“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.

” – Tony Robbins

You can make more effective decisions when you know what the key elements are.
The key elements of better decision making can help you rationalize problem, set boundaries
around the solution, identify the right thing to do, identify the actions, and get feedback.

In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter Drucker outlines 5 elements of an effective
decision making process.

The Essence of Making Better Decisions

When you make important decisions, there are a few key factors to keep in mind. For example,
you should rationalize and understand the problem itself. You need to know the problem you’re
solving. You should also set boundary conditions for the solution. Success is often a spectrum
so you should set boundaries so that you don’t limit yourself to something that’s impractical or
something that’s impossible.

Your decisions should be action-oriented. If you can’t act on your decisions, then it’s a waste of
time. You should also be able to respond to feedback once you implement your decision. What
looks good on paper or sounds good, may not work when you actually test it.

The 5 Elements of an Effective Decision Making Process

According to Peter Drucker these are the 5 elements of an effective decision making process.

1. The Problem Rationalization.

The clear rationalization that the problem was generic and could only be solved through a
decision that establishes a rule or a principle. Know the problem your solving.

Opinions Over Facts for Effective Decision Making

How do you make more effective decisions? Do you start with the facts? To make effective
decisions, you first start with opinions. You gather facts based on what’s relevant. You then
test opinions against reality. In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter
Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management, Peter F. Drucker writes about making more
effective decisions.

Key Take Aways

1. Know that decisions are judgments
2. Start with opinions over facts
3. Know the criteria of what’s relevant
4. Test your opinions against reality
5. Decisions are Judgements
Drucker writes that a decision is a judgment:
A DECISION IS A JUDGEMENT. IT IS A CHOICE BETWEEN ALTERNATIVES. IT IS
RARELY A CHOICE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG. IT IS AT BEST A CHOICE BETWEEN
“ALMOST RIGHT” AND “PROBABLY WRONG” – BUT MUCH MORE OFTEN A CHOICE
BETWEEN TWO COURSES OF ACTION NEITHER OF WHICH IS PROBABLY MORE RIGHT
THAN THE OTHER.
Executives Who Make Effective Decisions Don’t Start With the Facts
Drucker writes that effective decisions start with opinions:
MOST BOOKS ON DECISION-MAKING TELL THE READER: FIRST FIND THE FACTS. BUT
EXECUTIVES WHO MAKE EFFECTIVE DECISIONS KNOW THAT ONE DOES NOT START
WITH THE FACTS. ONE STARTS WITH OPINIONS. THESE ARE, OF COURSE, NOTHING
BUT UNTESTED HYPOTHESES AND, AS SUCH, WORTHLESS UNLESS TESTED AGAINST
REALITY. TO DETERMINE WHAT IS A FACT REQUIRES FIRST A DECISION OF THE
CRITERIA OF RELEVANCE, ESPECIALLY ON APPROPRIATE MEASUREMENT. THIS IS
THE HINGE OF THE EFFECTIVE DECISION, AND USUALLY ITS MOST CONTROVERSIAL
ASPECT.

No One Has Ever Failed to Find the Facts They are Looking For
Drucker writes that there are no facts unless you first know what’s relevant:
TO GET THE FACTS FIRST IS IMPOSSIBLE. THERE ARE NO FACTS UNLESS ONE HAS A
CRITERION OF RELEVANCE. EVENTS BY THEMSELVES ARE NOT FACTS. PEOPLE
INEVITABLY START OUT WITH AN OPINION; TO ASK THEM TO SEARCH FOR THE FACTS
FIRST IS EVEN UNDESIRABLE. THEY WILL SIMPLY DO WHAT EVERYONE IS FAR TOO
PRONE TO DO ANYHOW; LOOK FOR THE FACTS THAT FIT THE CONCLUSION THEY
HAVE ALREADY REACHED. AND NO ONE HAS EVER FAILED TO FIND THE FACTS HE IS
LOOKING FOR. THE GOOD STATISTICIAN KNOWS THIS AND DISTRUSTS ALL FIGURES
– HE EITHER KNOWS THE FELLOW WHO FOUND THEM OR HE DOES NOT KNOW HIM;
IN EITHER CASE HE IS SUSPICIOUS.

