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The act of decision-making is integral to our existence. An average human being makes dozens of decisions every day, from choosing what to eat and wear to high-impact decisions such as choosing a business for investment or picking a field of work.
What Is A Decision-Making Process?
Decision-making is a critical activity. We explain the decision-making process through a step-wise approach. This approach can make the decision-making process beneficial to you.
Remember that it’s not just important to make the right decision but also to do it at the right time. Imagine you have to catch a bus. If you make a hasty decision and try to board it even before the doors open, you might hurt yourself. On the other hand, if you wait too long, you may end up missing the ride altogether.
How To Follow A Decision-Making Process
The decision-making process is critical for personal or professional management. You need to adhere to various steps in decision-making to do it right.
Every individual has different abilities when it comes to making decisions. While it is not possible to bring everyone’s decision-making abilities to the same level, the knowledge, and understanding of the various steps in the decision-making process can help us all become better at it.
Let’s take a look at the various steps involved in the process of decision-making:
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Identify the problem
You can’t solve a problem that you don’t know about. Therefore, identifying and clearly defining the problem is a crucial step in the decision-making process.
Imagine you are driving down the highway and suddenly your car breaks down. What would you do in such a scenario? You would first try to assess the cause before calling in a helpline number.
In the same way, before taking any corrective measures, you first need to determine the factors that are causing the problem. Once you know that, you will also be able to make a decision more efficiently.
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Gather information
Once you arrive at a decision, you need to collect all the related information.
Let’s say you are gaining weight and you have arrived at the decision that you need to join a gym. Now, the next step is gathering information about various gyms in your neighborhood, the exercises that will benefit you, and so on.
You will have to analyze the information you have, take help from an expert, and look at any other possible information sources.
However, you shouldn’t get obsessed with information gathering. Once you have a reasonable amount of information to act upon, you should move to the next step.
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Check the options
One of the steps in the decision-making process is the analysis of the options available.
Once you have collected all the information about various options, you need to figure out which one is the best by comparing them on criteria such as cost, timelines, and their impact.
Identify the pros and cons of each option and then make the choice from among the alternatives available.
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Make the decision
This is the culmination of the entire decision-making process. You have identified the need or problem, collected all relevant information, and decided which solution suits you best. Now is the time to take action.
All the steps in decision making lead you to this point and you need to formulate an action plan that will set the ball rolling. For example, if it is a decision that requires teamwork, put a team in place, define the roles, and let everyone work towards their tasks.
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Review the decision
The steps in the decision-making process don’t get over once you have taken a decision. The hallmark of a good decision-maker is following up on the decision with a thorough review. You need to mull over what is the decision-making process followed and whether it is the right decision.
Conclusion
Whether you are a highly experienced and senior professional or just a trainee, you should have the ability to make strong decisions. Knowing the various steps in the decision-making process can help you be more decisive. Harappa Education’s Making Decisions course empowers people with effective decision-making abilities. The course will help you learn about decision-making frameworks such as the Harappa PRISM–Process, Reflect, Information, Skeptic, Multiple Perspectives–Framework which you can use to combat biases and make good decisions. Sign up for the course to not only gain better clarity about the decision-making process but also enhance your standing as a leader.
Explore topics such as Decision Making and Decision-Making Examples from our Harappa Diaries blog section to analyze problems and make decisions.
