take decisions which are beneficial to them. Decisions at work, requires lots of thinking and analysis.
What is Decision Making?
Decision making is a process of selecting a course of action, in a particular situation to arrive at a solution for a given problem.
It is a process where people arrive at certain activities or tasks to be followed to reach a goal.
Decision making can be considered as a part of the problem-solving process. A problem cannot be resolved without taking a decision on the course of action to be taken.
Process of Decision Making
In corporate world, decisions are not just taken abruptly. One need to analyze the consequences or benefits before taking any decision. The following steps need to be followed before arriving at any decision.
- Define the Problem
- Gather all relevant information
- Propose Solutions
- Analyze the solutions and risk involved
- Selection of the best solution
- Implementation of the solution
- Monitoring and feedback
This is an ideal 7-step process which needs to be followed while taking a decision. Taking a logical approach with the help of such model, ensures that a thoughtful decision is taken which may lead to positive results.
While the process helps to take an effective decision, it cannot be a substitute to experience, intuition and gut feelings. Many a times, managers need to take a decision which may not be logical, but may seem to be the best for a situation.
Challenges in Decision Making
While the idealistic approach mentioned above helps in making decisions, practically there may be various challenges that may come in the way. In the corporate world, challenges are common, and it is expected that one overcomes them and come out with fruitful decisions.
Here are some challenges that you may come across while taking decisions
- Having too little information: Many times, you may come across situations, where you need to take a decision, but have very little information about the problem. In such situations, avoid taking abrupt decisions. Take some time and gather at least the most important information that will help you to take a correct decision.
- Having too much information: Having too much of information may sometime misguide or confuse the decision maker. It may also cause in a delay, as too much time is spent in analyzing all the information. In such situations, there is a possibility that an important piece of information is missing out while taking a decision. During such situations, it is advised to first segregate the most important information and then take the decision based on that. Also, always keep a watch on the timeline, as too much time should not be wasted in decision making.
- Conflict between logic and gut feeling: This is a very complicated situation. Sometimes the analysis shows that a certain solution is best while your gut feeling says something else. How to decide in this situation? Well, here it is always better to take an opinion from a senior, as their experience can be handy in taking a decision.
- Too many mouths: In a meeting, when a group of people discuss on a topic, it becomes difficult to conclude and take a decision, as too many mouths give different opinions. In such situation, one person, preferably a senior one, needs to take a lead and make decision on everyone’s behalf. It is always better to take some decision than no decision at all.
Suggested Reading:
Corporate Essentials 