To draw on a medical analogy, in the business world the process of reengineering is more akin to a physician resorting to surgery instead of preventative care. Without denying the enormous benefits of simplifying workflows and collapsing management layers re-engineering seldom transforms an industry structure at the deeper level. The primary question remains: What led to this patient getting sick in the first place? (or equivalently in the business world: What thought process led an employee to make a sub-optimal decision?)
If the ultimate goal is to prevent disease rather than just treat its symptoms, we must understand the basic causes. Differences in lifestyle, diet, occupation, are key reasons for patients falling sick. Recent research has also shown that certain groups of people are more prone to a particular disease due to genetics; some maladies such as sickle cell anemia, Down's syndrome, and male pattern baldness are determined almost exclusively by genetics.
In the managerial context a manager's perception of their role and industry predisposes him to behave a certain manner in particular circumstances. The concern here is that managers without prior training are genetically encoded in the area of decision-making – so they are likely to make poor decisions. Re-training employees to improve their decision-making skills is in essence about re-working the genetic code to optimize it.
To cite a military analogy, one begins to suspect that the problem lies less on the battlefield than it does in the minds of the generals directing the forces.
This is why we take a holistic approach to decision-making.
What is a Holistic Approach.. [Part 2]
An Insight into Decision-Making.
Most people fail to make optimum decisions,
The old "experience & judgment" methods are inadequate,
Decision-makers need to use a structured process!
These striking conclusions are based on real-life experiments conducted by renowned behavioral scientists such as Khaneman, Tversky (Stanford), Dan Ariely (MIT-Sloan), and many others......................
True no one knowingly makes a “bad” decision. Even a person with no training in decision-making believes that he/she made the best possible decision. But we often hear phrases such as, “we made a good decision”, “it was a bad decision”, etc. Note that the terms “good” and “bad” are attached to the past tense. This is because we have to wait for the outcome before we can pronounce success or failure. At the time we make a decision, there is no way of saying if we made a good decision!
The quality of your decision will depend on the following:
