Art and Science of Decision Making

At every moment of our life, we are consciously or unconsciously making some decisions or others. The impact of these decisions on future events of our lives varies widely. Also, the situations for making decisions can vary from Light moments like what to eat in Dinner to very tough moments like searching options capital infusion in a company.

Making decisions is an art as well as a science. Those decisions can be taken in haste which will not create an oscillating effect in life and subside in shorter period of time. But, those decisions which are very important need time to analyze and evaluate the different alternatives available on certain parameters and then only come up to solution.

There are certain steps of evaluation before coming up to solution and recommendation:

· With the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, find out the important parameters. This is very important as missing on any one parameter will result into miscalculation and hence end-up making wrong decisions. Example: If someone wants to buy a car the probable relevant stake holders can be family members and close friends. Now, involve them for setting the parameters like Price, brand, color, comfort etc.

· Again, with the involvement of these relevant stakeholders, give weightages to the parameters. This will help in focusing which parameter is most important. Example: Like for buying the Car, Brand and Price may be given higher weightage than other parameters

· The different alternatives available should also be written down. Example: Buying Car can be categorized up to two levels. One is category of car (Hatchback, Sedan or SUV) and other is model (TATA Nano, Alto 800, Honda City etc.)

· Objectively all the alternatives should be evaluated on the basis of pre-defined parameters and should be assigned some numeric like 1 to 5 where 1 is least satisfied and 5 is most satisfied

· These ratings should be adjusted according to the weightages

· Summation of the final rating (i.e. after adjustments of weightages) will give the clear understanding of which alternative to choose finally from the pool of alternatives

· Develop recommendations and enable decision making

Above mentioned steps can be applied to any decision we make in life but it should also be taken care of that whether the gravity of situation warrants the usage of these steps or not. It is advised to use this method when the stakes are high (like tough monetary and emotional decisions).

Making decisions by using these practices is a Science but ensuring effectiveness is an art!!!

By: Rajendra Pratap Singh, Asstt. Business Manager, CUNIX

To know more about CUNIX...log on to: http://www.cunixinfotech.com/