Decision-Making Best Practice 4 – Identify the Target

Decision-makers and implementers must clearly understand the desired opportunity or problem outcomes in order to effectively select and execute appropriate actions. Without a well defined focal point, decision-makers and implementers risk selecting and performing either inefficient or inappropriate actions; expending resources on low value adding activities thereby diminishing an opportunity’s benefits or increasing a problem’s adverse impacts. Clear, concise opportunity and problem statements enable decision-makers to more readily identify the appropriate solution alternative and give implementers a target against which they can judge the effectiveness of their actions.[wcm_restrict plans=”49240, 25542, 25653″]

Well formed opportunity and problem statements create a compelling reason for expending resources in pursuit of a specific objective. To accomplish this, these statements should consist of a few specific, easily understood sentences containing the following information:

• existing condition(s) creating the opportunity or problem and the desired condition(s) needed to realize the opportunity’s benefits or avoid the problem’s adverse impacts – the what
• potential impacts, beneficial and detrimental, the existing and desired condition(s) may have on the organization in the near- and long-term, including the maximum potential impact and any changes over time – the why
• urgency or time frame in which circumstances must be changed to realize the opportunity’s benefits or avoid the problem’s adverse impacts – the when
• broad categories of stakeholders impacted by the opportunity or problem – the who

The opportunity or problem statement should not prescribe or preclude a particular course of action, the how. How to deal with the opportunity or problem should be an outcome of the decision-making process. Recognize that the problem statement may evolve somewhat as additional information becomes available during the alternative development, selection, execution, and follow-up portions of the decision-making process.

Final Thought…

Creating an opportunity or problem statement that is uniformly understood and acted upon by the organization can be very difficult. Because all individuals possess varying backgrounds, experiences, values, and beliefs, they will necessarily differ in their perception of the risk, urgency, and appropriate course of action associated with the opportunities and problems presented to them. It is these differences that will challenge the decision-making team when creating and agreeing upon the opportunity or problem statement.

Implementing the decision-making best practices, Multidiscipline Teams and There Can Be Only One, in conjunction with the Identify the Target best practice will help an organization more effectively create opportunity and problem statements. Decision-Making Best Practice 2 – Multidiscipline Teams describes how individuals with differing backgrounds can be teamed together to more effectively execute the decision-making process and in this case create a complete and specific opportunity or problem statement. Decision-Making Best Practice 1 – There Can Be Only One, highlights the need for identifying a single decision-making authority who ultimately approves the opportunity or problem statement and provides oversight for the decision-making and execution process thereby solidifying the uniformity of the organization’s actions.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”49240, 25542, 25653″]

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Additional Information

The StrategyDriven model, Opportunity & Problem Statement Development model, illustrates the need for an appropriately qualified multidiscipline team when making complex decisions. The Opportunity & Problem Statement Development model can be accessed and downloaded by clicking on the links provided within this post and from the StrategyDriven Models webpage.

About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.