How To Make Decisions And Use A Decision-Making Process
When was the last time you made a decision? It was probably when you decided to click on the link and read this article! So, what decision-making process did you use? How much time did you think about it? One way or another you just experienced a decision-making process. And that was but one of perhaps hundreds of decisions you have made already today.
What is decision-making?
Put simply, decision-making is the process of considering, and making a choice between, various courses of action.
A decision can be defined as:
“Come or bring to a resolution in the mind as a result of consideration.”
or
“Make a choice from a number of alternatives.”
Lexico (Oxford English Dictionary)
Decision-making can be further defined as:
“The action or process of making important decisions.”
Lexico (Oxford English Dictionary)
But even these definitions, though useful, can be misleading as many of the decisions we make every day are unconscious. Also, we apply process – of sorts – even to non-important decisions.
Decision-making is a process, but it is actually something we do constantly. Whether we are conscious of the process or not, we are faced with a multitude of decisions to make every day. Estimates vary as to exactly how many, but, researcher Sheena Iyengar did studies of US adults showing they made around 70 conscious decisions on a daily basis.
And there are higher estimates. Researchers at Cornell University have shown that we make 226.7 decisions each day on just food alone (Wansink and Sobal, 2007). I am guessing my .7 decision was when I nearly had that extra cup of coffee…
And that is just for choices about food! Think about all the other decisions we have to make. For example, even as I type I am making a constant string of choices of which words to use in order to express what I want to say.
Some online sources estimate that we make around 35,000 decisions a day. This estimate is based on the number of thoughts we have per second. This is not an exact measure by any means. But, what is certain, is that we have to make loads of decisions! Many of these choices are conscious ones, and these require some sort of applied process.
“Time is like a river that carries us forward into encounters with reality that require us to make decisions. We can’t stop our movement down this river and we can’t avoid those encounters. We can only approach them in the best possible way.”
Ray Dalio
The Paralysis of Analysis
Have you ever stood in a supermarket and stared for an age, weighing up a choice between similar items?
Most of us will have experienced this kind of analysis paralysis to one level or another. It happens when the choice is too great, alternatives too similar or the choice is outside of our usual frame of reference. To avoid this paralysis we often rely on heuristics – simple decision-making tools, rules or hacks – to help us make informed decisions. For example, we might prefer one particular brand or product and just pick that so we don’t have to give it too much thought. This can be an effective heuristic – to save us time, ensure quality or save money.
Using Heuristics
But, knowing about psychology, it is also these sorts of biases and heuristics that marketing experts love to exploit. To understand more on this subject then I recommend you read Daniel Kahneman’s acclaimed book Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman is recognised as the world leader in understanding heuristics and bias.
As Kahneman demonstrates in his research, most decisions we make are actually unconscious ones. It would take too long to use a process or explore the pros and cons of every decision. We can risk paralysis by analysis if we spend too much time on a decision, as we can become overloaded by information.
Some decisions are relatively unimportant. This could include choosing which clothes to wear, what to eat for lunch or what to watch on television. For these decisions, simple heuristics – even flipping a coin or rolling dice – can be effective.
Some decisions are much more important, such as the choice of spouse, partner, career or work. Similarly, large purchases, such as buying a property, are significant decisions. We instinctively know that we should take more time and effort over the more important decisions. The problem is that we do not necessarily understand how we make decisions. Nor do we have the tools to help us make the best choice. So how can we do it better?
What was the last big decision you made and how did you make it?
We often think of decision-making as a rational process involving our logic to solve a problem. But decision-making is not just problem analysis (although they are linked). Also, a lot of decision-making is influenced more by emotion than by logic.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Our emotions are very important and employing them does not necessarily make a choice irrational. Emotions and passions are connected to our experiences, preferences and values.
If we were purely rational we would operate according to Rational Choice Theory. This means we would always make the choice that offers the best statistical chance of success or reward. However various scientific studies have shown that this is not the case. We are not purely rational and can be heavily influenced, by ourselves, others and circumstances to make quite irrational decisions.
The psychology of decision-making
People don’t realise that they often influence and even fool themselves. Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber published a paper in 2011 that concluded we use our reason and logic, not to get to the truth or to make good decisions, but primarily to strengthen our position and persuade other people that we are right. This is confirmation bias, where we selectively choose data that supports our decision. This is just one example of cognitive bias.
