Assessing Your Decision-Making Process

Have a plan for evaluating the various elements in your process, from gathering your decision-making team to implementing the actual decision.

Many managers wait to evaluate a decision until the end of the process, after it has been implemented. This is too late. If there is a flaw in the decision itself or in its implementation, you may learn a useful lesson about how not to make or implement a decision, but it will be too late to repair the damage.

Assessing the decision-making process is an ongoing effort that must occur in real time, throughout all the phases of the process. For example, you need to monitor the tone of your meetings and address problems in group dynamics before they interfere with our goal. Sometimes new information becomes available or new conditions arise, necessitating a midcourse correction in your objectives.

Have a plan for evaluating the various elements in your process, from gathering your decision-making team to implementing the actual decision. It could be something as simple as a checklist. Take the time after each meeting to think about how it went. In addition, understand the distinguishing characteristics of effective decision making.

ACTION POINT: Don’t wait till the end of your decision-making process to assess it’s effectiveness.