Opinion Comes First

Drucker writes that we start out with untested hypotheses:
THE ONLY RIGOROUS METHOD, THE ONLY ONE THAT ENABLES US TO TEST AN
OPINION AGAINST REALITY, IS BASED ON THE CLEAR RECOGNITION THAT OPINION
COMES FIRST – AND THIS IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. THEN NO ONE CAN FAIL TO SEE
THAT WE START OUT WITH UNTESTED HYPOTHESES – IN DECISION-MAKING AS IN
SCIENCE THE ONLY STARTING POINT. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HYPOTHESES –
ONCE DOES NOT ARGUE THEM; ONE TESTS THEM. ONE FINDS OUT WHICH
HYPOTHESES ARE TENABLE, AND THEREFORE WORTHY OF SERIOUS
CONSIDERATION, AND WHICH ARE ELIMINATED BY THE FIRST TEST AGAINST
OBSERVABLE EXPERIENCE.

Test an Opinion Against Reality

Drucker writes that effective people test their opinions against reality:
THE EFFECTIVE PERSON ENCOURAGES OPINIONS. BUT HE INSISTS THAT THE
PEOPLE WHO VOICE THEM ALSO THINK THROUGH WHAT IT IS THAT THE
“EXPERIMENT” – THAT IS, THE TESTING OF THE OPINION AGAINST REALITY – WOULD
HAVE TO SHOW. THE EFFECTIVE PERSON, THEREFORE ASKS, WHAT DO WE HAVE TO
KNOW TO TEST THE VALIDITY OF THIS HYPOTHESIS? WHAT WOULD THE FACTS HAVE
TO BE TO MAKE THIS OPINION TENABLE? AND HE MAKES IT A HABIT – IN HIMSELF
AND IN THE PEOPLE WITH WHOM HE WORKS – TO THINK THROUGH AND SPELL OUT
WHAT NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT, STUDIED, AND TESTED. HE INSISTS THAT PEOPLE
WHO VOICE AN OPINION ALSO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEFINING WHAT FACTUAL
FINDINGS CAN BE EXPECTED AND SHOULD BE LOOKED FOR.
4 Types of Problems
If you know the type of problem you’re dealing with, you can handle it more effectively.
One of the best skills you can master in life is problem solving.

One of the keys to effective problem solving is knowing what kind of problem you’re dealing
with. For example, is this a unique problem, a pattern of a problem, or an exception?

Knowing the type of problem helps you choose the most effective strategy.

In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter Drucker identifies four type of problems.

4 Types of Problem
According to Drucker, there’s four types of problems:

Truly Generic (individual occurrence is a symptom; Two Different Kinds of Compromises)

Generic, but Unique for the individual institution
Truly exceptional, truly unique
Early manifestation of a new generic problem

Problem Type #1 – Truly generic

While many symptoms may vary, a lot of problems are actually generic if you look to the root
cause.

Drucker writes:

“There is first the truly generic, of which the individual occurrence is only a symptom. Most of
the problems that come up in the course of the executive’s work are of this nature. Inventory
decisions in a business, for instance, are not “decisions.” They are adaptations. The problem is
generic.”

Problem Type #2 – Generic, but Unique for the individual institution

Sometimes a problem is generic, but unique in that you only face it once.

Drucker writes:

“Then there is the problem that, while a unique event for the individual institution, is actually
generic. The company that receives an offer to merge from another, larger one will never
receive such an offer again if it accepts.

This is a nonrecurrent situation as far as the individual company, its board of directors, and its
management are concerned. But it is, of course, a generic situation that occurs all the time.”
Problem Type #3 – Truly exceptional, truly unique
Every now and then, a problem truly is unique.

Drucker writes:

“Next there is the truly exceptional, the truly unique event. The power failure that plunged into
darkness the whole of northeastern North America from St. Lawrence River to Washington D.C.,
in November 1965, was according to the first explanations, a truly exceptional situation.”

Problem Type #4 – Early manifestation of a new generic problem

Sometimes a new problem that at first seems unique, is really just the first instance of a new
generic problem.

