Strategic or Tactical?

Decision-making is not an event, but a process, capability, and it takes wisdom to make sound judgments and effective decisions.

Decision-making in the “VUCA” new normal is often challenging, as there are many flavors of decision-making, various types of decision-makers, and multiple ingredients in decision-making formulas. 

Different types of decision-making scenarios include:

Strategic Planning: A disciplined effort to make decisions and actions that shape and guide an organization’s purpose and activities, particularly concerning the future. It involves setting priorities and concentrating resources on a limited number of objectives.

Rational Decision Making: In this scenario, individuals survey alternatives, evaluate consequences, and choose what they believe has the best outcome for themselves, based on the quality of information and individual preferences. Rational decision-making becomes efficient when information is maximized and preferences are satisfied using minimal resources.

Decision Analysis: This involves procedures for choosing optimal decisions in the face of uncertainty. It uses probabilities to compute the expected value of each decision alternative, aiding in sequential decision-making situations. Decision trees can be used to structure and analyze such problems, developing an optimal decision strategy.

Crisis Decision Making: During a crisis, governments and public agencies must make critical decisions, often under unclear and volatile conditions with limited time for consultation. Effective crisis response requires interagency and intergovernmental coordination, as well as flexibility and improvisation.

Bounded Rationality: This concept recognizes that behavior can deviate from ideal rationality but still align with pursuing appropriate goals. It acknowledges that decision-makers have limited knowledge and face constraints such as time and computational costs. Instead of choosing the best possible alternative, individuals choose the first satisfactory option they find, which might miss some other good choices.

Heuristics: Involve intuitive judgments that produce generally adequate decisions quickly, reducing the cognitive load. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that don't guarantee an optimal result but are "good enough".

Tactical and Strategic Intelligence: Strategic intelligence is needed to formulate policy and plans at the international and national policy levels, while tactical intelligence responds to the needs of strategists.

Strategic vs. tactical: Strategic and tactical decisions differ primarily in their scope, focus, and level of implementation. Strategic decisions are broad and comprehensive, shaping an organization's purpose and activities, particularly concerning the future. Tactical decisions, on the other hand, involve techniques for leveraging resources in an engagement or initiative.

-Purpose: Strategic decisions clearly define the purpose of the organization and establish realistic goals and objectives. Tactical intelligence helps leaders act or react responsibly to a given set of circumstances.

-Scope: Strategic decisions are made at the international and national policy levels, influencing policy and strategic plans. Tactical decisions respond to the needs of military field commanders, helping them plan and conduct combat operations.

-Focus: Strategic planning concentrates resources on a limited number of objectives, ensuring that organizational members work toward the same goals. Tactical decisions focus on immediate and specific actions.

-Timeframe: Strategic decisions typically encompass activity over several years and perhaps need to be altered over time. Tactical decisions are more immediate and short-term.

-Intelligence: Strategic intelligence is needed to formulate policy, while tactical intelligence responds to the needs of current needs. They differ only in scope, point of view, and level of professional capabilities.

Decision-making is not an event, but a process, capability, and it takes wisdom to make sound judgments and effective decisions. The mind equipped with updated information and sufficient knowledge can have a better chance of making effective decisions.

Posted in: Decision Making,Strategy