What Is Decision Making Process: 5 Steps to Make Effective

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July 8, 2022

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"Think a thousand times before making a decision. But after taking the decision, never turn back if you get a thousand difficulties" by Adolf Hitler. We make a variety of decisions every single day. They may be big or tiny. However, these decisions change our lives to either good or worse. The power of decisions will affect our life both professionally and personally based on the choice we make. It can be logical, irrational, internal, or external. Whatever be the decision, we have to take it seriously to bring in the desired change and aid with personal development. Wondering how? Every strategic decision-making process may stimulate a thread of activities, and even the small decisions can also lead to disastrous choices. For example, a healthy lifestyle choice or career path will make a tremendous change in our lives. A series of consequences follow each result. Consider even the small decisions like what we wear, where we choose to go, the music we prefer will impact the decision-making thread. Hence we must consider all our choices with utmost care. Take proper steps before taking the final decision. Understand and learn the different decision-making skills and conclude accordingly.

What is Decision-Making?

In real life, you will be making a decision every day. For example, deciding what to wear, eat and perform daily tasks. Group decision making or individual decision making is critical and is an integral aspect of life that requires choosing from two or three potential options. Finally, it is done for a course of action to seek a suitable solution for the problem. In the management field, sound decisions are vital to give special attention to the success of a business. How does a decision-making process work and help a business? The mechanism used in decision-making skills is the power and balance to allow any business to expand linearly and exponentially. Therefore, all the processes included in group decision-making and individual decision-making have a target with pre-set objectives to achieve their mission or vision. The business will face barriers in organizational, marketing, operational, and administrative fields, so a systemic decision-making procedure is required to resolve them.

Steps Involved in an Effective Decision-Making

1. Identification

The first step is the identification process of both the goal and purpose of the decision. Questions like why do you want to pursue the decision? What issue does it help in solving? What is that which needs to be addressed? Etc. Make use of these and relate with your profession. These will give a clear picture of the goals and help one make the proper decision, keeping in mind the objectives. These questions will also allow one to figure the various dos and don'ts with rational thinking. So, answer all the "Why's" and identify the primary goals. Figuring out what is essential will help you to make better decisions in the long term.

2. Information and Data

Gather all the relevant information that is required with an internal self-assessment. Then reach out to the external sources and collect further more data. What can you do to acquire more data? Online help is a significantly easier means today to get access to numerous information. Accumulate all of them and simultaneously work on the alternative options that you have. The collected data will be critical during problem-solving and decision-making. In reality, if you are going to buy a car you will want to see the information and specifications about the latest models in the market. Therefore, keep collecting data and have them on track in each step of the decision-making process. Seek expert advice at this stage if it is required.

3. Analyze the Pros and Cons

Is it essential to make decisions knowing the pros and cons? Why? There are consequences for every decision. This will help to foresee how it will impact the future. Analyzing the pros and cons will give an upper hand in becoming aware of the situation better. Furthermore, you will attain a lot of perspectives to choose from. The results may entirely vary from the anticipated ones, and still, you will gain a clear picture of what to prioritize and how to evaluate the results.

4. Decide

By now, with the previous steps, you would have identified your problem, collected the relevant information, and weighed the pros and cons extensively. Now that you must be ready for the final decision, it is the right time to listen to your instinct. Does listening to your instinct work? Instincts help you better, in being more aware. It will help an individual make the right decision. So, during the last call, it is necessary to ask yourself the way you feel. If there are any doubts, evaluate the decision one more time if required. Bear in mind that an impulsive decision will always lead to trouble. So, re-evaluate the decision and analyze whether they are going to have short-term or long-term benefits.

5. Review

Once the decision is made, this step is again very crucial. Do not let it go. A decision that is taken will teach a lot in life. If it turns out to be positive, it will give you confidence. On the contrary, if it turns out to be negative, you will understand the problem better and always remember that failure is not the end. Failures are learning experiences and will help us grow. With the right attitude, you will rise and hit the target even after a failure with a better decision the next time. How to build confidence when the decision goes wrong? If the decision goes wrong, one has to return to step two and start working with other options. This step requires more patience and self-confidence as it takes time to see the outcome. The possibilities of going wrong will be because of misidentifying the problem, having only a single source, having lots of sources, poor time estimation, and overestimating the outcome. But it is essential here to face the situation without stressing and working with a positive mind frame right from step two. Here is where most people lose heart. Therefore, it is imperative to gather strength and learn from one's own mistakes.

Final Words

A significant part of every problem-solving and decision-making process includes understanding the simple techniques and practicing them regularly. Some decisions will only require little effort, whereas some will require more effort and time to achieve a solution. Apart from the above five steps to a good strategic decision-making process, you can include and bring them into action if you find them helping. However, do not neglect any of the fundamental five steps before making any important decision in your life.

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