How to: Make Good Decisions

What does this look like?

A manager who knows how to make good decisions:

• isn’t too fast or slow in making decisions
• gathers all the information they can but has the confidence to make decisions without knowing everything
• takes advice from others and learns from past decisions
• has good judgment
• is sought out by others for advice and solutions.

How can I do this?

1.    Know your biases

• Be honest with yourself about the attitudes, beliefs, opinions, prejudices and preferences you have, which can bias your decision making. For example:
• Are you more comfortable making decisions in some areas than others? Do you avoid the decisions you’re uncomfortable with?
• Do you avoid certain topics, people, groups or functional areas?
• Do you prefer particular kinds of solutions and tend not to consider other options?
• Before making decisions think about how your biases could cloud your judgement.
• If you’re at risk of making a biased decision, ask your line manager whether someone else should step in.

2.    Check your assumptions

• Be conscious of any incorrect assumptions you’re making. Common ones are:

• stating opinions and assertions as though they’re facts
• generalising from a single example
• assuming the intentions underlying another person’s behaviour. If you don’t know for certain why someone behaves the way they do, then ask them.
  • Thinking out loud with others can help to reveal incorrect assumptions.
  • Ask others how they see the problem, the impact it has and the best way to address it.

3.    Do your homework

• Take the time to gather all the information you need. Be patient if you have to.
• Think about the questions you need answered in order to make the best decision.
• Come up with several alternative solutions and test each one. What consequences (intended and unintended) will they have?
• Remember that the best decision usually isn’t the first one that comes to mind. It’s often the second or third.
• Take a break if you need to—you may come back to the problem with fresh eyes and see things you couldn’t see before.

4.    Involve others

• If possible, delegate decisions to others who are well equipped to make them.
• If you can’t delegate a decision, ask others for advice, especially those who’ve faced similar problems.
• Create a group or task force to help make the decision. Present the problem, relevant information and possible solutions, and ask for feedback.

5.    Learn from past decisions and from others

• Reflect on decisions you’ve made in the past and how you could have made better ones.
• Identify any areas of weakness. For example, do you find it harder to make certain kinds of decisions e.g decisions about people, political decisions or technical decisions? Work on improving your decision making in that area.
• Learn from someone who’s decision making you respect. Talk to them about how they make decisions. Ask about:

• • principles they apply
  • questions they ask
  • how they get information
  • who they ask for advice.
• Identify things they do which you could try yourself.

You may find this challenging if you…

• jump to conclusions based on prejudices, past solutions or a narrow perspective
• don’t like taking risks
• have faulty thinking patterns
• are too impatient to properly define problems, collect and analyse data
• wait too long to have all the data
• like to do things yourself and don’t like asking for help
• don’t use orderly methods and models
• oversimplify in response to complexity
• prefer to make one big decision than a series of smaller ones, even if that would be better.

You may not be making decisions effectively if you…

• are overconfident in your ability to make good decisions
• don’t think you could make a mistake
• are unwilling to negotiate or compromise
• think all of your decisions and advice should be accepted.