Making Decisions

Why is decision making important?

Making decisions is the part of life that you are usually in control of. It can be as simple as deciding what time to wake up in the morning or whether to buy something new for yourself. Of course, there are also more complex decisions, which require significantly more research, consideration and self-reflection.

Often, decision-making can be confused with problem-solving, which means being forced to make a decision due to conditions outside your control. It is important to develop methods and systems for recognising and making decisions, whatever the situation you find yourself in.

We typically attribute the success of highly successful people to their decision-making, so it is useful to know how to generate positive results from the decisions you are presented with, while avoiding negative consequences and learning from failures.

Everyone has to make decisions throughout their whole life, so it is undoubtedly something you will face – you probably already make decisions very regularly. This also means that all the people around you make decisions too and will be able to provide you with guidance and help if you ask them.

What is decision making?

Making decisions involves one or more courses of action being taken by choice. Two processes can be used to make decisions:

• Intuition: Using your ‘gut feeling’ to make a decision. 
• Reasoning: Making decisions using facts and figures.

Decisions made using intuition take into account a combination of personal values and past experience. These can be helpful, but such decision making is limited by your own perceptions and not necessarily based on an accurate representation of reality. Unlike decisions made only using intuition, which can be quick and instinctive, those which are made using reasoning require a more complicated approach.

The best decisions are arguably made when both intuition and reasoning are taken into account.

What prevents effective decision making?

• Involving too many people

Listening to others can be valuable, but involving too many people can work against you. Everyone has their own values and views, and while it is good to understand them and take them into account, one person may be required to take responsibility for making a final decision.

Making a decision can often better than reaching no decision at all, and delegating responsibility can make decision making more effective.

• Not gathering enough information

Without gathering enough information about the situation and available options, you may end up taking a decision without any basis.

Avoid making decisions blindly if relevant information is available. Every new piece of information has the potential to bring new insights to light, which can change the entire scenario.

• Not prioritising information

Collecting excessive amounts of information leads to ‘analysis paralysis,’ where it is impossible to process it all and reach a decision. In this situation, you can seek advice to help decide which information is most important and why.

Prioritisation is particularly important when there is a deadline approaching and you have to make decisions under pressure without time to take all the available information into account. Setting a timescale for making a decision may also help you to quickly filter conflicting information.

How should I approach a decision I have to make?

Define the goal

In order to make decisions most effectively, begin by identifying your purpose, defining the problem that needs to be solved, and asking yourself why it needs to be solved.

Other questions you may want to consider include:

• What needs should be addressed?
• Who is impacted by the decision?
• What is the value of the decision to those involved?
• When does the decision need to be made by?
• What information is available to help with decision making?

Gather information and work out the options

Gather information that relates directly to your problem. This can help you better understand the matter, fill gaps in knowledge and generate more ideas. Additionally, make sure you consider all possible alternatives. You may be able to combine more than one solution, so even if ideas seem unrealistic, they may still be useful.

Try to find and ask experts if they are available to help you. They may be able to offer new ways of approaching the issue, which can inform your decision making.

Some more questions you could ask are:

• Do you need to come up with a new idea or can you implement one that has been used by someone else before?
• How many alternatives do you need?
• Is it a simple problem that requires less information or a complex one that needs more?
• How long will it take you to gather the information?

Consider the consequences, decide, and act

Ask yourself what consequences a decision will have, taking into account the impact on other people and what the the future consequences might be. For example, you may think that a lie now may solve a problem, but it is likely to cause a lot more trouble later.

Once you’ve reached a promising decision, consider how it differs from other options. Have you spent enough time and effort making sure it’s a quality decision? If you have, then you can commit to the decision and move forward by working out what needs to be done next.

Evaluate your decision

People often forget this step. Once a decision has been made, they do not spend any more time thinking about it and do not reflect on what they have chosen to do. If the outcome of the decision is positive, you should try to identify the reasons why it went well – this will help you the next time you have a decision to make.

If it did not turn out as well as you hoped, think about why this was the case. If you can fix it, try again. Trying more than once enables you to build on your experience and improve your success rate.