Decision making is one of the most fundamental and important processes in life. It is a critical activity of any individual or group whether they are a senior manager, middle manager, technician, operator, or team. In providing assistance in this area to many clients, Stratos, LLC consultants have observed that the most common difficulty arises from confusing decision making with a decision. Many people view decision making as an event — a choice that occurred at some point in time. Decisions are described as something that just pops into someone’s head after thinking about something. That description is more apt for a new idea than a decision.

Decision making is a process not an event. The process is typically complex with many intuitive elements. The description of decisions as being based on “gut feeling” or intuition is a natural attempt to provide a simple explanation for an uncomfortably complex and often poorly understood process.

Research has shown that managers who make good decisions as opposed to bad ones are far more likely to understand that decision making is a process and approach and manage decisions accordingly. Many different processes can be used to arrive at a decision. The most common group of processes can best be described as advocacy. In this process, different people take on a specific view point, sometimes arbitrarily, and try to develop arguments that will make that view point prevail. Opposing individuals or groups will take a different position and build arguments to support it. This model is used in courtroom settings and is consequently familiar to many, but its effectiveness is questionable. Debating skills often carry more weight than reasoning ability. Even when “correct” outcomes (decisions) are achieved, the negative effect of the process on its users can be profound and long lasting.

An alternative group of decision-making processes are based on an approach described as inquiry. An inquiry process focuses on the identification of alternatives and the development of criteria to judge those alternatives. In this process, critical reasoning ability is given more weight and challenges are made more acceptable.

When asked to assist teams or individuals in decision making, Stratos consultants work with our clients to help identify the appropriate decision-making process for particular types of decisions and to develop a management approach for that process. We never seek to make those decisions. Our role is to assist and facilitate a process, not participate in the outcome.