Decision-Making: 7 Steps and 3 Tools for Professionals

Do More with Less Effort, Stay Organised and Happy

This article will discuss tools and approaches that can simplify our lives. Most of the time, it isn’t elementary because we have many questions that need answers. Or we have different options but need help deciding which one to pick.

There are no universal algorithms for any task. But we will learn the best of these approaches today, that you can use almost anywhere, and a combination of them can give you a significant advantage. We’ll learn the following things today:

• 7 Steps for Making a Decision
• Decision Matrix
• SWOT Analysis
• Implementation Plan

So, let’s start with the first one!

7 Steps for Making a Decision

Before making any decisions, we must prepare well, gather all information, and work on it.

Identify the Problem

Understand the problem you have. It must be determined and straightforward for you. Please write it down on the paper and try to understand it.

Define the goal and outcome you want to get. Also, you need to understand what issues you currently have.

And the last thing you need to find is the measurement of the final result. How will you understand that you have solved your issue?

Gather Related Information

After determining the issue, look for resources, people, and information to help you work with it.

If you have yet to experience it, ask your friends, relatives, and coworkers. Alternatively, open the Internet, visit forums and Facebook groups, and ask people there.

Anything you will find saved somewhere in the note apps like Notion, Apple Notes, etc.

Find Alternative Solutions

Never go forward with the first solution. Take time and think about what alternatives you have. There are better ways to solve your issue.

Give yourself several hours to consider what you can do with other approaches. If the outcome looks more promising, then compare these solutions.

In the end, if you can’t find any alternative solutions, then take the first one and go on. But remember that the alternative exists always.

Weigh All Solutions

Make a table or draw several columns for each solution you have. Then, look into your desired result and decide the most important criteria. It’s the price or time.

Besides benefits, you need to look into the disadvantages. For example, the product or service you are looking for could be very cheap but with low-quality serving.

Choose Among The Alternatives

Afterward, when deeply analyzing all solutions, pick the one you think is the best. Again, it would be best to consider this after comparing by different criteria.

This step could be the most difficult because you want all options in one solution. Usually, it’s impossible, and we must decide what we are ready to pay to get what we desire.

Make a Plan and Go

Now, it’s time to make a plan. You have found a solution you like. Now, can you implement it? Below, we will discuss an approach that can help with this.

At least you need a to-do list that will navigate you through. And also, make a plan, and draw the “road” that will take you to your destination.

Review Final Results

After everything you’ve done, you can have a rest. Okay, it’s a joke. You can’t rest yet. Look at the final result, and tell yourself if you are delighted.

Write down what went wrong and what can be improved next time. We need to learn. Even if everything was good, we must find points where we made mistakes or could fail.

This step will help you in the future to make better decisions than ever before.

Decision Matrix

I would love to start with an example. And then take a deeper look. Let’s take a look at this picture below.

It’s the final result. But it’s easy to understand what’s going on. It’s a simple tool that you can use almost everywhere. The only thing you need to do is to take the following steps.

Create a decision matrix.

Make a simple table. For this, you can use Excel or Google Docs. In the left column, you must add all the options or solutions you want to compare. In the top raw, add criteria you will use for comparison.

Fill with Values

Then, write the value you think is appropriate for the selected option in each cell. Most discounts you can find on the Internet. Some will be constant and defined by the manufacturing company, and others can differ for each person, so you must search in the comments and forums.

Add Weight

Now, for each criterion, we need to define a weight. For example, for me, cost is more important than experience. That’s why we can set 5 for price, and 3 for knowledge, and so on.

Calculate The Weighted Total Score

At this step, you need to take two actions:

• Calculate weighted values for each cell
• Summarise these values to get a score for each option

Now, you have a complete comparison between all possible solutions, and you can pick the best one by choosing the best value in the score column. Sometimes, it could be difficult even at this point to decide, but we can get rid of all options with low scores, and then making the decision will be much simpler.

SWOT Analysis

Nothing complex about this abbreviation. It contains four words:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

Strengths

For each solution, we need to define the strengths of this. Why we have chosen this method? What benefits can we get?

In this cell, we can write all possible outcomes. Also, if, in comparison with others, it has some competitive advantage, we need to add it here as well. For example, it has the lowest price.

Weaknesses

It’s the opposite characteristic of the previous one. If we have one criterion with the worst weight for the picked solution, we must write it here.

This cell will help us define what we can lose and what we will need to pay for this approach.

Opportunities

It’s possible strengths if you want to get it simple. For example, we can connect with Google if we integrate with Google Drive. We don’t have it now, but we can get this opportunity in the future.

Also, we need to take this point seriously. Because usually, people care only about what they have right now. But it’s essential to look into the future and consider the possibilities for making current decisions.

Threats

The opposite of opportunities. It’s something that could go wrong, what we can lose, and that can have a bad outcome for our activities.

We need to consider all possible solutions. We must also see what can go wrong and whether it’s okay. If the risks are too high, we should look in another direction.

Below, you can see one of the examples of what this SWOT analysis table can look like. It’s pretty simple, and you can use just a piece of paper or Excel for this.

Implementation Plan

And the latest thing we learned today is to make a plan. The most important part of this journey is because, without it, we won’t get anything. Here is a fantastic picture that contains all the necessary steps.

Define Goals

Same as you could read above. You need to understand your result. Why do you need it? What purposes do you have? What outcome do you want to get?

Write all the questions you have and find answers for them. Getting a real reason to start working on it would be best.

Conduct Research

Find all the information that can help you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your friends, coworkers, and relatives. You have intelligent people around you, and each of them can give advice.

And remember about the Internet. Use many forums, discussions, articles, comments on socials, etc. All of them can give you a real help for achieving outstanding results.

Map out Risks

Take a look one more time at the SWOT analysis. Define possible risks. Are you ready for them? If not, then find other possible solutions.

Getting great results is tricky without any risks. But be ready for them. If they are too high, getting into this is not valuable. Always look for alternative options.

Schedule Milestones

Make a plan and put it on the calendar. Let’s say you have a desire to develop a mobile application. I can assist you in the entire process. You must write a list of features, create a design, develop a mobile application, and upload it to the store.

You can make a general plan for the next four months. Then, set a particular deadline for each step one specific deadline. For example, on 3 October, we will finish a design; on 15 November, we spend developing the iOS version; on 23 November, we apply the Appstore.

Assign Tasks

If you have a team, then define who will work on what. Find people who can help you with this. And take responsibility for managing all the work between all team members.

For one team player game, you can be alone. That’s fine. You only need to add all helpful information to simplify each task because wearing all hats on one head is challenging.

But you can quickly advance if you have good instruction and tutorial materials to help you finish tasks.

Allocate Resources

In the end, you need to allocate your time and money resources. If you need more clarification about implementing anything, you must refine it. Please talk with your team and people with some level of competence.

And now you are ready to go! I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and found beneficial information for yourself.

If you want to read more and get more helpful information, I will leave several helpful articles that you may find interesting for yourself.