Career Development Centre (CDC) > Critical Thinking

Decision Making

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Jannatul Ferdous:
What is Decision Making?

In its simplest sense, decision-making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action.
In the wider process of problem-solving, decision-making involves choosing between possible solutions to a problem. Decisions can be made through either an intuitive or reasoned process, or a combination of the two.

Intuition

Intuition is using your ‘gut feeling’ about possible courses of action.
Although people talk about it as if it was a magical ‘sense’, intuition is actually a combination of past experience and your personal values. It is worth taking your intuition into account, because it reflects your learning about life. It is, however, not always based on reality, only your perceptions, many of which may have started in childhood and may not be very mature as a result.
It is therefore worth examining your gut feeling closely, especially if you have a very strong feeling against a particular course of action, to see if you can work out why, and whether the feeling is justified.

Reasoning

Reasoning is using the facts and figures in front of you to make decisions.
Reasoning has its roots in the here-and-now, and in facts. It can, however, ignore emotional aspects to the decision, and in particular, issues from the past that may affect the way that the decision is implemented.
Intuition is a perfectly acceptable means of making a decision, although it is generally more appropriate when the decision is of a simple nature or needs to be made quickly.
More complicated decisions tend to require a more formal, structured approach, usually involving both intuition and reasoning. It is important to be wary of impulsive reactions to a situation.

Applying Both Reason and Intuition

One way to do this is to apply the two aspects in turn. It’s useful to start with reason, and gather facts and figures. Once you have an obvious ‘decision’, it’s the turn of intuition. How do you feel about the ‘answer’? Does it feel right?
If not, have another look, and see if you can work out why not. If you’re not emotionally committed to the decision you’ve made, you won’t implement it well or effectively.

Jannatul Ferdous:
What Can Prevent Effective Decision-Making?

There are a number of problems that can prevent effective decision-making. These include:

1. Not Enough Information
If you do not have enough information, it can feel like you are making a decision without any basis.
Take some time to gather the necessary data to inform your decision, even if the timescale is very tight. If necessary, prioritize your information-gathering by identifying which information will be most important to you.

2. Too Much Information
The opposite problem, but one that is seen surprisingly often: having so much conflicting information that it is impossible to see ‘the wood for the trees’.
This is sometimes called analysis paralysis, and is also used as a tactic to delay organisational decision-making, with those involved demanding ever more information before they can decide.
This problem can often be resolved by getting everyone together to decide what information is really important and why, and by setting a clear timescale for decision-making, including an information-gathering stage.

3. Too Many People
Making decisions by committee is difficult. Everyone has their own views, and their own values. And while it’s important to know what these views are, and why and how they are important, it may be essential for one person to take responsibility for making a decision. Sometimes, any decision is better than none.

4. Vested Interests
Decision-making processes often founder under the weight of vested interests. These vested interests are often not overtly expressed, but may be a crucial blockage. Because they are not overtly expressed, it is hard to identify them clearly, and therefore address them, but it can sometimes be possible to do so by exploring them with someone outside the process, but in a similar position.
It can also help to explore the rational/intuitive aspects with all stakeholders, usually with an external facilitator to support the process.

5. Emotional Attachments
People are often very attached to the status quo. Decisions tend to involve the prospect of change, which many people find difficult.
For more about overcoming this, see our pages on Change Management, but also remember that ‘deciding not to decide’ is also a decision.

6. No Emotional Attachment
Sometimes it’s difficult to make a decision because you just don’t care one way or the other. In this case, a structured decision-making process can often help by identifying some very real pros and cons of particular actions, that perhaps you hadn’t thought about before.

Jannatul Ferdous:
 Effective Decision-Making Process

There describes one possible framework for making effective decisions. It is a seven-stage model, and was originally designed for use in groups and organizations.

1. Listing Possible Solutions/Options
To come up with a list of all the possible solutions and/or options available it is usually appropriate to use a group (or individual) problem-solving process. This process could include brainstorming or some other 'idea-generating' process.
See our pages on Problem Solving and Creative Thinking for more information.
This stage is important to the overall decision making processes as a decision will be made from a selection of fixed choices.
Always remember to consider the possibility of not making a decision or doing nothing and be aware that both options are actually potential solutions in themselves.

Jannatul Ferdous:
2. Setting a Time Scale and Deciding Who is Responsible for the Decision

In deciding how much time to make available for the decision-making process, it helps to consider the following:
•   How much time is available to spend on this decision?
•   Is there a deadline for making a decision and what are the consequences of missing this deadline?
•   Is there an advantage in making a quick decision?
•   How important is it to make a decision?  How important is it that the decision is right?
•   Will spending more time improve the quality of the decision?
Remember that sometimes a quick decision is more important than ‘the right’ decision, and that at other times, the reverse is true.
Responsibility for the Decision
Before making a decision, you need to be clear who is going to take responsibility for it.
Remember that it is not always those making the decision who have to assume responsibility for it. Is it an individual, a group or an organisation?
This is a key question because the degree to which responsibility for a decision is shared can greatly influence how much risk people are willing to take.
If the decision-making is for work, then it is helpful to consider the structure of the organisation.
•   Is the individual responsible for their decisions or does the organisation hold ultimate responsibility?
•   Who has to carry out the course of action decided?
•   Who will it affect if something goes wrong?
•   Are you willing to take responsibility for a mistake?
Finally, you need to know who can actually make the decision. When helping a friend, colleague or client to reach a decision, in most circumstances the final decision and responsibility will be taken by them.
Whenever possible, and if it is not obvious, it is better to agree formally who is responsible for a decision.
This idea of responsibility also highlights the need to keep a record of how any decision was made, what information it was based on and who was involved.  Enough information needs to be kept to justify that decision in the future so that, if something does go wrong, it is possible to show that your decision was reasonable in the circumstance and given the knowledge you held at the time.

Jannatul Ferdous:
3. Information Gathering

Before making a decision, all relevant information needs to be gathered.
If there is inadequate or out-dated information then it is more likely that a wrong decision might be made. If there is a lot of irrelevant information, the decision will be difficult to make, and it will be easier to become distracted by unnecessary factors.
You therefore need up-to-date, accurate information on which to make decisions.
However, the amount of time spent on information-gathering has to be weighed against how much you are willing to risk making the wrong decision. In a group situation, such as at work, it may be appropriate for different people to research different aspects of the information required. For example, different people might be allocated to concentrate their research on costs, facilities, availability, and so on.

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