Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Steps to follow when making a tough decision

Making the tough decisions can be a hard road and we all could use a refresher when it comes to a particularly difficult decision. The folks over at Silicon Beach Training offer a few great tips on decision making and how individuals can organize their thoughts and their team for a better decision outcome.

Here are their top eight tips for decision making:
  1. Be clear about what outcome you want
  2. Consider what appears to be the most appropriate course of action
  3. Look at the alternatives; consult your peers, team, colleagues for ideas
  4. Explore the consequences of each alternative
  5. Choose one
  6. Implement it
  7. Review it
  8. Make any appropriate changes for next time
Sounds far too easy, right? But as project managers know, making the process streamlined and clear will help to avoid problems and keep the projects and decisions in line. But what if making the decision isn't completely up to you? Group decisions don't have to be a pain, check out the Silicon Beach Training post for more information.

What tips can you share with us for making tough decisions? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

1 comment:

Perry Wilson said...

I think your first item, be clear about what outcome you want, is critical to keeping the emotions low in decision making.
We are humans and emotions are always involved, the key is to keep them low.
The tip I would add is to remember the emotions in communications and justification of the decision.