Drucker writes:

“Truly unique events are rare, however. Whenever one appears, one has to ask, Is this a true
exception or only the first manifestation of a new genus? And this, the early manifestation of a
new generic problem, is the fourth and last category of events with which the decision process
deals.”

Generic or Exception
Is the problem generic or an exception? Drucker recommends starting there.

Drucker writes:

“The first questions the effective decision-maker asks are: Is this a generic situation or an
exception? Is this something that underlies a great many occurrences? Or is the occurrence a
unique event that needs to be dealt with as such? The generic always has to be answered
through a rule, a principle.”

All Events But the Truly Unique Require a Generic Solution

For generic problems, you can use generic solutions. Tailor the proven practices for your
particular situation.

Drucker writes:

“All events but the truly unique require a generic solution. They require a rule, a policy, a
principle. Once the right principle has been developed, all manifestations of the same generic
situation can be handled pragmatically, that is, by adaption of the rule to the concrete
circumstances of the case. Truly unique events, however, must be treated individually. One
cannot develop rules for the exceptional. ”

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:
Know the four types of problems. The four types are: 1) truly generic. 2) truly unique.3)
generic, but unique for the situation 4) new generic problem.
First identify whether the problem is generic or unique. Misery loves company. It’s great to
know if the problem you’re facing is a problem that others have faced. Chances are you’re not
alone.
Treat the root cause, not the symptoms. To find the cause, you need to ask "Why?" You might
need to ask "why?" multiple times.
Leverage the experience of others. How have others solved the problem? Who can you learn
from? Who else might share the problem?
Use a principle-based approach to solving problems. This builds on the idea of leveraging the
experience of others. What’s the underlying pattern or principle of the solution. For example, I
know one of the underlying principles for influence is "rapport before influence." Knowing this, I
adapt that principle to a variety of scenarios, whether it’s pitching a project or coaching a
teammate.
What is the Relevant Decision Making Criteria?
By JD214811
image"A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion." —
Chinese Proverb

How will you measure whether your decision will be effective?

To make the most effective decisions, you need to know what to measure.

You also need to select among alternatives of measurement so that you can truly understand
what’s at stake.

In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management, Peter F. Drucker writes about how you need to figure out the most appropriate
and relevant measurements.

Ask, “What are the Criteria that Matter?”

The most effective decisions are made by finding the appropriate measurement.

Drucker writes:

“Perhaps the crucial question here is, What is the criterion of relevance? This, more often than
not, turns on the measurement appropriate to the matter under discussion and to the decision to
be reached.

Whenever one analyzes the way a truly effective, a truly right, decision has been reached, one
finds that a great deal of work and thought went into finding the appropriate measurement.”

Finding the Appropriate Measurement is Risk-Taking Judgment

Effective decisions are about making judgment. Making judgment means having an opinion,
going out on a limb, leveraging your experience, and taking risks … the risk to be wrong or
surprised.

Drucker writes:

“Finding the appropriate measurement is thus not a mathematical exercise. It is a risk-taking

judgment.”

Effective People Insist on Alternatives of Measurement

Judgment and decisions are about making trade-offs. The key is to surface what’s really at
stake or what is really on the table and what you are trading against.

Drucker writes:

“Whenever one has to judge, one must have alternatives among which to choose. A judgment
is which one can only say yes or no is no judgment at all.

Only if there are alternatives can one hope to get insight into what is truly at stake. Effective
people therefore insist on alternatives of measurement – so that they can choose the
appropriate one.”

The Traditional Measurement is Not the Right Measurement

The traditional measurement reflects yesterday’s decision and you need to know what’s relevant
for today.

Drucker writes:

“The effective decision-maker assumes that the traditional measurement is not the right
measurement. Otherwise, there would generally be no need for a decision; a simple adjustment
would do.

The traditional measurement reflects yesterday’s decision. That there is need for a new one
normally indicates that the measurement is no longer relevant.

The best way to find the appropriate measurement is again to go out and look for the ‘feedback’
discussed earlier – only this is ‘feedback’ before the decision.”