Our circumstances also play a large part in our decision making especially if we are in stressful conditions. At the extreme level, we could be affected by the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ responses first outlined by Walter Bradford Cannon. These physiological responses have a direct influence on our psychology and may even completely override our conscious decision-making capacity.
Other people can also bias our decisions. This could be simple peer pressure or more manipulative influence employed by an individual. Our psychology can be exploited. As mentioned earlier, salespeople have long understood this, hence strategies such as creating the idea of scarcity or advertising using subliminal suggestion and product placement.
Being aware of the influences we have is very important if we want to make good decisions. Decision-making processes can help us as they encourage us to take a step back from our situation and assess it more objectively. This will not eliminate bias but it will help.
Decision-making processes also seek to identify the stages needed to make a decision so we can follow through on a choice in a logical manner. One common breakdown of the steps is shown below:
The 7 steps to a decision-making process
Outline the goal or outcome/analyse the problem
Gather data/consider factors
Develop alternatives/courses of action
Consider the pros and cons of each alternative
Make the decision
Implement the decision/take action
Learn from the decision
To some level, most people apply a decision-making process at some time, even if they don’t call it by that name. Making a list of the pros and cons of a decision is one of the simplest and most common decision-making processes. Related to this is the setting of priorities or by reducing choices by process of elimination.
One process we employ is giving our decision making to people and things. Acquiescing responsibility for a decision, as we do to our elected politicians, or delegating decision making to subordinates is a decision making process. Flipping a coin is a way of acquiescing responsibility to fate or probability (depending upon your view of the world) whereas there is also an increasing array of software that we can also use to support our decision making, or even to make decisions for us.
Why are decision making processes important?
How much training have you had, specifically on decision-making?
Despite the importance of decision-making and the general awareness of decision-making processes, very few organisations put much time and training into teaching people how to make better decisions. We gain a certain amount of critical thinking and problem analysis through our formal education but few people feel properly prepared to make important decisions in their work, especially when they may need to defend their position, demonstrate their rationale and persuade others to follow a decision.
Many existing processes within organisations support decision-making. For example, a tender process, where bids from vendors are received and reviewed, is a decision-making process. This sort of selection process takes into account factors important to a contract, such as cost, quality and the track record of a company. Voting in a meeting is another simple process. It is a democratic heuristic, testing not only how people think or feel about an idea but also then putting pressure on others to support a decision once votes are cast.
Teaching decision making
But few people – including leaders – are taught decision-making skills that can be used more generally. There are a few institutions that have recognised the importance of teaching tools and processes to their decision-makers, to equip them to make informed choices. The military and the medical profession are key examples of this. This is because those with responsibility in these professions are dealing with life-and-death decisions, often made under highly stressful and emotionally charged situations. In these careers, where people are held accountable for such weighty choices it is no surprise that a lot of thinking has gone into good decision making.
The Military Decision-Making Process of the United States Army) and the UK Military Combat Estimate Process (known as the Seven Questions are examples of these sorts of tools that share much in common and reflect the seven steps outlined above.
But the challenge I bring to leaders in all walks of life is this: even if a decision you make is not likely to be life or death, it can still radically affect the quality of people’s lives, as well as the success and profitability of an organisation. So is it any less important to make good decisions in other spheres of work?
What decision making processes are there to use?
The good news is, that even if you have not had formal decision-making training, there is help available. There are plenty of robust decision-making processes and tools around, it is just choosing the best one for you, your team and your situation.
A good starting point is understanding decision-making at its most basic and for this I would recommend looking at the OODA loop. OODA stands for ‘Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act’ and you can learn more about it in my post on The OODA Loop Decision Making Cycle.
My experience as a Bomb Disposal Officer, leadership coach and management consultant led me to develop my own decision-making process that I dubbed The Right Questions. This is a simple tool that uses the interrogative words of the English language as prompts for the steps you need to take and questions you need to ask when making decisions. You can find out more by reading The Right Questions Framework Guide.
Is decision making just for leaders?
Decision making is becoming of increasing importance to those not in traditional leadership roles. Organisations are becoming less hierarchical in structure and in today’s fluid and fast moving work place the best employees are those who can take the initiative, make and act upon good decisions.
Therefore everyone can benefit from understanding more about the way we make decisions and from learning simple decision-making processes.
And as we have seen, good decision-making is not just important in the workplace. We all have to make decisions that affect the direction of our lives. This is why as a coach I have found that processes, such as The Right Questions, can be equally as helpful in exploring the bigger questions of life.
