Set up your most important decisions for success

Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins and Paul Rogers of Bain Consulting contest that many companies struggle to make and execute key decisions. Bain's Decision Insights series describes a five-step process that can boost your organization’s decision effectiveness and improve its performance....


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Set up your most important decisions for success By Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins and Paul Rogers Too many organizations fail to make and execute their critical decisions well, and their performance suffers as a result. But you can reset key decisions to get them working better. The key is to focus on just four elements: Clarify the what of the decision. Help everyone understand exactly what decision is under consideration. Determine the who. Specify who will play the key roles—recommending a course of action, offering input, signing off on the recommendation, making the decision and then executing it. Understand the how. Establish a clear process for gathering data, agreeing on criteria and preparing alternatives. Make the when explicit. Create clear timelines for making the decision—and executing it. The four steps together are a great way to cut through logjams and get things working more effectively. We describe each step in detail and show how companies apply them in our book Decide & Deliver, and on the website www.decide-deliver.com. Read past issues of Decision Insights: Decision Insights #1: Score your organization Decision Insights #2: Focus on key decisions