Example: How Traditional Measurements Can Be Irrelevant

Drucker provides an example to illustrate how traditional measurements can be irrelevant for
making effective decisions:

“In most personnel matters, for instance, events are measured in “averages,” such as the
average number of lost-time accidents per hundred employees, the average percentage of
absenteeism in the whole workforce, or the average illness rate per hundred. But the executive
who goes out and looks for himself will soon find that he needs a different measurement. The
average serve the purposes of the insurance company, but they are meaningless, indeed
misleading, for personnel management decisions.”

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:

Know what to measure. To make the most effective decisions, find the most relevant
measurements.
Whatever you always measured isn’t the answer. Traditional measurements are not the right
measurement or there would be no need for a decision.
It’s about judgment. Finding the right measurements is risk-taking judgment.
Have alternatives. Insist on having alternatives to choose from.
If you are working on something that matters, make the effort to figure out what counts, so that
you know when you are trending in the right direction.
2. The Boundary Conditions.
The definition of the specifications that the answer to the problem has to satisfy, that is, of the
“boundary conditions.” Know your range of options that will still count as success.
Set Boundary Conditions to Make Better Decisions
By JD212246
image“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” — Ralph Waldo
Emerson

Putting decisions into place usually requires compromises along the way or dealing with
unforeseen events.

If your decision depends on everything going perfectly well, you’re in trouble. If you don’t know
the minimum your decision needs to accomplish, then you can end up taking compromises too
far.

Establish boundary conditions to make better decisions.

Don’t Depend on Everything to Go Right

To make effective decisions, you need to know the boundaries. You need to know what good
like in terms of a continuum, from the minimal solution to the ideal.

Most importantly, don’t depend on the decision that requires everything to go right.

In The Essential Drucker, Peter Drucker writes about using boundary conditions for effective
decision making.

Know What the Decision Has to Accomplish

Drucker reminds us that we need to know what the decision has to accomplish.
Via The Essential Drucker:

“The second major element in the decision process is clear specifications as to what the
decision has to accomplish. What are the objectives the decision has to reach? What are the
minimum goals it has to attain? What are the conditions is has to satisfy?

In science these are known as ‘boundary conditions.’ A decision, to be effective, needs to

satisfy the boundary conditions. It needs to be adequate to its purpose.”

Define the Boundaries for the Decision Concisely

Drucker reminds us to state the boundary conditions concisely.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“The more concisely and clearly boundary conditions are stated, the greater the likelihood that
the decision will indeed be an effective one and will accomplish what it set out to do.

Conversely, any serious shortfall in defining these boundary conditions is almost certain to
make a decision ineffectual, no matter how brilliant it may seem.”

What’s the Minimum the Decision Needs to Satisfy

Drucker reminds us to get clarity on what the minimum solution would be.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“What is the minimum needed to resolve this problem? Is the form in which the boundary
conditions are usually probed. Can our needs be satisfied? Alfred P. Sloan presumably asked
himself when he took command of General Motors in 1922, by removing the autonomy of the
division heads. His answer was clearly in the negative.

The boundary conditions of his problem demanded strength and responsibility in the chief
operating positions. This was needed as much as unity and control at the center. The
boundary conditions demanded a solution to a problem of structure, rather than an
accommodation among personalities. And this in turn made his solution last.”

If It Doesn’t Satisfy the Boundaries, It’s Not Effective

If the decision won’t satisfy the boundaries, Drucker reminds us to avoid these decisions.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“The effective person knows that a decision that does not satisfy the boundary conditions is
ineffectual and inappropriate. It may be worse indeed than a decision that satisfies the wrong
boundary conditions.
Both will be wrong, of course. But one can salvage the appropriate decisions for the incorrect
boundary conditions. It is still an effective decision. One cannot get anything but trouble from
the decision that is inadequate to its specifications.”

Know When a Decision Has to be Abandoned

You need to know when to hold them. You also need to know when to fold them. Drucker says
you need to know the boundaries so that you know when to abandon a decision.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“In fact, clear thinking about the boundary conditions is needed so that one knows when a
decision has to be abandoned.”

