StrategyDriven Decision-Making Best Practice Article

Decision-Making Best Practice 10 – Establish Decision Execution Performance Measures

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StrategyDriven Decision Making Article | Decision Performance MeasuresManagerial decisions often deal with fluid conditions and high risk situations. What might be prudent at the time a decision is made may not be appropriate soon after and could even adversely impact the organization. Therefore, execution of these decisions and the circumstances they seek to address should be actively monitored.[wcm_restrict plans=”49306, 25542, 25653″]

Establishing decision execution performance measures provides the leader and team with the information needed to ensure progress is made and desired results achieved. These performance measures should seek to answer the questions:

  • Are we on the right track?
  • Do we need to adjust or change course to achieve our objectives?
  • Have we succeeded?

Typical decision execution performance measures answering these questions include:

  • task implementation schedule performance
  • budget performance
  • predictive parameters revealing the need for additional actions or revision of current actions
  • parameters indicating achievement of and deviation from desired outcomes

Final Thoughts…

Ensure the number and complexity of decision execution performance measures is proportionate to the decision risk, complexity, and effort. The level of effort to implement these measures should not consume so many resources as to detract from the execution of the decision actions themselves.

Additionally, construct (except maybe a full scale technology implementation where excessive effort or cost would be incurred), maintain, analyze, and act on decision execution performance measures in a similar manner to the already established organizational performance measures. If the decision execution performance measures will be in place for an extended period of time, consider adding a few of the key decision execution performance measures to management dashboards and organizational performance measure reports to ensure broad awareness and oversight.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”49306, 25542, 25653″]

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Additional Resources

Additional information regarding the construction, maintenance, and analysis of performance measures can be found in the StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures topic area and Organizational Performance Measures whitepapers.

When in the course of human events… The American Republic was Born

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

The Declaration of Independence
of the United States of America
July 4, 1776

On July 4, 1776, fifty-six individuals boldly signed what became one of the most revered statements of human rights the world has ever known, The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. In that moment, the American republic was born.

Freedom is not without cost. Indeed, to conclude their assertion of freedom from the British Crown, the American Founders solemnly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And each and every day since declaring independence, brave Americans have sacrificed both blood and treasure to secure the blessings of freedom for themselves, their children, and their fellow citizens within the global community.

On this Fourth of July, the StrategyDriven family gives thanks for the freedom that allows us to share our thoughts and beliefs with you and for those who have and continue to provide that freedom.

Happy Birthday, America! With best wishes for many, many more to come.

Leadership Inspirations – Credit Where Credit is Due

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“Great discoveries and improvement invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.”

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922)
Scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator; credited with inventing the telephone

How To Jump-Start Your Innovation Engine

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Short on ideas? In need of a big breakthrough, or even a small one? Feeling overwhelmed by a million projects, none of them creating the progress you’d hoped for?

I recommend the following steps to clear your head and get fresh ideas growing and break the vicious cycle of busy-work that doesn’t seem to move you ahead:[wcm_restrict]

1. Clear some time and space. A cluttered desk or calendar will keep good ideas from developing. There’s a good reason why farmers plough and weed their fields. You need to cultivate your imagination in much the same way. Block out some chunks of time and give yourself a neutral space to sit and think – or if it suits you better, to walk and think. DON’T sit amidst your piles of files of unfinished business.

2. Expand your viewpoint. Gather new information that is both broad in scope, and detailed in depth. Seek multiple ways of looking at or understanding the current challenge, problem, project or goal. Fresh information is the fertile soil in which fresh ideas grow.

3. Nurture multiple ideas. Come up with at least three – hopefully a dozen or more – possible ideas, designs, solutions or strategies before you try to narrow it down to a single solution. If you don’t see enough innovative approaches yourself, then enlist help by holding a group brainstorming session. Expanding your options is like sowing many seeds – it maximizes the chances of a strong one gaining momentum.

4. Narrow it down to the single most promising idea. Weed out those other approaches or designs now, only after you’ve enriched your viewpoint and allowed your imagination to show you many new possibilities.

5. Run with it! Having opened up your calendar, gathered a rich variety of information, and generated lots of options, you are finally in a position to pick a winner and focus on it. Make a plan, enlist the support and resources you’ll need, and champion it all the way through to implementation.

Most people start at Step 5, trying to execute a solution or implement a plan long before they’ve given themselves enough time to generate any fresh insights or good ideas. As a result, people often feel like they are struggling to get things done. A mediocre or poorly thought through plan is a lot harder to implement than an innovative one!

Thinking of innovation as mental gardening can be helpful, since it reminds us that imagination needs to be given fertile ground, and then nurtured until the best idea reaches maturity.

Innovation is not like growing a field of wheat. We don’t need a million identical small ideas, we already have that in most workplaces. What we need is one big whopper of a breakthrough. So think like the farmer who’s trying to raise a prize-winning pumpkin. Start with lots of good seeds and fertilize them well. Then narrow it down to the strongest plant. Finally, pinch off all but the largest pumpkin on that healthy vine, and give it all your resources until it’s ready to load up on the truck and bring to the fair.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Alex Hiam (www.alexhiam.com) is the author of more than 20 popular books on business, including Business Innovation For Dummies, Marketing For Dummies, and Marketing Kit for Dummies. A lecturer at the business school at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he has consulted with many Fortune 500 firms and large U.S. government agencies.

Sharon Drew Morgen

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 39a – An Interview with Sharon Drew Morgen, author of Dirty Little Secrets, part 1 of 2

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 39a – An Interview with Sharon Drew Morgen, author of Dirty Little Secrets, part 1 of 2 explores a new decision facilitation model that helps buyers (and those seeking change) manage the behind-the-scenes decision issues they have to handle privately before they get internal agreement to make a purchase. Sharon Drew also explains why the traditional sales model – that only handles needs assessment and solution placement – creates overly long sales cycles and loses such a high percentage of sales. During our discussion, she shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • why the typical sales model is broken and the problems it causes
  • why buyers don’t buy even when the offered solution is a perfect fit
  • how adding a change management model as a front end skill will help close over 400% more sales as it teaches buyers how to get the needed buy-in and agreement to make a purchase

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Sharon Drew shares in Dirty Little Secrets and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her websites, www.NewSalesParadigm.com and www.BuyingFacilitation.com.   Sharon Drew’s book, Dirty Little Secrets, can be purchased by clicking here.

COMING SOON!
Look for our upcoming six-part StrategyDriven Podcast series on Making Change Work. These insightful podcasts will help you and your team understand the steps to gaining the buy-in and committed effort needed to implement change successfully. We’ll cover topics including:

  • What is change? and Why is change so hard?
  • What are systems, and how do they influence change?
  • The Problems of Change Management: bias, resistance, and push
  • If decisions are always rational, why are changees resisting?
  • Why is buy-in necessary and how to achieve it?
  • Putting it all together, a radical approach to change management: real leadership

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Sharon Drew Morgen, author of Dirty Little Secrets, is the Founder of Morgen Facilitations, a sales training, consulting, and decision facilitation firm. Sharon Drew is the visionary and thought leader behind Buying Facilitation®, the new sales paradigm that focuses on helping buyers manage their behind-the-scenes, offline, buying decisions. She has served many well known companies including: KPMG, Unisys, IBM, Wachovia, and Bose. Sharon Drew is the author of The New York Times Business Bestseller, Selling with Integrity, and the new bestseller, Dirty Little Secrets, as well as five other books and hundreds of articles that explain different aspects of the decision facilitation model that teaches buyers how to buy. To read Sharon Drew’s complete biography, click here.
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