Decision Making Techniques

How to Make Good Decisions

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If you want to lead effectively, you need to be able to make good decisions. If you can learn to do this in a timely and well-considered way, then you can lead your team to spectacular and well-deserved success. However, if you dither or make poor decisions, your team risks failure and your time as a leader will probably be brutally short.

The techniques in this section help you to make the best decisions possible with the information you have available. They help you map out the likely consequences of decisions, work out the importance of individual factors, and choose the best courses of action.

The section starts with some simple techniques that help you to make decisions where many factors are claiming your attention. It then moves on to explain more powerful techniques, such as use of Decision Trees, 6 Thinking Hats and Cost/Benefit Analysis, which are routinely used in commercial Decision Making.

	Introduction
	Pareto Analysis - Choosing what to change
	Paired Comparison Analysis - Working out the relative importance of different options
	Grid Analysis - Making a choice taking into account many factors
	Decision Trees - Choosing by valuing different options
	PMI - Weighing the pros and cons of a decision
	Force Field Analysis - Analyzing the pressures for and against change
	Six Thinking Hats - Looking at a decision from different perspectives
	Cost/Benefit Analysis - Seeing whether a decision makes financial sense
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	The Delphi Technique - Achieving well thought through consensus among experts
	Avoiding Groupthink - Avoiding fatal flaws in group decision making
	Impact Analysis - Identifying the "unexpected" consequences of a decision
	Inductive Reasoning - Drawing good generalized conclusions
	The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix - Making unbiased, risk assessed decisions
	The Ladder of Inference - Avoiding "jumping to conclusions"
	Nominal Group Technique - Prioritizing issues and projects to achieve consensus
	Prioritization - Making best use of your time and resources
	Reactive Decision Making - Making good decisions under pressure
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In the first of these articles, we look at how these tools fit together. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Extension Resources" list underneath.

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Extension Resources (Not included in the Mind Tools E-book.)

* Shows articles available in full only to Career Excellence Club Premium members.

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) - Choosing by weighing up many subjective factors
Reactive Decision Making - Making good decisions under pressure*
Spiral Dynamics - Understanding how people's values affect decision making*
Critical Thinking - Developing the skills for successful thinking*
Blindspot Analysis - Avoiding common "fatal flaws" in decision making*
Multi-Voting - Choosing fairly between many options*
Monte Carlo Analysis - Bringing uncertainty and risk into forecasting*
Stepladder Technique - Making better group decisions
Decision Making - Are you "cautious" or "courageous"? *
The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model - Deciding how to decide*

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