Avoid Decisions Where Everything Has to Go Right

The worst decisions are the ones that depend on everything going right.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“But clear thinking about the boundary conditions is needed also to identify the most dangerous
of all possible decisions: the one that might – just might – work if nothing whatever goes wrong.
These decisions always seem to make sense.

But when one thinks through the specifications they have to satisfy, one always finds that they
are essentially compatible with each other. That such a decision might succeed is not
impossible – it is merely grossly improbable. The trouble with miracles is not, after all, that they
happen rarely; it is that one cannot rely on them.”

Example of Where Everything Had to Go Right

Drucker provides a an example of a decision that depended on everything going right (but it
didn’t).

Via The Essential Drucker:

“A perfect example was President Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs decision in 1961. One specification
was clearly Castro’s overthrow. But at the same time, there was another specification: not to
make it appear that U.S. forces were intervening in one of the American republics.

That the second specification was rather absurd, and that no one in the whole world would have
believed for one moment that the invasion was a spontaneous uprising of the Cubans, is beside
the point.

To the American policy-makers at the time, the appearance of nonintervention seemed a

legitimate and indeed a necessary condition.

But these two specifications would have been compatible with each other only if an immediate
island-wide uprising against Castro would have completely paralyzed the Cuban army.
And this, while not impossible, was clearly not highly probable in a public state. Either the
whole idea should have been dropped or American full-scale support should have been
provided to ensure success of the invasion.”

The Mistake Was Failure to Think Through the Boundary Conditions

Drucker points out the problem was failure to think through the boundaries for success.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“It is not disrespect for President Kennedy to say that his mistake was not, as he explained, that
he had ‘listened to the experts.’

The mistake was failure to think through the boundary conditions that the decision had to
satisfy, and refusal to face up to the unpleasant reality that a decision has to satisfy two
different and at bottom incompatible specifications it not a decision but a prayer for a miracle.”

Don’t Fall Short of the Boundary Conditions

If the decisions is a failure from the start, Drucker reminds us not to go down that path.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“Everyone can make the wrong decision – in fact, everyone will sometimes make a wrong
decision. But no one needs to make a decision that, on its face, falls short of satisfying the
boundary conditions.”

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:

Success is a spectrum. Success is a range or continuum of possibilities.

Know the boundaries. Know the boundary conditions for your important decisions.
Know what good looks like. Know the continuum of what good looks like.
Know the minimum. Know the minimum the decision needs to satisfy.
Expect things to go wrong. Don’t depend on everything going as planned.
Know when to exit. Know when you need to abandon a decision.
Don’t waste time down paths that don’t make sense. If the decision is a failure from the start,
don’t go down that path.
I think Drucker nails the keys for establishing boundaries in your decisions. I really think
knowing your minimum and knowing when to abandon a decision are especially important
criteria, that if you don’t think through up front, you’ll have a tough time figuring our when your
mired in action.

I find myself paying a lot more attention to decisions where the assumption is everything will go
right. I think the key here is to explicitly call out the assumptions for the decision to work and
that alone should raise concerns
3. The Right Thing to Do.
Before you decide what’s feasible, first figure out what the right thing to do is.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley

To make effective decisions, first figure out what would be the right thing to do. That’s your
starting point.

There’s a good chance you’ll have to compromise along the way, but first figure out what the
right solution would be before you start trimming it down. You can’t make the right
compromises if you don’t first know what right is.

In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management, Peter Drucker writes about starting with what’s right to avoid giving away what’s
important during negotiation.

Key Takeaways
Here are my key takeaways:

First know what’s right. To make the right compromise, first know what right is.
Don’t worry whether it’s liked, worry whether it’s right. To figure out what’s right, don’t worry
about the reaction, don’t you worry about whether the decision will be liked, and don’t concern
yourself with compromises that might be needed to make your recommendations acceptable.
After you know what’s right, then you can compromise. If you have a baseline for what right is,
then you can make more effective compromises.
What’s Right Over What’s Acceptable for Effective Decision Making
Drucker reminds us that everybody can make compromises, but they need to start from what’s
right, not what’s acceptable:

“One has to start out with what is right rather than what is acceptable (let alone who is right)
precisely because one always has to compromise in the end.

