Making Effective Decisions: First off, you need to understand the challenges, problems, issues, and possible opportunities. Next, you need to apply critical thinking to create a clarification process in order to develop the necessary alternatives to choose between. Only then can you actually make a recommendation to implement the solution or decision. After this process has been completed, and it has been put into practice, then you will need to revisit and review to see if the correct decision was implemented or if it needs to be modified for a better outcome.
The best way of creating the critical thinking and clarification process is by implement the SWOT process. It helps look at things from every angle. Some people prefer not to take the Weaknesses and Threats into account but they are a necessary part of the process and gives you a full view of the possible issues that could hinder what you are trying to accomplish.
SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats. In business, this is something that is utilized to assist in making decisions – especially for startups, in the planning and designing phase or research and development stage. It can also be utilized in any sort of decision making process – even for Human Resources after the interview process has been completed and you are needing to choose between different candidates.
- What are the strengths? (These are helpful internal things to the progress)
- What are the weaknesses? (These are internal things that get in the way of the progress)
- What are the opportunities? (These are external things that can help the progress)
- What are the threats? (These are external things that get in the way of the progress)
A simple template has been added to help complete the process.
