How to make an important decision quickly

Former president of Google Enterprise Apps explains how to make important decisions efficiently to increase the responsiveness of your company in the face of new challenges.

When and how to take an important decision on a professional level? To answer this question immediately we report the valuable suggestions published in Quartz by the founder and CEO of Upstart and former president of Google Enterprise Apps, Dave Girouard: practical tips to maximize performance and improve the Company’s performance.

Before we deeply in the topic, it should be specified as for the well-known American entrepreneur it is central to make decisions quickly. In fact for Girouard, the true leader is above all one who manages to be quick to make their own choices.

Because as said, according to Girouard, success at work depends in part from ability to be more expeditious of others, who wants to be successful must train every day to develop a dynamic and effective decision making: if the exercise and proper nutrition are good habits to be followed in daily life, in the same way the decision goes readiness trained consistently.

But then how to make a difficult decision in reduced timelines? Let’s find out by analyzing step by step the various points below…

# 1 – Making decisions

Making decisions: Better before and after

For the founder and CEO of Upstart there is no doubt: a good plan outlined right away is much better than a perfect plan outlined next week. This is because they procrastinate on decisions already taken action in any company an incredible waste of time and because, often, the most important thing is not the choice itself but when that choice is made, and what advantage can give. The first advantage of speed is often the reduction of analysis costs should never exceed the benefit received from the action.

To proceed in the right way, you have to ask in advance how much time and effort needed to complete the entire decision-making process: once you get the answer, it finally starts to become familiar with the concept of speed (of course there are complicated choices that can not be done sitting own, but getting used to making quick decisions also helps in hostile circumstances).

The best solution to be implemented when it aspires to become faster, is surely to force himself to make a decision within a clearly defined time limits imposed to themselves and to their team a period circumscribed within which to act, they change the dynamics business in favor of productivity and cooperation.

Choices fatal or non-fatal: the responsibility to decide

Explaining how to make a decision, Girouard warns that first of all we must understand if the choice will be reversible or not: although there are rare fatal alternatives on which you need to think long, in most cases, decisions are almost always reversible, may be sufficient few analysis to assess how to proceed (rule now is better than rule quietly or not at all rule).

Another important element to keep in strong consideration is the play of the entire company team: the objectives are not the ones to get the unanimous consent or being influenced by others, but to involve the team in decision making giving weight to the views of the various resources. Moreover, a comparison with your team is often helpful to find any food for thought and make more informed decisions.

After the comparison is critical that the leaders take the baton and responsibility of choice, without ever falling back on colleagues the burden of lower grade. Just so the comparison will always be constructive and challenging over time.

# 2 – Putting the decisions into practice

Seize the day

Although, according to the former president of Google Enterprise Apps, not everything must be put in place immediately, in most cases it is better, as well as decide on the fly, to seize the moment and put into practice as soon as possible the choice same, thus avoiding unnecessary waste of time and encouraging staff to carry out the provisions with momentum.

Impose deadlines, establish clear objectives and solicit choices and executive allows to give the entire work organization a higher level of alertness and reactivity to changes and challenges.

Independent decisions and subdivision projects in blocks

The decision-making process of a “pawn” should never block the progress of a project: if, for example, one or more contributors cause some delays, the leader has an obligation to demonstrate the ability to make decisions that enable the advancement the other parts of the process, reducing to a minimum wastage of time.

To succeed in this, it becomes a duty to turn when possible serial dependencies in parallel actions, jumping into the trunk passages not immediately necessary, and carrying out all the tasks executed immediately. What is required then is to help the staff to make it as flexible as possible and streamlined the entire development process.

With the growth of the complexity of a project, also it increases the difficulty of the fragmentation of actions and processes. The only way is to divide it into blocks, isolating the possible critical processes: separate sections to be developed as much as possible independently and without restrictions.

The effect of competition

A good system that allows you to understand how to make decisions quickly is to leverage on competitors to stimulate the company’s team to do their best every day.

The typical dichotomy is the contrast between “dictate the pace of the market” or “to remain a step behind the others.” Employees and associates have to develop that sense of typical urgency of one who knows that to achieve success and results, should be faster and more effective competitors.

Team spirit

A further suggestion to improve decision-making, is to involve staff in decisions as to share and advocate the same decisions. This helps not only the moral, but increases the commitment of the individual to the success: employees will thus be promoters of the idea themselves and not mere executors.

The involvement and discussion with the team should never be interrupted. Consult with some frequency the various components of the team makes it possible to maintain a high level of concentration, monitor the effectiveness of actions and helps to find efficient solutions in case of need.