But if one does not know what is right to satisfy the specifications and boundary conditions, one
cannot distinguish between the right compromise and the wrong compromise – and will end up
by making the wrong compromise.”

First Know What Right Is

Drucker shares a story to make the point that it’s your job to figure out what’s right before you
start compromising:

“I was taught this when I started in 1944 on my first big consulting assignment, as study of the
management structure and management policies of General Motors Corporation.
Alfred P. Sloan Jr., who was then chairman and chief executive officer of the company, called
me to his office at the start of my study and said, ‘I shall not tell you what to study, what to write,
or what conclusions to come to.

This is your task.

My only instruction to you is to put down what you think is right as you see it. Don’t worry about
our reaction. Don’t you worry about whether we will like this or dislike that.

And don’t you, above all, concern yourself with compromises that might be needed to make
your recommendations acceptable.

There is not one executive in the company who does not know how to make every single
conceivable compromise without any help from you.

But he can’t make the right compromise unless you first tell him what ‘right’ is.’

The executive thinking through a decision might put this in front of himself in neon light.”

If You Start Out With What’s Acceptable, You Give Away What’s Important
Drucker makes the point that if you start off with what’s acceptable, you’ll end up giving away
what’s really important:

“It is fruitless and a waste of time to worry about what is acceptable and what one had better not
say so as not to evoke resistance.

The things one worries about never happen. And objections and difficulties no one thought
about suddenly turn out to be almost insurmountable obstacles.

One gains nothing, in other words, by starting out with the question.

One gains nothing, in other words, by starting out with the question, What is acceptable?

And in the process of answering it, one gives away the important things, as a rule, and loses
any chance to come up with an effective, let alone with the right, answer.”
4. Action.
Turn decisions into action.

“Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no
action, you haven’t truly decided.” — Tony Robbins

All talk, no action? Good ideas, but no results? A common problem is a lack of action
commitments.
If you don’t break your decisions down into effective actions with owners, don’t expect results. If
you have owners for actions, but you haven’t equipped them for success, don’t be surprised
when things fall through. Turning decisions into effective actions requires thoughtful work
assignments.

In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management, Peter Drucker explains how to turn decisions into actions.

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:

Turn decisions into action commitments. Actions speak louder than words. Knowing what to do
is not the same as doing what you know.
Get the right owners for the actions. The key is to have the right people doing the right things to
get the right results.
Support the action owners. Know what the action owners need to be successful and support
them.
I see a lot of decisions that never turn into results. I know people mean well, but making things
happen takes more than just desire. It takes action. The challenge with turning decisions into
action is understanding the work required.

Questions To Help Convert a Decision Into Action

Drucker uses a precise set of questions to help convert decisions into actions and he warns us
that the first and the last of these are too often overlooked – with dire results.:

Who has to know of this decision?

What action has to be taken?
Who is to take it?
And what does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it can do it?

Decisions are Not Effective Without Action Commitments

According to Drucker, simply making decisions doesn’t help if they aren’t turned into action:

CONVERTING THE DECISION INTO ACTION IS THE FOURTH MAJOR ELEMENT IN THE
DECISION PROCESS. WHILE THINKING THROUGH THE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IS
THE MOST DIFFICULT STEP IN DECISION-MAKING, CONVERTING THE DECISIONS INTO
EFFECTIVE ACTION IS USUALLY THE MOST TIME-CONSUMING ONE. YET A DECISION
WILL NOT BECOME EFFECTIVE UNLESS THE ACTION COMMITMENTS HAVE BEEN
BUILT INTO THE DECISION FROM THE START.

Until There’s Work Assignments, There’s Only Good Intentions

Drucker says it’s actions that count:
IN FACT, NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE UNLESS CARRYING IT OUT IN SPECIFIC
STEPS HAS BECOME SOMEONE’S WORK ASSIGNMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY. UNTIL
THEN, THERE ARE ONLY GOOD INTENTIONS.

