Decision-Making Best Practice 6 – Follow-up Assessments

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StrategyDriven Decision-Making Article | Follow-up AssessmentsDecisions, both large and small, define an organization, its culture, its direction, its public image, and ultimately its success or failure. Each decision and the process of making and executing on it provide all those involved with a new experience from which to draw upon when making future selections. Organizations, however, are living things; people come and go, memories fade, and circumstances change. Therefore, in order to fully benefit from the hard won and often expensive experience gained through decision-making, a mechanism must be in place to gather, assess, and then make available these lessons learned.

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Decision-Making Best Practice 5 – Ongoing Decision Evaluation

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StrategyDriven Decision-Making ArticleDecision-making involves a degree of risk that increases with the complexity of the decision to be made. Good decisions not only yield desired results but also minimize the risk exposure of the individual or organization making and executing the decision. While there are many ways to minimize decision risk, one that is often overlooked is the ongoing evaluation of the execution of the decision-making process itself.

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Additional Resources

StrategyDriven offers many additional resources that can be used during decision-making process evaluations including:

New Whitepaper Release – Evaluating Decision Options

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StrategyDriven contributors are pleased to announce the release of our sixth whitepaper: Evaluating Decision Options.

Options and Tradeoffs…

Decision-making often involves trade-offs. Risk aversion suggests that all things being equal, decision-makers will select the option having the lowest risk. But because all things are never quite equal, decision-makers concede items they deem to be of lesser value to items they believe hold greater value with risk being one of the commodities considered.

Decisions involve a choice between two or more complex options. This complexity is a result of the multiple characteristics that define each option and will impact the probability of achieving a desired outcome. In making a selection, the decision-maker is attempting to choose the mix of characteristics that will most optimally achieve the desired result.

The StrategyDriven Evaluating Decision Options whitepaper provides decision-makers with a three step process to use when evaluating and selecting from several differing decision options. These steps are detailed with supporting principles and philosophy; helping users understand the reasoning behind each action.

The Decision-Making – Evaluating Decision Options, Strategic Planning – Analysis, Organizational Performance Measures – Alignment, Organizational Performance Measures – Types, Organizational Performance Measures – Selection, and Organizational Performance Measures – Construction whitepapers are available to Registered Members. If you have not already done so, please click here to register and join the conversation.

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Measure

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Measure.

The first key question to answer in starting a problem-solving project is, “How will you know when the problem is solved?” Answer this question in measurable terms before you start trying to solve the problem. As you begin defining your problem, these success metrics help set clear expectations about what will be different when you finish. At the end of the project, the measurements will demonstrate that the difference has been achieved, i.e., the problem has been solved.

To be useful, success measurements must be simple in concept and connected so clearly to the problem that you can remember them easily. As with the description, somebody who doesn’t already know about the problem should be able to read your success criteria and understand them.

The objective in setting success metrics for a problem-solving project is to define the minimum necessary to solve the problem. This is completely opposite to the way we usually set goals. In problem-solving, we want to do everything necessary to solve the problem, but nothing extra.

Once you decide what your success metrics will be, check them with real data. This not only verifies that you really can collect and report the measurements, but also lets you establish baselines. Measure exactly what your performance is before you start analyzing the problem and taking corrective action. The baseline measurements let you confirm that there really is a problem and sanity checks the performance levels you’ve defined as success. You can make corrections if necessary, before you start down a wrong path.

Measure to determine that the problem is solved, but also use measurements throughout the problem-solving process. Measurements can also help you test assumptions, verify root causes, assure tasks are completed properly and report progress.

Bottom line: if you don’t measure, you won’t know for sure. Use measurements to learn and portray the truth – the real truth, not what you wish were true.

Copyright 2009. Jeanne Sawyer.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://business-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author:

Jeanne Sawyer helps her clients solve expensive, chronic problems, such as those that cause operational disruptions and cause customers to take their business elsewhere. These tips are excerpted from her book, When Stuff Happens: A Practical Guide to Solving Problems Permanently. Now also an ebook, find out about it and get more free information on problem solving at her web site: http://www.sawyerpartnership.com/.

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Test Your Assumptions About Everything

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Test your assumptions about everything.

Assumptions have a way of creeping into all parts of a problem-solving project. They’re often wrong, which can lead to a lot of wasted effort and even cause a problem-solving project to fail entirely. It’s very easy to take a strongly stated assertion as true, especially if it’s the boss who makes it. Remind everyone involved to be skeptical and on the watch for untested assumptions.

Problem definition. Check the facts first to be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Testing assumptions about the problem definition could include interviewing participants, collecting measurements, creating flow charts of what really happened, etc.

Organizing your project. Don’t assume that the resources you need to solve the problem will automatically be available to you. Solving a messy problem is a project. Treat it that way by developing a project plan, obtaining sponsorship, getting commitment to participate from key players, etc.

Root Cause Analysis. This is a favorite spot for untested assumptions to show up, especially if you use a root cause analysis method based on brainstorming. Once you’ve got a list of possible causes, be sure to collect data, devise tests or do whatever you have to verify which causes are real.

Choosing solutions. Test assumptions about proposed solutions by answering the questions: “How likely is the approach to eliminate a root cause of this problem” and “How practical is this approach (do I have the resources to actually do it and can I achieve the solution in an appropriate amount of time)?”

Testing assumptions throughout the problem-solving process will greatly improve your chances of solving the right problem successfully.

There is nothing so deceptive as an apparent truth.
– Russell Ackoff

copyright 2008. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://crisis-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

About the Author:

Jeanne Sawyer helps her clients solve expensive, chronic problems, such as those that cause operational disruptions and cause customers to take their business elsewhere. These tips are excerpted from her book, When Stuff Happens: A Practical Guide to Solving Problems Permanently. Now also an ebook, find out about it and get more free information on problem solving at her web site: http://www.sawyerpartnership.com/.