A decision-maker is a person accountable for making choices that determine the course of action for an individual, group, or business.
Primary Implication
The majority of great actions that lead to higher sales, profits, and cash reserves in the bank are preceded by a great decision.
You improve your odds of making the best decision when you are clear going into the decision-making process on whether you will use a command, consult, vote, or consensus approach to making the needed decision.
Overview
Most profit losses in a business occur because the people working together fail to convert the ideas needing action into immediate action for one of two reasons:
- They are unclear about how the decision will be made, so no decision gets made.
They do a poor job of following through on the decisions that are made. - The decision-maker solves the first obstacle by communicating upfront which of the four most common ways of making decisions they will be using.
The challenge the decision-maker must resolve is how much involvement they want from the people affected by their decision. Each decision-making approach represents a different degree of involvement. Increased involvement brings the benefit of increased commitment along with the curse of decreased decision-making efficiency.
When choosing among the four primary methods of decision-making, consider the following questions:
- Who cares? Determine who genuinely wants to be involved in the decision, along with those who will be affected. These are your candidates for involvement. Don’t involve people who don’t care.
- Who knows? Identify who has the expertise you need to make the best decision. Encourage these people to take part. Try not to involve people who contribute no new information.
- Who must agree? Think of those whose cooperation you might need in the form of authority or influence in any decisions you might make. It is better to involve these people than to surprise them and then suffer their open resistance.
- How many people is it worth involving? Your goal should be to involve the fewest people while still considering the quality of the decision and the support that people will give it. Ask: “Do we have enough people to make a good choice? Will others have to be involved to gain their commitment?”
The majority of great actions that lead to higher profits and greater cash reserves in the bank are preceded by a great decision. You improve your odds of making the best decision when you are clear going into the decision-making process on whether you will use a command, consult, vote, or consensus approach to making the needed decision.
