Decision making in the “VUCA” new normal is often challenging, there are many flavors of decision-making, there are different types of decision makers, and there are many ingredients in decision-making formulas.
Both the art of intuition and the science of analytics have the role to play in making effective decisions and solve problems smoothly.
Information-based analytics is and never was a magic wand anyway, it is just another way to make an informed decision: The whole purpose of analytics is to make better decisions based on data. Data is like the raw diamond, raw diamonds get their use when becoming treated, processed, and refined into industrial diamonds. Only treatment makes them valuable, able to serve a purpose - help to make more effective decisions to create better business values. Sometimes key data is not available; sometimes intuition does well before they are able to explain the logic; and the other times, you just have to break down the big problems to solve them piece by piece via careful reasoning. Also, information is not the only ingredient in decision-making formulas. "Information" as input to the decision-making does not absolutely determine the decision but allows the decision-maker to exercise their judgment.
Analytics has no value until they inform decisions, getting buy-in to the value of the information being provided, and developing plans to act specifically on that information. Keep in mind, decision-making process is different from 'problem defining' processes. The questions to check: Do you distinguish between decision making and possibly? Or does your decision-making process inherently include a phase for 'problem defining'? Use a more logical decision-making scenario and wonder why the actions we have taken have made the situation worse. Create engagement around insight, enabling scenario and forecasting to promote decision alternatives. You will dramatically open up your options and build your abilities to make effective decisions.
Intuition or gut-feeling helps to make quick decisions, collectively, communication enforcement improves decision power: Besides information, the right dose of gut feeling is the differentiator to make you a great decision maker. The human brain can process huge amounts of information unconsciously without it ever rising into consciousness. If the problem is familiar, and a quick response is needed, intuition works well. They have well-developed heuristic models, etc. that have been trained in similar situations. This is why intuitive decision-making can be powerful and should not be underestimated.
Organizations need to check: Do your leaders have flexibility to make quick decisions and communicate them clearly? Collectively, can you make decisions in a timely manner. Business can only be done on facts and that too objectively assessed while business decision requires imagination power, but the same needs to be validated at repeated intervals. Down to the hierarchy, decision making often lies in informal and closed group power centers within the organization. If you can understand the culture along with an organizational chart, you would often know which lever to use to get the decision approval done, and collectively, how to make team decisions in a timely manner.
Tell-Listen-Adapt communication frame-work helps to bridge the gap between strategic and tactical decision-making: In the decision-making and business planning process, assumptions should be kept to the minimum. If you start with an inter-dependency of shared goals that are directly related to creating value for an organization, you have a great foundation for then working on the process of how to make those goals a reality. In many organizations, typically, one level of leadership communicates with the next level and so on and typically the message is somewhat diluted by the time it reaches the employee responsible for making tactical decisions and doing their job. Thus, employees do not understand their goals in a way that shows how they work with other employees’ goals and the strategic goals of their organization. The "so what" factor can be huge.
Translating strategic intent into meaningful action and making the needed changes stick can be difficult, but a significant step for seamless strategy management. Many times responsibilities/goals are communicated but decision makers in the case of conflicts are not clearly identified and even when they are clear. There tend to be definitely perceivable decision choke points due to the inadequate delegation. Thus, for communicating shared goals and improving decision-maturity, effective communicators are working to spread that throughout the organization in a diverse set of activities with mixed communication styles to improve their decision making skills and problem-solving competency.
Decision making in the “VUCA” new normal is often challenging, there are many flavors of decision-making, there are different types of decision makers, and there are many ingredients in decision-making formulas. Either informative or intuitive, decision-making is the link to bridge present and future, leadership and followership, strategy and execution, information and intelligence, planning-action-results.
Information-based analytics is and never was a magic wand anyway, it is just another way to make an informed decision: The whole purpose of analytics is to make better decisions based on data. Data is like the raw diamond, raw diamonds get their use when becoming treated, processed, and refined into industrial diamonds. Only treatment makes them valuable, able to serve a purpose - help to make more effective decisions to create better business values. Sometimes key data is not available; sometimes intuition does well before they are able to explain the logic; and the other times, you just have to break down the big problems to solve them piece by piece via careful reasoning. Also, information is not the only ingredient in decision-making formulas. "Information" as input to the decision-making does not absolutely determine the decision but allows the decision-maker to exercise their judgment.
Analytics has no value until they inform decisions, getting buy-in to the value of the information being provided, and developing plans to act specifically on that information. Keep in mind, decision-making process is different from 'problem defining' processes. The questions to check: Do you distinguish between decision making and possibly? Or does your decision-making process inherently include a phase for 'problem defining'? Use a more logical decision-making scenario and wonder why the actions we have taken have made the situation worse. Create engagement around insight, enabling scenario and forecasting to promote decision alternatives. You will dramatically open up your options and build your abilities to make effective decisions.
Intuition or gut-feeling helps to make quick decisions, collectively, communication enforcement improves decision power: Besides information, the right dose of gut feeling is the differentiator to make you a great decision maker. The human brain can process huge amounts of information unconsciously without it ever rising into consciousness. If the problem is familiar, and a quick response is needed, intuition works well. They have well-developed heuristic models, etc. that have been trained in similar situations. This is why intuitive decision-making can be powerful and should not be underestimated.
Organizations need to check: Do your leaders have flexibility to make quick decisions and communicate them clearly? Collectively, can you make decisions in a timely manner. Business can only be done on facts and that too objectively assessed while business decision requires imagination power, but the same needs to be validated at repeated intervals. Down to the hierarchy, decision making often lies in informal and closed group power centers within the organization. If you can understand the culture along with an organizational chart, you would often know which lever to use to get the decision approval done, and collectively, how to make team decisions in a timely manner.
Tell-Listen-Adapt communication frame-work helps to bridge the gap between strategic and tactical decision-making: In the decision-making and business planning process, assumptions should be kept to the minimum. If you start with an inter-dependency of shared goals that are directly related to creating value for an organization, you have a great foundation for then working on the process of how to make those goals a reality. In many organizations, typically, one level of leadership communicates with the next level and so on and typically the message is somewhat diluted by the time it reaches the employee responsible for making tactical decisions and doing their job. Thus, employees do not understand their goals in a way that shows how they work with other employees’ goals and the strategic goals of their organization. The "so what" factor can be huge.
Translating strategic intent into meaningful action and making the needed changes stick can be difficult, but a significant step for seamless strategy management. Many times responsibilities/goals are communicated but decision makers in the case of conflicts are not clearly identified and even when they are clear. There tend to be definitely perceivable decision choke points due to the inadequate delegation. Thus, for communicating shared goals and improving decision-maturity, effective communicators are working to spread that throughout the organization in a diverse set of activities with mixed communication styles to improve their decision making skills and problem-solving competency.
Decision making in the “VUCA” new normal is often challenging, there are many flavors of decision-making, there are different types of decision makers, and there are many ingredients in decision-making formulas. Either informative or intuitive, decision-making is the link to bridge present and future, leadership and followership, strategy and execution, information and intelligence, planning-action-results.
0 comments:
Post a Comment