Articulating your decision-making objectives

What do you want the decision we make to accomplish

Once you have successfully framed the issue at hand, identify your objectives in determining a course of action. Ask you team questions like “What do you want the decision we make to accomplish?” and “What would you like to see happen as a result of the decisions we reach?” Invite group members to describe their vision of the outcome of the decision as vividly and specifically as possible.

For example, if you were the manager at New Age Electronics, you and your team might come up with the following objectives:

Reduce the average waiting time per customer to two minutes.
Reduce call volume by 40 percent
Reduce average call duration to three minutes.

During the objective-setting process, you may encounter significant differences in opinion from one person to another. This is a healthy part of the dialogue and should be encouraged. However, if you find your list of objectives spiraling out of control, you may want to revisit the issue you’re trying to address. You may find that you have more than one issue to resolve.

ACTION POINT: Visualize and identify the objectives for the decisions you make.