Being a leader is a stressful job, and it is decision making which people often find the hardest. What is often the case is that you will find yourself always sticking to what worked before and not taking each problem on its own merits. However here are five easy steps to help you in making your decisions:
- Understand the problem: Make sure you realise what exactly is wrong before you try and fix it, you may just make matters worse otherwise.
- List the potential approaches that could resolve your problem: This way you will have had to look at the situation in more detail than you might have otherwise and, with more options, are better equipped to solve it.
- Select the best approach: this takes time, don’t rush.
- Carefully monitor the plan’s implementation: Have everyone know, clearly, what they are doing, and make sure that they are doing it correctly.
- Check that the problem is fixed: It is important to make sure that the problem has been resolved and that your solution has worked and that the problem isn’t recurring.
Develop your decision making skills on our Leadership Skills training course in Brighton, Sussex.
Read more
Posted by Aaron Charlie in Leadership Training on March 27th, 2009 | No Comments »
PRINCE2 Themes – Risk Management
The purpose of the Risk theme is to identify, assess and control uncertainty and, as a result, improve the ability of the project to succeed.
Risk taking in projects is inevitable since projects are enablers of change and change introduces uncertainty, hence risk. Management of risk should be systematic and not based on chance. It is about the proactive identification, assessment and control of risks that might affect the delivery of the project’s objectives.
The project should establish and maintain a cost effective risk management procedure. The aim is to support better decision making through a good understanding of risks – their causes, likelihood, impact, timing, and the choice of responses to them.
Management of risk is a continual activity, performed throughout the life of the project. Without an ongoing and effective risk management procedure it is not possible to give confidence that the project is able to meet its objectives and therefore whether it is worthwhile for it to continue. Hence effective risk
management is a prerequisite of the continued business justification principle.
Risk management:
For risk management to be effective, risks need to be:
- Identified This includes risks being considered that could affect the achievement of the project’s objectives, and then described to ensure that there is a common understanding of these risks
- Assessed This includes ensuring that each risk can be ranked in terms of estimated likelihood, impact and immediacy, and understanding the overall level of risk associated with the project
- Controlled This includes identifying appropriate responses to risks, assigning risk owners, and then executing, monitoring and controlling these responses.
Risk Management procedure
© Crown Copyright 2009. Reproduced under Licence from OGC
PRINCE2 recommends a risk management procedure comprising the following five steps:
- Identify (context and risks)
- Assess (i.e. Estimate and Evaluate)
- Plan
- Implement
- Communicate.
The first four steps are sequential, with the ’Communicate’ step running in parallel because the findings of any of the other steps may need to be communicated prior to the completion of the overall process. All of the steps are iterative in nature in that when additional information becomes available, it is often necessary to revisit earlier steps and carry them out again to achieve the most effective result.
In addition to our PRINCE2 Courses in Brighton, Sussex, we can also arrange Risk Management course on a private basis on dates to suit.
Copyright Statements
Read more
Posted by Alistair Wylie in PRINCE2 Training on July 12th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” (attributed to Theodore Roosevelt)
It is generally accepted that more people prefer a manager who makes bad decisions to one who makes no decisions at all! Decision making is a key component in the functioning of any organisation and managers need to make decisions on a variety of issues. You may be involved in some or all of the following spheres of decision making and others:
- Financial – budget implications of spending
- Staffing & development – training and project work
- Product development – research, marketing
- Customer – developing a customer base
- Organisational – change strategies
- Policy & procedures – new systems and policies
Decisions only need to be made where there is more than one alternative. If there is only one way forward, then there is no decision to make!
Decision making skills
Within the culture of your organisation there will already be rules of both individual and team decision making and any competent manager needs to research what these are before introducing their own processes.
However there are some general guidelines that apply to decision making:
- Be clear about what outcome you want
- Consider what appears to be the most appropriate course of action
- Look at the alternatives; consult your peers, team, colleagues for ideas
- Explore the consequences of each alternative
- Choose one
- Implement it
- Review it
- Make any appropriate changes for next time
However you decide how to decide, you need a systematic process, a process you can refer back to if you don’t get the desired outcome or if you are asked to justify the decision you made.
A planned approach following a logical process as the one above will give you this.
Group decision making
Whatever your style of management there will be times when it will be appropriate to involve a group of people in the decision making process. If you involve your team in a decision that affects them, this will normally increase their commitment and engagement to that task.
Group decision making can be defined as the process of arriving at a judgement based upon the input of multiple individuals. As with individual decision making, the use of a decision-making model is a systematic way of establishing group decision making proficiency.
Advantages of making decisions as a group
- You can share information which is not held by all individuals
- The synergy (two heads are better than one) of the group leads to better decisions
- Hearing other points of view can lead to fruitful discussion and stimulate other ideas
- Group members will be more committed to the outcome
Disadvantages of making decisions as a group
- It takes more time
- Members do not always agree and compromise can be difficult to achieve
- Group members may not be willing to share information
- Groupthink may take over; this is a process by which groups put consensus and unanimity above the quality of the decision and fail to look at all the alternatives objectively.
Contact us to arrange a Decision Making training course.
Read more
Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on April 18th, 2007 | No Comments »
