November 03, 2008

Decision Making: Controlling Events, Being Controlled by Events


"Get the habit of analysis-analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind."

Frank Lloyd Wright

Mr. Wright was suggesting that developing a framework for reaching decisions is beneficial and once in place, habitual.

I've observed in the companies I've worked with that decision making is based on one of three scenarios:
  1. One way one time, another the next with no discernible pattern.
  2. By default as a result of no decision being reached (the decision is not consciously made and events dictate what happens.)
  3. The result of being subjected to a repeatable process in which facts and assumptions are "processed" with the outcome being a conscious decision.
By far the third option is both the most preferable and least used. As with planning, good processes to make decisions are not readily apparent, don't just happen and need to be purposely created.

Were you told how your company reaches decisions when you joined? Have you ever been in a meeting where the topic was "Develop Process to Make Decisions"?

3 comments :

  1. Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect and if ever there was a profession where processes are critical that's it. No surprise he would say this.

    But I don't think business decision makers think the same way particularly those in the "soft" disciplines such as sales and marketing. Other than a few "what do you think?"s being uttered, pretty seat of the pants, make it up as we go along.

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  2. And the "right" process for a company is one that will be unique to them and their culture. You have to take into account the experience level of managers who will make the decisions, the nature of the decisions and the willingness of senior management to trust what they do; all of which is different in each company.

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  3. I am a manager in and engineering company and maybe because we are so process oriented in all we do, having a decision making process is a given. It's not in non engineering companies?

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