Million Dollar Considerations (2)
by Joan Marques

It keeps amazing me to find that practically all management issues perfectly
relate to daily acts, and that lectures in management can therefore be seen
as guidelines on how to effectively and efficiently live our lives as well.

Today I had an interesting meeting with my students about decision-making
processes and the usefulness of Information Technology therein. And I guess
that, even if you don’t consider business and management your area of
expertise, you can easily extract that Information Technology has changed
the business environment as we used to know it: hierarchies became flatter
due to improved accessibility of all levels in a work-organization, and
decisions are now made more rapidly and more informed, since it has become
so easy to obtain most of the information you need about competitors,
customer-behavior, product-developments, new inventions, and government
decisions on-line. Besides, more and more firms create a web presence these
days, thereby allowing customers to design the product of their choice to
their own preferences. These firms do that because it saves them inventory
costs and enhances customer satisfaction, along with the numerous other
advantages one could identify.

Stepping away from Information Technology as a decision enhancer, we further
looked into the various ways managers are making their decisions in the
workplace today. And yes, there is a wide scale of possible distinctions in
how this happens. One of the basic decision-making distinctions is:
systematic versus intuitive decision-making. Theorists encourage managers to
apply both depending on the underlying situation: sometimes you can get away
with a decision based on previous experiences, but at other times you will
have to work with your gut feeling. Much of the alternative distinctions can
be traced back to this classification: programmed versus non-programmed
decision-making, or deciding in a certain versus deciding in an uncertain
environment. In all of the first-mentioned cases you can apply the
systematic thinking process, while all of the last-mentioned cases will
require more of an intuitive approach.

The most interesting remarks about management decision-making, however, were
summarized at the end of our discussion when we shared our million-dollar
ideas:

1.	Elevate ethical decision-making into one of your priorities:
Many books on ethics or management will tell you that a decision is
ethically acceptable if you can answer these questions with a sound
conscience:
·	How would I feel if my family found out about this?
·	How would I feel if this were published in tomorrow’s newspaper?
If you can answer both with “okay,” than your decision is in alignment with
your ethical values, and you can go ahead with it.

2.	Be a problem-seeker instead of a problem-solver or a problem-avoider.
To understand this, a brief explanation of all three types is necessary:
·	A problem-avoider will look the other way when problems arise and hope
they go away. Unfortunately this does not happen too often, with as a
consequence that the problems only get bigger.
·	A problem-solver has a reactive attitude: he or she waits until the
problem is there before searching for a solution. This creates panic and
loss of valuable time.
·	A problem-seeker, however, has a proactive approach. He or she will
constantly try to find solutions for possible problems that can arise. This
entails that the problem-seeker will have solutions ready when other
managers are still struggling. A problem-seeker can also turn into a
trendsetter, because he or she may run into creative alternatives in his or
her explorations!

3.	Realize that there are advantages and disadvantages to both individual
and group decision-making.
Individual decision-making is faster, but more limited, because it only
entails the decision of one person. Group decision-making is more
time-consuming, but it results in a more creative, deeper outcome, and it
enhances the feeling of belonging within all group members.

The million dollar considerations we exchanged today were, in my opinion,
truly useful and can be applied with as much ease to the private environment
as they can to the workplace. Congratulations if you are already applying
them in your daily decision-making process. And keep them in mind if you don
’t do that yet, but think that they can be helpful to you, your friends,
colleagues, or family-members. One never knows…
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Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational
Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in
Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com