Analyzing lessons learned from consulting engagements, I can identify one key point: to manage effectively one needs to make good decisions. The decisions one makes defines one’s reality. As the saying goes: “we are the sum of our decisions”.
Through time we all develop expertise in the subject. We make decisions every moment and every day. Some decisions we make fast, even automatically, and some we make after a long struggle. Yet in many cases we do not make decisions very well. There could be many reasons for this: hastiness, lack of information, biases, limited horizons, limited rationality and even mental state.
The decision making subject itself is illusive. We are constantly in a decision-making mode. We are even deciding on how to make a decision. Decisions move in all directions. Every decision has predecessor and successor decisions. Every decision is nested in a bigger decision. If I want to get something, which is a decision in itself, I need to decide on a plan, decide on the method to create this plan, on the data to collect, on assumptions to make, and so on. And since things are rarely black and white, every step needs a decision on its level of gray – decisions on the confidence level of the decision itself as well as the contingency required in case of decision error.
So, what is a good decision? Like art and beauty – it is in the eyes of the beholder. Does that mean we cannot learn to be better at making good decisions? Not exactly.
Some time ago, I visited the studio of a special-effects artist. It was mesmerizing to see his beautiful work and try to imagine how it plays in movies. But there was another thing that struck me. It was the enormous amount of tools he had at his disposal. From hammers of many sizes, chisels, scrapers, drills, clamps, to tools which I could not comprehend their use.
“Do you use them all?” I asked my friend.
“Yes,” he said. “Some of them maybe rarely. But the fact that I know I have all these tools gives me confidence that I can handle any job.”
As a management consultant, I long ago gave up on the question ‘How to make good decisions?’ and moved towards collecting management tools that will give me the confidence that I am prepared to best handle any decisions coming my way.
In the UMT Institute portion of the UMT blog, I’d like to explore these tools and discuss their effective use.
