7 Steps of Decision making process.

 
When you were a child, you had to decide whether to have ice cream, have a soft drink, or play a video game with friends. As you get older, your decisions get bigger. What will your future hold? It also depends on your good or bad decision. Decision made in a moment but affects the whole life. Decisions are related to the life of every human being no matter what he does. 

Today we are going to analyze in deep detail of

What is the decision?
Why do you have to make a decision?
How do the decision-making?

What is the decision?

You have been making decisions since childhood. Have you ever considered what you do when you make a decision, you make a choice? And choice means to select the best option. You go out to eat at a restaurant with your friends. From the menu, you try to choose what you want to eat. You also chose different courses at the time of admission to the college. Whether you will be employed or a business is also a choice. Choosing about your career and choosing shoes and clothes while shopping. 

All these big and small decisions are a selection process. You have a problem or issue for which you have some options to solve and you have to choose one of the best options. This selection process is called a decision. The more accurate the choice, the more accurate the decision would be. If you want to make the right decisions, select the right choices. Later in this article, we will talk about this method of right selection. (Decision-making process)

 
Why do you have to make a decision?

The decision is an essential part of human life. You have to make countless small and big decisions every day in your personal, social, and business life. Every human being has some goals in his life and strives to achieve these goals. These goals in life are the basis of the decision, the causes of the decision. 

You see many options to achieve your goals, for example, you have to go to someplace suddenly, now you can drive yourself, or you can join a friend who is going to the same place, or using public transport is another option. Now you have to decide which of these options is best for you. In this example, the main motivation for decision-making is the task for which you have to go to that place. If you did not have to go, you would not have these options and you would not have to make a decision. Your goals enforce you to make decisions. so if you want to achieve your goals, you just need to understand the decision-making process in detail.

How to make a decision?

Some basic steps in decision-making help people from all walks of life to make better decisions. As I told you earlier, the decision is a selection process and we have to make this choice out of a few options, so the question arises as to where these options come from. In the first, second, and third stages of decision making, we look for options. Then comes the process of selecting these options. So let's take a look at these basic decision-making stages in turn.

1- Know the problem:

Before making any decision, it is important to know the issue to be resolved. It is also called Problem Identification. This is the first step. How can you decide if you don't know the problem properly? Some people make a mistake in understanding Problem Identification.

“The problem is the difference between 

your desire results and the reality”

For example, the parents of a child wanted their child to obtain 80% marks and the fact is that the child obtained only 60% marks. Now, this is a problem for the parents because there is a difference between the desired results and the facts, which must be solved so that the next result would be better. While another classmate of the same child also obtains 60% marks but her parents are happy because they want their child to just pass the exam. In both cases the performance of the children is the same, the facts are the same but the desires of both the parents are different. Therefore, for problem identification, it is important that your goal is clear and you also analyze the facts and see how are different the results from what you set the goal? The magnitude of the problem depends upon the difference between desire and reality. So you can say that the problem identification is to find the difference between your desired results and the achieved results.

2- Reasons Identification

Once you have identified the problem, which means to know the difference between the desired results and the achieved results; the next step is to find out why the difference occurred. This stage is also called information gathering. This information is related to your resources and constraints. because you set your goals according to your resources.

There are usually five things in your resources

People --- time --- money

Material --- Machinery or equipment

You will find two types of reasons in case of your resources.

A-Your resources were limited.

Maybe you did not have the number of people needed to achieve the target or desired results, or you did not have enough time for this work, your capital was too low. The material was not enough as needed or you didn't have the machinery to help you reach your goal.

B- The resources have not been used properly and fully.

In other words, you had enough resources but for some reasons, you could not use your team properly, your time was wasted on unnecessary tasks, unnecessary expenses were incurred, and the material was lost or the machinery itself was not in the right condition.

Constraints are of two kinds

A-Internal barriers / controllable constraints

The reasons why resources are not used properly are called internal barriers. It may include the poor performance of your team, loss of time, money and material, etc. But you have the authority to manage these with little management. That is why they are called controllable constraints.

