Decision making is the rational choice between alternatives, this process characterized by indecision in the face of risk and fear of the unknown.
All throughout our lives we are continually making decisions, even if we do not make them since in this case it is also a decision making.
Since I came to university from the business world, ten years ago, I have detected that the new generations of students, better prepared and with better means than the previous ones, nevertheless suffer from a lack of decision, they resist making a judgment or reach a conclusion, fear being the biggest obstacle in decision making.
The university generations of just ten years ago are nothing like the current ones in this regard. Except for students with leadership skills, which there are and are very good, many of today's university students are afraid to make decisions. They have almost everything: a solid background, they know languages, they have gone abroad with international study programs or on their own, they know and like new technologies. However, there are many who come to the offices with great doubts when making decisions. They are afraid of uncertainty and the risk it entails. Where does the problem lie? What is the origin of it? It seems that it is due to excessive protectionism in the family itself, in the educational centers themselves and in the social environment,that accommodates people so that decisions are made by others for them.
Regardless of age, both for the new generations and for anyone else, the message against fear for decision-making is that when a decision is made after a detailed analysis of the problem, there is no mistake as such. The decision has been correct at the time. However, the result of the decision may be bad as a consequence of the alteration, deviation or erroneous interpretation of the parameters of the scenario that served as a model.
In professional life, many people test their ability to choose between duty, power or wanting to make certain decisions.
Until recently, when organizations were functionally structured with vertical models and many heads, decision-making was closely tied to management positions. Nowadays, in which the business structure tends towards the organization by processes, any person in the organization has to make more and more decisions, hence the need to use an adequate process to decide in the face of fear, the phases of which are listed below.
1) Clearly define the problem
It is the fundamental point since the entire decision-making process depends on this starting point. If the definition is wrong, the following steps will be based on an incorrect starting point.
2) Identify the limitations of the process
In many decision-making processes, there are limitations such as the lack of material and human resources, time availability, qualification of the people in the process team, their mobility, project financing, etc. Thus, for example, the decision to buy a machine may be conditioned by the lack of money and make it unfeasible. A worker may have the possibility of changing companies and occupying a better position, but it may be conditioned by the fact that his wife works and the transfer is not possible.
3) Analyze and develop all potential alternatives
In this section, no alternative should be discarded in principle, always taking into account the history of similar or related events, opinions of experts on the subject, consultations with directors or people from other organizations and existing publications.
4) Analysis of the alternatives
Their strengths and weaknesses are determined using all known techniques: statistical data, risk analysis, simulations, system dynamics, decision trees and computer programs.
5) Choosing the best alternative
The solution that has the most strengths over the weak ones is chosen.
After choosing the best alternative, it is very important that all the people on the team in charge of the implantation fully know the decision and how and when they should act.
The evaluation of the decision making will provide the information regarding positive or negative results but remember that if the steps listed above were carried out with discretion and professionalism, you made your decision properly.
