I know you’ve all been busy – either working at home or starting to consider bringing employees back to the office OR trying to decide if you are even going to return to the office. I think most of us pride ourselves on making good decisions. If nothing else the COVID19 situation has certainly put our daily decision making to the test.

So how are you making good decisions when there is not enough information to base a decision on?

Do you just wing it or are you making decisions from gut feel? Do you involve your leadership team or employees? Or make the decision by yourself and tell everybody this is what we are doing without any exploration if it’s a good decision or not?

I always say two heads, or more are better than one. I’m sharing a system I use in my business and personal life. I might be helpful to you, your employees and or your family.

Decision Making

Step 1 – Start in the Inquiry box –Inquire with an open mind; let your team speak and don’t squash any of their ideas or statements. Keep digging until you feel you have asked all the why questions. Why do we need this? Why do we think this will work? Why is this the best answer? Why are you certain?

Step 2 – Move to the Assumptions box – Identify and challenge the truth of all assumptions. Are you certain or uncertain about X, Y, Z? How important or less important is that assumption to those decisions?

Step 3 – Impact box – Measuring the financial impact of doing X. How do we measure the impact? Will we make money? Will we need to spend money when we make the X, Y, Z decision?

Step 4 – Alignment – Verify the alignment with your company core values, company initiatives, and strategic goals. Are we making value-based decisions? Does this decision align with our core values? Our initiatives? Will this decision move us closer to our goals or take us off course?

I would love to hear if you used the Decision Making Square. What was the outcome? Let me know.

As always I’m here when you need me. Give me a call or drop a note.