Thursday, September 5, 2013

A630.4.4.RB_LarsonKurt, How Companies Can Make Better Decisions

Marcia Blenko argues that decision effectiveness correlates positively with employee engagement and organizational performance.

In the video she (Blenko) states that a decision based approach type of organization directly impacts not only the critical decisions, but also the day-in and day-out decisions that drive an organization. According to Blenko, it is the cumulative value of decision effectiveness that can add value to an organization. 

How do you think that employee engagement relates to decision effectiveness?

Employee engagements are critical to sound decision effectiveness. Without employee buy-in and managerial buy-in as well, all the best-laid plans cannot be effectively deployed with successful expectations.

In the article Blenko (2013,) keyed in on decision architecture in areas like:
Value-at-stake, estimating the value involved in each decision, and focus on those with the highest value.
Degree of management attention required that some decisions inevitably need more attention than others.
What are some impediments to good decision-making?

As discussed by Blenko (2013,) are individuals clear on the roles they should play in critical decisions, do people with decision authority have the skills and experience they need, do goals and incentives encourage good, fast decision-making and execution?
Blenko suggests that there are four elements of good decisions: quality, speed, yield, and effort.

She (Blenko) thoroughly explained in both the video and article that Quality equates to how often does the correct course of action is initiated, Speed is how quickly are decisions made vs. the competition, Yield is how often are decisions executed as originally intended, and effort boils down to putting the correct amount of effort into making and executing decisions.

In your opinion, are there anything missing from this list?

I believe the video and article missed the mark on follow through. Much like a good and through golf swing is critical to a clean and straight shot, follow through is equally as, if not more important to the business environment.  In other words… how does one know the four elements of good decision making processes: quality, speed, yield, and effort
are successful, with out looking at the results, verifying the hypotheses or simply asking the customer if the finished result or product met their expectations.

What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

One thing that sets successful organizations apart is the ability to make high-quality decisions. But it isn’t just decision quality the top performers also make those decisions quickly and execute them effectively, with little to no effort in the process.
Once you have reflected upon these questions, list any other questions or insights that have come to you as a result of this exercise.

Much like anything worth accomplishing well in life, marriage, military career, educational goals or your personal bucket list. It is the details that can and will make or break your plans. Analyzing them against known or perceived obstacles or setbacks will enhance the accomplishment or attained goal if the proper steps are taken such as the following:

1                  Score your organization,
2                  Focus on key decisions,
3                  Make decisions work,
4                  Build an organization,
5                  Embedded decision capabilities.   

Reference:

Blenko, M. (2013). Decision insights the five steps to better decisions. Bain Brief, Retrieved from www.bain.com

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