A Declaration of What You’re Not Going to Do

Drucker tells us why people doubt policy statements from above:

THAT IS THE TROUBLE WITH SO MANY POLICY STATEMENTS, ESPECIALLY OF

BUSINESS; THEY CONTAIN NO ACTION COMMITMENT. TO CARRY THEM OUT IS NO
ONE’S SPECIFIC WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY. NO WONDER THAT THE PEOPLE IN THE
ORGANIZATION TEND TO VIEW THESE STATEMENTS CYNICALLY IF NOT AS
DECLARATIONS OF WHAT TOP MANAGEMENT IS REALLY NOT GOING TO DO.
5. Feedback.
Get feedback on what’s working and what’s not.

See Test Your Decisions Against Reality.

We make decision every day. Some decisions are more important than others.

What’s important is that when it comes to making better decisions that you figure out a process
that works for you, and helps you make better decisions, more consistently, and in a variety of
scenarios, whether for work or in your personal life.
It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” — Tony Robbins

You need to test your decisions against reality.

A lot of decisions might sound good at the time or look good on paper.

When the rubber meets the road, you might find there were a lot of assumptions or it simply was
a bad idea.

Some ideas also become obsolete by the time they’re implemented.

To really test your decisions, you need feedback loops that provide first-hand experience.

Nothing beats seeing it for yourself.

Distrust Written Communication

A written report never conveys the same information.
I think the key is that first-hand experience includes an emotional aspect that gets lost in
translation. It’s that emotional aspect that can be your best gauge of whether something is
really working.

It’s not that you need to distrust people in their feedback, it’s that you need to distrust
communication.

In The Essential Drucker: In One Volume the Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential
Writings on Management, Peter Drucker writes about improving your feedback through first-
hand experience.

Dog-Food Your Decisions Early and Often

I make it a habit of dog fooding my decisions regularly. I try to do it early on through dry runs or
show and tells.

I also periodically revisit decisions to see what makes sense in the current landscape.

Life’s not static so a lot of decisions really do get out of date as things change. I think Seth
nailed it when he said you should reinvent your business process every 3 months.

I think a similar reality check makes sense for your life.

Test Your Decisions Against Reality

Reality is the ultimate sounding board.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“Finally, a feedback has to be built into the decision to provide a continual testing, against actual
events, of the expectations that underlie the decision.”

Even the Best Decisions Can Be Wrong Or Obsolete

Decision making is prone to error. Time can also erode decisions.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“Decisions are made by human beings who are fallible; at their best their works do not last long.
Even the best decision has a high probability of being wrong. Even the most effective one
eventually becomes obsolete.”

Distrust Communications
The military knows that you can’t trust communication and reports. You need to see it first
hand.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“When General Eisenhower was elected president, his predecessor, Harry S. Truman, said,
“Poor Ike; when he was a general, he gave an order and it was carried out. Now he is going to
sit in that big office and he’ll give an order and not a damn thing is going to happen.”

The reason why “not a damn thing is going to happen” is, however, not that the generals have
more authority than presidents.

It is that military organizations learned long ago that futility is the lot of most orders and
organized feedback to check on the execution of the order. They learned long ago that to go
oneself and look is the only reliable feedback.

Reports – all a president is normally able to mobilize – are not much help. All military services
have long ago learned that the officer who has given an order goes out and sees for himself
whether it has been carried out. At the least he sends one of his own aides – he never relies on
what he is told by the subordinate to whom the order was given. Not that he distrusts the
subordinates; he has learned from experience to distrust communications.”

Battalion Commanders Test the Mess Hall

No report can replace tasting the food for yourself.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“This is the reason why a battalion commander is expected to go out and test the food served
his men. He could, of course, read the menus and order this or that item to be brought in to
him. But no; he is expected to go into the mess hall and take his sample of the food from the
same kettle that serves the enlisted men.”

Constantly Check Decisions Against Concrete Examples

Don’t let the convenience of information divorce you from your reality checks.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“With the coming of the computer this will become even more important, for the decision-maker
will, in all likelihood, be even further removed from the scene of action.

Unless he accepts, as a matter of course, that he had better go out and look at the scene of
action, he will be increasingly divorced from reality.

All a computer can handle are abstractions. And abstractions can be relied on only if they are
constantly checked against the concrete. Otherwise, they are certain to mislead us.”

