Decision Making Techniques

Good decision making is an essential skill for career success generally, and effective leadership particularly. If you can learn to make timely and well-considered decisions, then you can often lead your team to spectacular and well-deserved success. However, if you make poor decisions, your team risks failure and your time as a leader will, most likely, be brutally short.

The techniques in this section help you to make the best decisions possible with the information you have available. These tools help you map out the likely consequences of decisions, work out the importance of individual factors and choose the best course of action to take.

These techniques build on the tools discussed in the section on Problem Solving Tools, in that Decision Making follows on from an understanding of the situation. The section on Creativity Tools will help you to explore what alternatives that are open to you.

Do remember, though, that the tools in this chapter exist only to assist your intelligence and common sense. These are your most important assets in good Decision Making.

	Decision Making Techniques - Start Here!
	Pareto Analysis - Choosing what to change
	Paired Comparison Analysis - Working out the relative importance of different options
	Grid Analysis - Making a choice taking into account many factors
	PMI - Weighing the pros and cons of a decision
	Force Field Analysis - Analyzing the pressures for and against change
	Six Thinking Hats - Looking at a decision from different perspectives
	Starbursting - Understanding options better by brainstorming questions
	Stepladder Technique - Making better group decisions
	Cost/Benefit Analysis - Seeing whether a decision makes financial sense
	Cash Flow Forecasting with Spreadsheets - Analyzing whether an idea is financially viable
	Decision Trees - Choosing by valuing different option

by Mind Tools