Where are you heading? What do you want to achieve? How are you planning to get there?
Taking things further
You may want also want some help, improving your decision-making and becoming more effective at achieving your goals. I have the pleasure of seeing amazing, positive, transformations in the individuals and organisations I work with. If you would like some assistance too, in person or online, then please do drop me a line. You can email me via the contact page.
I look forward to hearing from you!
If you want the right answers you have to start with the right questions
About The Right Questions
The Right Questions is for people who want greater clarity, purpose and success. There is a wealth of resources to boost your effectiveness in achieving goals, your leadership of yourself and others, and your decision-making.
Wherever you are on your journey, I hope that you find information on this site to help you on the next leg of your quest. Even if that is just the inspiration to take one small step in the right direction, then that is a success. If you can take pleasure in learning and travelling as you go, then so much the better.
I love to serve people, helping them unlock their potential, empowering them as leaders, and assisting them in achieving their goals. Please get in touch and let me know how I can support you!
If you want the best chance of successfully achieving your goals and dreams then you are going to need some sort of plan. Here are some tips, steps and templates to help you plan and achieve any goal.
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Walt Disney
What is a goal?
A goal is something you want to achieve. It could be a personal ambition or a group objective. It is an idea that you envision and then plan and commit to fulfilling.
The Importance of goal setting
The process of setting goals helps us psychologically to encapsulate an idea and commit us to action. Working towards a goal gives us the feeling of positive forward movement.
It also helps practically as setting goals allows us to quantify our end-state and qualify our success. Having a set goal allows us to measure our progress and reflect and learn as we work towards it.
Setting goals allows us to know when we have succeeded in something and provides the opportunity to celebrate when we achieve the goal.
Whether you are an individual thinking about a career change or personal development, a team undertaking an innovative project, or a large organisation rolling out a new strategy you will need a plan of some sort.
Action plans do not need to be overly complicated. For example, at the simplest level, to-do lists and shopping lists can be crude but effective action plans.
If you are an individual aiming to achieve a simple goal such as going on holiday the details of the plan will, of course, be very different to a large multinational corporation making an action plan for launching their next product. But despite this, the initial questions that you need to ask are very similar.
How to make an action plan and achieve your goals
The steps to making a plan and achieving your goals
To achieve the goals you just need to follow these simple steps and create your plan:
1. Ask yourself why do you want to do the thing you are thinking about?
Asking why helps to work out what you value and what motivates you.
To find out more about discovering your principles, passions and priorities go to the post What are your personal values?
2. Work out where you are and where you want to go
You need a start point and an endpoint. First think about your present situation, where you are now. This situational analysis helps to set the context for starting out with your goal.
Next, think about where you want to be when you have succeeded in your goal. This is the vision or dream you want to achieve.
4. Think about which ways you could achieve success and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
There are different routes you can take to achieve the goal. Which one seems the best? Think about what the risks might be and what advantages and disadvantages there are to each option. Then you can work out what you believe to be the best option to choose.
5. Pick your preferred goal and work out how you are going to achieve the goal.
Now that you have considered the options and picked your favourite you can start to plan how you are going to achieve it. Think about: What are the steps you need to take? What resources might you need?
6. Break the goal down into steps, noting who can help you.
You don’t have to do everything on your own, even if this is a personal plan rather than a group one. As you break down the goal into steps think about who might be able to assist you or give you advice.
7. Schedule the individual steps into your diary to define when you will achieve them.
Now that you have a list of steps you can put them into your diary. I tend to keep my list of goals and steps on my phone then prioritise them and put the most important next steps straight into my diary. A step should be easily achievable, something you can do in minutes or at most hours. The one most important thing you need to do should be the next thing in your diary, even if that’s a simple 5-minute task such as making a phone call.
This process reflects The Right Questions decision-making process and can be applied quickly – as a rapid problem-solving method – or in a more lengthy in-depth study to formulate a detailed plan or strategy.
The Right Questions planning process employs the seven basic interrogatives in the English language (why, where, what, which, how, who, when) to provide an easy to remember and holistic approach to problem-solving.
You can find out more about The Right Questions and how to apply them via the following link:
Whether you are doing a quick appreciation of a situation or looking at a problem in greater detail it is useful to create a simple summary of your conclusions. Practically it is useful to have this summary on a single piece of paper that is quick and easy to refer to and easily communicated or shared.