Reality Never Stands Still Very Long

Reality is a moving target.
Via The Essential Drucker:

“To go and look for oneself is also the best, if not the only, way to test whether the assumptions
on which a decision has been made are still valid or whether they are becoming obsolete and
need to be thought through again.

And one always has to expect the assumptions to become obsolete sooner or later.

Reality never stands still very long.”

Build Your Feedback Around Direct Exposure to Reality

Build your feedback loops against real scenarios and real situations.

Via The Essential Drucker:

“One needs organized information for the feedback. One needs reports and figures. But unless
one builds one’s feedback around direct exposure to reality – unless one disciplines oneself to
go out and look – one condemns oneself to a sterile dogmatism and with it to ineffectiveness.”

Bounce your decisions against the wall of reality, but remember that it’s a moving target.

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:

Test your decisions against reality. What looks good on paper or sounds good doesn’t
necessarily work in the real world.
Distrust communication, not people. People do the best with what they’ve got. Nothing takes
the place of first-hand experience. It’s easy for communication to lose the emotional aspect or
to one paint one side or perspective. The best decisions are made from intuition which is
drawing from patterns from first-hand experience.
Decisions become obsolete. Time changes the landscape. Reality is a moving target. There
is such a thing as too little, too late. The other reality is that as conditions change, the decision
no longer makes sense. First hand experience can help you see whether your decisions still
make sense.
See it for yourself. When you experience it first hand, you get the emotional factor. You also
get exposed to a lot of what would get lost in reports or second-hand information. This first
hand experience is key to building your decision making ability in the future. The more patterns
you get exposed to, the more your intuition can draw from experience.
What decisions are you making that could use a dose of reality?

Diagram of decision making

Decision making is the process of making choices by identifying a decision, gathering
information, and assessing alternative resolutions.
Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help you make more deliberate, thoughtful
decisions by organizing relevant information and defining alternatives. This approach increases
the chances that you will choose the most satisfying alternative possible.

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Step 1: Identify the decision

You realize that you need to make a decision. Try to clearly define the nature of the decision
you must make. This first step is very important.

Step 2: Gather relevant information

Collect some pertinent information before you make your decision: what information is needed,
the best sources of information, and how to get it. This step involves both internal and external
“work.” Some information is internal: you’ll seek it through a process of self-assessment. Other
information is external: you’ll find it online, in books, from other people, and from other sources.

Step 3: Identify the alternatives

As you collect information, you will probably identify several possible paths of action, or
alternatives. You can also use your imagination and additional information to construct new
alternatives. In this step, you will list all possible and desirable alternatives.

Step 4: Weigh the evidence

Draw on your information and emotions to imagine what it would be like if you carried out each
of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need identified in Step 1 would be met or
resolved through the use of each alternative. As you go through this difficult internal process,
you’ll begin to favor certain alternatives: those that seem to have a higher potential for reaching
your goal. Finally, place the alternatives in a priority order, based upon your own value system.

Step 5: Choose among alternatives

Once you have weighed all the evidence, you are ready to select the alternative that seems to
be best one for you. You may even choose a combination of alternatives. Your choice in Step 5
may very likely be the same or similar to the alternative you placed at the top of your list at the
end of Step 4.

Step 6: Take action

You’re now ready to take some positive action by beginning to implement the alternative you
chose in Step 5.

Step 7: Review your decision & its consequences

In this final step, consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether or not it has
resolved the need you identified in Step 1. If the decision has not met the identified need, you
may want to repeat certain steps of the process to make a new decision. For example, you
might want to gather more detailed or somewhat different information or explore additional
alternatives.
REFERENCES:
https://sourcesofinsight.com/what-is-the-relevant-decision-making-criteria/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/5-elements-of-an-effective-decision-making-process/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/opinions-over-facts-for-effective-decision-making/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/4-types-of-problems/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/boundary-conditions-for-effective-decisions/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/first-figure-out-what-the-right-thing-to-do-is/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/action-commitments/
https://sourcesofinsight.com/test-your-decisions-against-reality/
https://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decision-making/process/
https://hbr.org/1967/01/the-effective-decision