A632.3.3.RB - Framing Complex Decisions

Making decisions for your organization become increasingly more difficult as stakeholder’s increase, complexities are added, and environmental decisions have to be made. As stated in our text, there are decision approaches that prioritize flexibility to increase adaptability and overall effectiveness (Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001).

Decision making heavily relies on the data available to make the decision, this is why building an informational base is critical to the process. Building an information base includes the utilization of warehousing and data mining with goal of optimizing decision making (Hoch et al., 2001). In my own organization data accessibility is immensely important, in our own capacity we leverage data points to help make effective decisions involving our marketing campaigns. We use tools like Tableau dashboards that allow us to collect data like impressions, audience reached, effectiveness of ads, and much more. We refer back to these data points when time to make decisions regarding the future of our marketing campaigns.

Identifying constraints is another notable method to help deal with complex decision making. Just as emphasized in our text, having a list of constraints is just as important as having a list of possible options (Hoch et al., 2001). In my own organization we identify and label constraints as “limitations”. When identifying constraints, we are not looking to discourage a proposed project plan but instead we are raising awareness of the pertinent factors and options that can negatively impact a decision. This constraint identification process is critical especially in situations where decisions are complex by nature.

Having enhanced decision support tools are worthless unless there are strengthened organizational capabilities to leverage these enhanced resources. Understanding these decision support tools is essential to decision making, so having the organizational capability to leverage these tools and to understand them is a great aid. You may find it easier to make a decision in a large team setting when there is a resource that every internal team member and decision maker at least understand and trusts. In my own organization leadership takes the time to train and get team members comfortable with the decision support tools, which in return directly strengthens the organizational capabilities.

There are various methods to tackle decisions that are increasingly more difficult due to factors such as increased stakeholder’s, and an abundance of complexities. While evaluating these three methods I revealed that even my own organization leverages these methods to avoid make complex decisions even more difficult to make.

Reference

Hoch, S. J., Kunreuther, H., & Gunther, R. E. (2001). Wharton on making decisions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.