A personal action plan template can help you achieve this headline view of the challenge you are facing and remind you of the critical factors you need to address. If you post the action plan in a prominent place – be it your noticeboard, fridge or computer screen – it will also help to keep you accountable to the next steps you need to take in your plan.
Here is a simple pdf template (pictured below) to capture your personal plan for achieving goals. You can download the template for your use below:
I have also created a one-page template that summarises key factors from The Right Questions methodology in a mind map format. Feel free to download and copy the picture below:
Next Steps
You may want also want some help in identifying your goals and developing your plan. I have the pleasure of working alongside many amazing individuals and organisations doing exactly that. If you would also like some assistance, in person or online, then please do drop me a line. You can email me via the contact page.
Would you like a free e-book to help you set goals and create a personal action plan? Then just subscribe to my newsletter. Don’t miss out; sign up here!
I look forward to hearing from you!
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Tony Robbins
If you want the right answers you have to start with the right questions
About The Right Questions
The Right Questions is for people who want greater clarity, purpose and success. There is a wealth of resources to boost your effectiveness in achieving goals, your leadership of yourself and others, and your decision-making.
Wherever you are on your journey, I hope that you find information on this site to help you on the next leg of your quest. Even if that is just the inspiration to take one small step in the right direction, then that is a success. If you can take pleasure in learning and travelling as you go, then so much the better.
I love to serve people, helping them unlock their potential, empowering them as leaders, and assisting them in achieving their goals. Please get in touch and let me know how I can support you!
Why You Should Know The OODA Loop Decision-Making Cycle
Colonel John Boyd, a strategist with the USAF was a fighter pilot who studied decision-making in dogfights. He actually worked at the ‘Top Gun’ school of Tom Cruise fame. He proposed that as a situation evolves we have to observe the changes and orient ourselves to new information. We can then decide on the best course and take action. In other words, decisions are made in a recurring loop of:
Observe,
Orient,
Decide and
Act.
This is the OODA loop.
Sometimes this process is relatively slow and objective and we can pause to consider what we do. At other times the information and situation may be changing so fast that things become subjective. Then we have to work on instinct. This relates to the System 1 (fast) and System 2 (slow) thinking popularised by Daniel Kahneman.
Because the cycle takes place, no matter how fast the situation is unfolding, the specifics of how we orientate ourselves is of key importance. As Boyd notes:
“The second O, orientation – as the repository of our genetic heritage, cultural tradition, and previous experiences – is the most important part of the O-O-D-A loop since it shapes the way we observe, the way we decide, the way we act.”
It stands to reason that as we try and orientate ourselves it is useful to have others providing input. This is because external insight broadens the scope of the ‘repository’ of genetics, culture and experience. So, if time allows, get more quality data from others. When there is no time it is the depth of experience of the person making the decision that really counts. This allows for good intuitive decision-making (see Blink by Malcolm Gladwell).
How to apply the OODA loop
Boyd developed his ideas in a military context. His aim was to help speed up the decision cycle of USAF pilots so that they could get inside the enemy’s decision cycle. To win a dogfight a pilot needs to make better and faster decisions than the adversary. Also, maintaining the initiative creates opportunities that can be further exploited. The same thinking is applied to business and outsmarting the competition in the marketplace.
At first, this may not seem to have a direct application to our situation. But, in our case, the enemy is often ourselves. Equally, it could be our situation or any other challenge we face. We often do not make time to assess a situation and therefore we can fail to orientate ourselves properly. It follows that we then become reactive rather than proactive in response to our circumstances.
A foundation for decision-making
The great thing about this model is how simple it is. Boyd identified the bare essential elements of decision-making. Therefore, the OODA loop is really useful in helping us understand other decision-making tools and frameworks.
‘The Right Questions’ framework is designed in the same way. It follows the same simple cycle but expands the process so that it can be easily used for strategic planning as well as quick decision making.
If you want the right answers you have to start with the right questions
About The Right Questions
The Right Questions is for people who want greater clarity, purpose and success. There is a wealth of resources to boost your effectiveness in achieving goals, your leadership of yourself and others, and your decision-making.
Wherever you are on your journey, I hope that you find information on this site to help you on the next leg of your quest. Even if that is just the inspiration to take one small step in the right direction, then that is a success. If you can take pleasure in learning and travelling as you go, then so much the better.
I love to serve people, helping them unlock their potential, empowering them as leaders, and assisting them in achieving their goals. Please get in touch and let me know how I can support you!