A630.4.4.RB - Shuck, Allison

How Companies Can Make Better Decisions 

In the video How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Marcia Blenko states that the more successful a company is at making and exciting decision, the more engaged employee’s become. Why do you think that is? Maybe, because employees are motivated through their perceptions; perceptions are part of the basis for understanding behavior. That being said, employees are more willing to become involved with a company who makes better, more effective decisions, especially if those decisions impact the employee directly.

So many companies today have becoming so complex that effective decision making is now conducted on many different hierarchical levels. Thus, making it is hard to determine who made what decision and why? As an organization grows, so does it leadership. In some instances, it can be difficult to hold people accountable for their decisions, both effective and non effective. As a result, companies must cut through the complexity issues and develop a process that determines what decisions must made and by whom.

In order to determine the basis for effective decision making, companies must evaluate the following elements:

1. Quality – Is this decision the best decision?
2.  Speed – How fast can we make important decisions?
3. Yield – How well did we execute the decision?
4. Effort – Did we use the right amount of effort needed to make the decision?

In addition to the four elements: (quality, speed, yield, and effort) I believe that priority should be taken into consideration when evaluating effective decision making. Why, because it is important for a company to prioritize and determine what decisions should be made first, second, third, extra. Without prioritizing decision, a company can spend more time on less important decisions and vice versa.

What will I be able to take away from this video?

The 5 step processes for effective decision making:

1.  Benchmark metrics – identifying how well you make decisions. This will allow you to see where you are in your decision making process and how to improve.
2. Identifying critical decisions – determining what decisions matter most; prioritization of decisions.
3. The what, who, how and when – what decisions need to be made, who is responsible for making those decisions,  how will the decision will be executed and when should the decision be made?
4. Support decisions – ensure that all aspects (the talent, the culture) of the company support the decisions being made. 
5. Embedding the decision making process throughout the organization.

Overall, I believe the 5 step process will allow me to analysis my own decisions. My goal is to start focusing on the consequences that follow bad decisions.