B- External constraints uncontrollable constraints

Factors that are out of your control also hinder you from achieving your goals. Even if you have enough resources and you are using them well, you often do not get the results you want. The reasons for this are external barriers. For example, a company that had enough resources and good management but unable to reach its goals. because the economy was in decline, the natural disaster could not work due to the rainstorm. Company suppliers or contractors could not do their job and so on.
In this second stage of decision-making, you have to take note of all these reasons. Because only accurate and timely information can help you make the right decision.

3- Finding and fixing possible alternatives     

       
This third step is to drive different alternatives based on the information gathered in the second step. For example, you found that your capital was not enough to get the desired results. In this case, the possible options would be to raise more money from outsourcing or save money from other operations to meet the required capital need.
Similarly, one alternative is to have a new team and the other is to train the existing team or use them properly. If there is a shortage of raw materials, one alternative is to negotiate more with existing suppliers and the other alternative may be to hire new suppliers. You will compile a list of different alternatives based on the information gathered. You can get opinions from different people, Most likely those who are part of this work or who have succeeded in this work. The advice of people who have achieved their desired results in this type of work will go a long way in helping you find the best alternative. It is important to keep in mind the barriers you already face when deciding on an alternative. So either you remove these barriers first or you find an alternative that doesn't have these barriers again. The alternative must be fully working so that you're decision is not proved wrong.

 Examples of possible alternatives could be as follows

For capital
1- Capital should be obtained by selling any of your assets
2- Someone should be made a partner based on capital
3- Take a loan from an individual, company, or bank
 
 
For manpower
1- Increase your team
2- The team should be changed
3- Improve the performance of the current team

For machinery
1- Machinery to be changed or modified
2- New modern machinery should be purchased

 
4-Setting priorities to the alternatives

You need to consider different aspects while making any decision. For example, it is important not only to manage the capital but also to save time and improve your team simultaneously. You will now set priorities for each aspect. Apart from business or management, let’s consider this simple example of your life that when you choose to buy a mobile phone, you also decide your preferences as, memory storage of mobile phone, speed of the mobile phone, the result of the camera, and the resale of this mobile phone. Depending on how much you prefer each feature, you can decide to buy a good mobile phone. In management or business decisions you decide how much capital is needed and what is the importance of team performance in comparison. How important is the performance of the machinery in achieving your desired results and how important it is to save your time? Only by prioritizing all these alternatives, you can reach a better decision. You have to take an in-depth look at which alternative influenced your results the most or which alternative will have the most impact on your desired results. Give top priority to what works best to achieve the desired results, and put the least effective thing at the end.

5- Select the Alternative

So far, you have researched and gathered all the information. You've also found and prioritized those alternatives. Now you have to choose the alternatives that you think, the best for you from this list. In some cases, you use all the alternatives according to their preferences but most of the time you use a few alternatives or options and leave the rest. This is because your resources, including your capital, your team, and the time you have, can influence your decision. It also happens that the best priority factors are selected immediately and the rest are used later. Remember that consulting with your team and sincere friends, helps a lot in finding alternatives, their preferences, and finally the selection. In this consultation, it is important to make sure that those who are consulted have good work experience.

6- Take the Action Plan

 Most people work hard at research and planning but withdraw on time, leaving their decision unfinished. In doing so, either their confidence hinders them or they are afraid of something. Remember, any decision is incomplete without action. Unless action is taken, you will not know whether your decision is right or wrong. So put into practice whatever alternatives you choose. Use these alternatives. And test your judgment.

7- Review the Decision

As you put your decision into practice, some of the consequences will come to light. These results will tell you how accurate your decision was or where you have missed it. Take a closer look at the consequences of your decision and find out the factors that you missed out on before or where you missed out on the factors.

Was your choice correct?
Did you set the priorities correctly?
Did you get the right advice?

If as a result of your decision, you have achieved the desired results or the difference between the desired results and the achieved results has been eliminated or reduced, then your decision is correct and continues it.

But if you still do not get the desired results, restart the decision-making process. Now properly fix the shortcomings and mistakes that were left before.

The decision-making process goes on like a cycle.

upcoming....

What are the reasons for making the wrong decision?