Effective Decision Making

Often I work with physicians who have effective decision making in clinical practice. They are smart people who have challenging times making decisions. It seems the steps to successfully make a good decision in the business can sometimes seem beyond their grasp. I think this has to do with the nature of being a physician. We tend to believe we must solve all the issues, have all the answers, and take all of the responsibility. In medicine, that might be true for your patient, but in your business, the reality is something entirely different.

Over the years, I’ve applied what my mentor taught about problem-solving to many different situations. His advice has not failed me, and I’m honored and excited to share it with you. The concepts are simple, but the implementation might require you to change your mindset.

1. Properly define the problem before attempting to fix it. To fix something, we should first figure out how it’s broken. Too many times, we rush out and treat symptoms in our business rather than making the proper diagnose and treat the real problem. Often, our band-aid to the symptom will work for a short time, but the problem will create new signs later. When a new symptom appears, we apply a new quick-fix and pat ourselves on the back, leaving the real issue to continue to fester. As Peter Drucker said, “A wrong answer to the right problem can, as a rule, be repaired and salvaged. However, the right answer to the wrong problem, that’s very difficult to fix, if only because it’s so difficult to diagnose.” I encourage my clients to approach their business problem just as they would if it were a patient with a medical problem. Assemble a list of the symptoms, craft a differential diagnosis list, and go to work crafting a plan.
2. To find the real problem, ask questions. One of the first skills we are taught as a physician in our physical diagnosis classes is to ask questions. We are supposed to ask open-ended questions and then let the patient talk. However, it seems that when we are presented with a problem in our business, we tend to ask one or two questions, and then shoot from the hip. Instead, we should be asking good questions. Some examples are: What are the issues facing us right now? What are the potential sources of those issues? Is the problem critical right now? Just as with physical diagnosis, compare the answers and your assumptions to the observable and objective data available.
3. Always be selling - and sell early. Perhaps the second most important component of change in an organization, aside from defining the problem, is getting everyone in the business to buy into the change, the solution to the problem. Your organization must buy into the decision you’ve reached; otherwise implementing the decision will become more challenging. Great ways to create buy-in early is to involve members of the organization to help define the problem. Ask your people for their opinions, their observations, and how they see the problem. Each will likely describe the issue a little bit differently because of their unique position to the problem. Ultimately the leader will define the problem, but the data and objective reality of the problem will come from those within the organization affected by the problem. Including them in this process of defining the issue will also give them some ownership of the problem. Once they own a piece of the puzzle, implementing the solution, getting that needed buy-in, will become easier.
4. Feedback loops are critical. The human body has extensive feedback loops, whether it’s controlling your blood pressure, blood sugar, or hormones, properly working feedback loops are critical to your health. In your business, stable feedback loops are just as important. After you make a decision, write down the expectation and then track and trend your progress. Establish proper robust monitoring and controls as you implement your choices. Continuously compare your results to the expectations of your decisions. Don’t be afraid to change your decision as you progress down the path you’ve chosen. The world is continuously evolving; therefore, your decisions should too. That’s how you will know if you’ve correctly defined the problem to begin with. What seemed like a great decision might change to a poor or less than optimal resolution. What’s worse is sticking to that decision and making it a horrible decision, or changing course to fix a poor decision?
5. Push the responsibility of decision as low as possible. By pushing the responsibility down as low as possible, you move that responsibility as close to the action as possible. To do this, you’ll begin in the problem-defining step and creating buy-in. Not all decisions can be pushed downwards. If the problem is broad in its impact upon the business, will have long-lasting implications, has complicated metrics to follow, or is rare, the decision and the responsibility for that decision should be much higher in the organization. However, if the decision is local, short-lived, easy to monitor and common, push the responsibility as low as possible. Empower those whom you’ve given responsibility to change as they deem necessary in real-time.