Decision making is the skill of successful executives. Every action a company takes starts with one, and a company's performance, or a business unit's, or a department's, is the sum of the decisions each person makes on its behalf. Yet most executives have never been given a process. They have symptoms instead.
The symptoms
Relying on gut alone. Debating alternatives with no criteria. Delaying in the hope things improve. Frustration at how long decisions take. Second-guessing the ones already made. If any of those sound familiar, the fix is not better instincts. It is a process.
The process, in four parts
State the purpose. Five to ten words on the outcome you are after: "Select a sales representative to hire for Zone 6." Words matter; that sentence already decided hire rather than outsource, and Zone 6 rather than Zone 7.
Set and weigh the objectives. The criteria any alternative is judged against, each weighted. Not every criterion can be a ten. Find the tens first and calibrate the rest against them.
Generate and score the alternatives. Score each option against each criterion on the same scale, multiply by the weight, and total. The arithmetic is not the decision; it is what makes the debate about the right things.
Assess the risks of the leading option. What could go wrong, how likely, how serious, and what you would do. The best-scoring option with an unmanageable risk is not the best option.
Why this scales
The same four steps run a hiring decision and a $500 million acquisition. The scope changes; the discipline does not. In the MOVE® system this is how every cell of the product-market matrix gets decided, and why a scenario can be run against the base case in days: the criteria are already written.
Monday
Take the decision you have been delaying and write its purpose in ten words. If you cannot, that is why it is delayed.
