Making broadly supported decisions with 'Strategic Decision Making (SDM)'

In everyday life, people have generally learned simple 'tricks' that can lead to quick decisions. These tricks can work great for purposeful decisions like choosing clothes or running errands. However, when decisions involve multiple goals, decision makers tend to avoid or forget the balancing of these goals. However, this consideration is important when you make a decision that relates to different departments or when a decision concerns several chain partners.

Many managers and executives have difficulty making decisions. Of all newly appointed executives, 57% said they found making decisions more difficult and complicated than they expected (HBR, 2018). This method will help you:

  • Making a decision in which you want to weigh multiple options against multiple factors (or aspects);
  • balancing different interests against each other;
  • quantifying aspects that influence the decision;
  • making the most objective choice.

What added value can SDM have for your organization?

The tool enables you to weigh various goals and visions integrally in order to facilitate a supported decision. This is of great added value for many companies and their (chain) partners because it increases support for the decision. The method shows the most logical (joint) choice when all partners act consistently with the agreed valuations. In addition, one gains an integral insight into the decision because the method shows the rotary knobs that can be turned and which lead to the final decision. The group is forced to invest time and energy in the decision and thus is encouraged to think more deeply about the problem. This ensures that one develops explicit and defensible reasoning based on facts and thus ensures that one can better explain and justify why the chosen route is the best. After all, a good quality decision is not enough to get your (chain) partners or organization on board. You use this explicit and defensible reasoning to create support among your stakeholders and inform them so that they will understand and accept the reasoning behind the decision more quickly.

How can Supply Value help in making decisions?

We can help you make well-founded (strategic) decisions. We support you throughout the entire process, from preparation to creating support for the decision taken. This process consists of the following steps:

  1. Determining Choices

The first step in the process is to identify all options. This can be, for example, all possible IT systems that a government agency can choose from, or the choice between different possible locations for a healthcare institution. It often happens that there are enormous amounts of options that require research to determine which are the real possibilities. Supply Value can undertake this research in order to arrive at a pre-agreed number of (objective) options.

  1. Determine optimal choice

We help you create a complete, but workable, overview of all the factors that influence that choice. With the help of a Value Tree, all factors and the relationship between them are made clear. We start by defining the higher goal: what is it that we want to achieve with this choice? From that higher goal we determine all factors of influence, as well as the weight and value per option. We then arrive at a conditional decision by means of a calculation model.

  1. Sensitivity analysis

In order to reinforce this conditional decision and to remove any objections from (co-)decision makers, we perform a sensitivity analysis. This sensitivity analysis makes it possible to weigh up the various interests against each other. The question that is answered by this is whether the weighting of a particular interest influences the final choice. By weighing the various interests and comparing the associated outcomes with the conditional decision, we provide insight into the influence of interests on the ultimate outcome. In this way we ensure broad support and ensure that all interests are represented.

  1. Support

The effect of a choice depends on Maier's Law. He argued that the effectiveness of a change is the result of the sum of quality (1) and acceptance (2). In this case, this means that the choice can be as good as it gets, if the organization does not accept the choice, the effect will not be high. We help you create acceptance among your employees. This tool is a first step towards creating support in your organization when making important decisions. We realize that this is only the beginning. Good communication tools and change management methods can help with this. Also see 'Five practical tips to make a change really successful'.

More information?

Would you like to know whether Strategic Decision Making can contribute to the solution to your problem? Or would you like to know more about Supply Value? Then take it completely without obligation contact with us via office@supplyvalue.nl or 088 – 0555 999.

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