5 common shortcomings of organizations October
10, 2006
Most decision-makers have no training in
decision science
By Manny Chahal – editor@sorach.com
When I
was promoted to management I was surprised at how decisions were made by my
peers and executives of the company.
There were meetings and discussions and white-papers and consultations
and brainstorming, but it was a mystery as to how decisions were made. Most of the time the decisions did not make
sense with respect to the data that was available, sometimes decisions were
delayed for no apparent reason. Having worked with organizations on almost all
of the continents, application of decision sciences is more prevalent in Asia,
Europe and Mexico than in U.S. and Canada. This does not bode well for future
of these countries. Here are 5 common shortcomings of organization that can be
addressed to achieve extraordinary results.
q Lack of education of executives and senior management about
decision-making process
q No one is responsible for decision process
q No documentation and repository of decisions
q Lack of decision-support tools
q
Organizational culture of firefighting
Having
talked about the decision process gaps in organizations, how does one actually
fix these problems? Let me draw upon
some of my recent recommendations.
These may not work for all organizations but can be tuned.
q Remember,
unless the person at the top of the organization is committed and is knowledgeable
about the value of organizational decision-making process, it will be difficult
to move forward without major problems, as some resource allocation and long
term commitment will be needed for successful implementation.
q Make
someone in the departments responsible for decision process and documentation.
Do this on a rotation basis so that everyone can learn the skill and one person
does not get saddled with documentation all of the time. Involve Quality department and get advise on
implementation throughout the organization. Keep the initial expectations
realistic.
q There
has to be corporate memory. People
repeat the same work many times as there is no searchable documentation in the
organization. Some decisions when
executed well are counter-intuitive.
You can be sure that such decision will be undone and after relearning
the issue done again.
q Get a
suite of tools for your organization.
This will automatically improve the decision process as it will force a
certain methodology on the decision process.
It is better to have some(any) formal process than none at all.
q The last
point is more difficult to implement and will take a long time to show
results. Celebrate departments and
individuals that have a reputation of no fires rather than concentrating on
fixing fires. I will talk about this
important subject in a later article.
Further Information
To
receive a free ‘Think Card’ for this article that shows a diagram of the actual
implementation in an organization
please send email to msc@sorach.com
with your email address and card5 in the email body.
For
comments please feel free to contact Manny Chahal editor@sorach.com