How to Make Excellent Decisions Quickly

We make decisions all day, every day. “Should I get up or hit the snooze button?” “Cereal this morning or eggs?” “Should I schedule this meeting for 10 or 11?” “Cook tonight or a drive through window?”

Making these decisions is relatively easy. We’ve made them before. We quickly, almost unconsciously, weigh the options against how we’re feeling at the moment and criteria established over time. In a matter of seconds we have the answer and move on.

There are other decisions that require a bit more time, research and thought. “What smart phone should I buy?” “How and where will we vacation this year?” “Should I get the car tuned up and painted or buy a new one?” “If I decide to get a new car, should I buy or lease?”

These choices don’t come up every day so we don’t have established criteria to rely on. We have to gather information, do some research and weigh the options. Often we’re not sure we made the right choice and we won’t know until we complete the process. We decide to buy this smart phone instead of that one. We decide to vacation one place instead of another. We’ll either be happy or unhappy. Either way we’ll learn.

When it comes to business; owners, executives and managers get paid to make decisions. The decisions they’re charged with making affect the growth and success of businesses and the lives of people – customers, employees, vendors, suppliers and the community. It’s important that the correct decisions are made. And, it’s even more important that the decisions are made quickly. Not in haste, but quick.

If you’re a business decision maker, it’s in your best interest to have established criteria, knowledgeable advisors and quick access to necessary information that will help you make correct decisions quickly.

One of the best ways to make yourself more valuable and consistently contribute to the growth and success of a business is to create a positive history of making excellent decisions in real time.

How do you do reach that level as a decision maker? The starting point is having strong policies and processes to guide you. If you don’t have policies and processes to guide you, it’s time to start creating them.

When a problem comes up, and they always do, it’s an opportunity to create a process or a policy or both.

The first step is to correct the problem.

The second step is to determine the cause of the problem. This process requires honesty and in-depth examination.

The next step is to create a policy or a process or both that will prevent that problem from ever happening again. Or, at the very least, minimize the potential of it happening again.

The final step is to develop a process for correcting the problem quickly if it does happen again.

If it makes sense to you, at first it may be a good idea to discuss your thoughts with a trusted third party before making a final decision.

All policies and processes should be continuously monitored for effectiveness and opportunities for improvement.

Following this process over time will give you the experience to become very proficient at making excellent decisions quickly. You may eventually get to the point where you can see a problem coming before it happens and take appropriate action.

You’ll increase your value to the business which is always a good thing.