Decision-Making Best Practice 14 – Balanced Use of Knowledge and Experience

StrategyDriven Decision Making ArticleIt’s the age old question of which is more valuable, knowledge or experience. Those arguing for experience rightfully suggest that ‘the numbers’ can be deceiving and that the nuances of a given circumstance – unaccounted for by broadly applicable models and high-level, quantitative facts – often dictate the best course of action. Those favoring knowledge would argue that no two situations are exactly alike and that the underlying nuanced conditions providing success in the past likely went unrecognized and represent the very differences that will cause an experienced-based decision to go awry. The question is, Who is right? – those favoring knowledge or those favoring experience? Our answer is neither and both. We believe the best decisions are made using a well-proportioned blend of both knowledge and experience.


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Decision-Making Best Practice 13 – Document the Decision-Making Process

StrategyDriven Decision Making Article | Decision Making ProcessEvery decision made represents a risk to the organization; some large, others small; some immediate, others latent; some positive, others adverse. Regardless of the impact, it is desirable to have each decision bring optimal benefit to the organization. Achieving these frequent, repeatable, and positive results requires a mechanism to drive consistency in decision-making; consistency that is only achieved through established procedures on which decision-makers are trained and against which performance is evaluated and acceptable behaviors reinforced.


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Alternative Selection – Total Benefit of Ownership

When considering various operations to continue or new initiatives to pursue, there tends to be a singular focus on cost, revenue generation potential, or regulatory compliance necessity of the activity. However, many initiatives offer highly qualitative but no less beneficial contributions to the organization that should be considered beyond the simple financial return. In today’s marketplace, some of these qualitative benefits significantly contribute to sales such as the advancement of diversity and inclusion within the organization and green initiatives in both the organization’s production processes and products. Such qualitative benefits serve to enhance the organization’s reputation and in doing so attract superior talent and additional customers that would otherwise be lost to competing organizations. Thus, it becomes increasingly important to consider the total benefit of ownership of a give business operation or initiative; one that includes the ongoing quantitative and qualitative benefits these activities.


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Alternative Selection Best Practice 3 – Reality Check

Just because the numbers look good doesn’t mean you should move forward with the initiative.

Leaders often face the dilemma of having numerous attractive initiative options to pursue when developing their strategic plans. Many of these options are provided by an eager and engaged workforce; individuals who diligently examine the proposed opportunity, associated costs, and make the strong case for pursuing these cost saving and/or profitable efforts. However, it is the responsibility of the leadership team to perform a reality check on these proposals in two ways. First, is a critical questioning of the numbers to ensure the real-world appropriateness of the assumptions used and the numbers presented. Second, is the assessment of whether the proposal can be executed considering the organization’s resources and capabilities.


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Diversity and Inclusion – Return on Investment, part 4: Litigation, Fine, and Payout Reduction

Harassment litigation represents a catastrophic failure of an organization’s diversity and inclusion program. In these circumstances, the organization not only fell short of excellent performance but realized such aberrant behavior as to be non-compliant with applicable laws. Such occurrences not only represent large one-time costs associated with reduced productivity, heightened distraction, and elevated attrition.


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