In challenging times, all leaders would like to improve their strategic decision-making capabilities. I make an effort to read widely in the management literature, including the McKinsey Quarterly. A recent piece1 in that publication caught my attention, and I would like to summarize aspects of it for our readers. A handful of well-regarded techniques to improve strategic decision making are used by global companies, and, perhaps, one or more of these techniques might work in your organization. Let me elucidate a few of them.







Experts agree that in any complex human endeavor we need to harness bias; that is, rather than trying to tune out bias, we might encourage it and attempt to balance it with effective decision making. A tool to further this notion is the balance sheet, whereby a leader might ask his direct reports to “Tell me what is good about this particular opportunity, tell me what is bad about it, do not tell me your judgment yet; I don’t want to know.”1 This starts the evaluation process without having to justify and, thereby, frees opinions. Internal leaders are allowed to give their best insights and fully consider the ideas of others. The balance sheet process “mitigates a lot of the friction that typically arises when people marshal the facts that support their case, while ignoring those that don’t.”1

Another technique is creating a culture where failure is not a wrong answer. This process starts with an acknowledgement that Plan A “probably is based upon flawed assumptions and that certain leap-of-faith questions are fundamental to arriving at a better answer.”1 Even in moderate-sized organizations, there is often a sense that Plan A is going to succeed because it’s well analyzed, it’s vetted, it’s crisp, it looks great on the spreadsheet — and it’s the one that everybody has to execute. The reality is that it may not work, and having a corporate culture that recognizes that Plan B might be pretty good gets people off the blame game and rewards those who are able to make a mid-course correction.

Yet another technique might be listening to the little voice. This is very difficult for leaders, because no matter how important these individuals are, they may find it difficult to grapple with diverse opinions, especially among their direct reports. Leaders who can change their opinion based on the strength of the arguments around the table are going to be more successful on average than those who cannot.

Facing tough people choices is another important skill set for improving strategic decision making. Often, leaders tend to compromise. “It’s very easy to close your eyes and say warm bodies are better then no bodies,”1 but it turns out that it’s best to be unyielding regarding the hiring decision. One should always look for good listeners who are capable of adapting. This is the single most important leadership trait outside of pure competence in one’s field.

Another important tool is knowing when to let go, which could mean shutting down a particular drug development program or outsourcing part of another. These are often the hardest decisions to make and the ones that don’t get nearly enough focus. The most difficult decisions are the legacy ones — “the historical investments, the things that are just easier to chip away at rather than make a tough decision.”1 It’s best to have no preconceived commitment to a legacy business.

Lastly, a leader’s ability to strike the right balance between decisiveness and timeliness is critical. The best management brains believe that timeliness trumps perfection; to translate, sometimes “the most damaging decisions are the missed opportunities, the decisions that didn’t get made in time. If you are creating a category of bad decisions you’ve made, you need to include all the decisions you didn’t get to make because you missed the window of time that existed to take advantage of an opportunity.”1 This is a skill that can be developed over time.

Cultivating internal critics, facing tough people choices, and knowing when to let go are important components of the toolkit that comprises strategic decision making. Healthcare is no different than any other complex business. We can all improve our strategic decision making as we seek to utilize resources parsimoniously and derive the greatest benefit from the people power that our organizations represent. As always, I am interested in your views. You can reach me by e-mail at «ude.nosreffej@hsan.divad». Also, please visit my blog at: «http://nashhealthpolicy.blogspot.com».

Strategic decision making.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Los profesionales en comunicacion estrategica y relacionistas publicos colombianos que participaron en el Latin American Communication Monitor 2014-2015 expresan su posicion sobre los temas estrategicos a 2017, segun perspectivas especificas por tipo de organizacion, por genero y cargo ocupado, por el rol o por ambito de actuacion en el ejercicio profesional en su pais. En este articulo se presentan algunas coincidencias con los resultados por la region latinoamericana como particularidades nacionales, con el fin de analizar la realidad especifica del profesional en este pais, especialmente segun la distincion de los temas estrategicos.

Relacionistas públicos colombianos: su punto de vista sobre la profesión en el Latin American Communication Monitor 2014-2015 / Colombians Public Relations: their views of the profession in the Latin American Communication Monitor 2014-2015

El ambiente actual de negocios en el Peru, las empresas, frente a la complejidad de las decisiones, promueven en forma creciente decisiones individuales mas rigurosas y decisiones en equipo, sobre la premisa que en conjunto, los seres humanos alcanzan un nivel mas alto de racionalidad. Se han identificado una serie de fallas en la forma en que pensamos al tomar decisiones. Algunas, como la heuristica por claridad, son concepciones sensoriales erradas. Otras toman la forma de sesgos. Otras aparecen como simplemente anomalias irracionales de nuestro pensamiento. Lo que hace que todas estas trampas sean tan peligrosas, es su invisibilidad. Como estan engranadas en nuestro proceso de pensamiento, fallamos en reconocerlas, incluso cuando caemos flagrantemente en ellas. Considerando que las empresas han asumido la toma de decisiones organizacionales como un proceso en varios niveles, es cada vez mas evidente que la practica e integracion de la toma de decisiones de grupos y equipos ha sobrepasado la capacidad de investigacion; lo que la hace dificil es el modo en que la dinamica de grupo esta incrustada en el concepto organizacional. Para la tesis se ha considerado un enfoque basado en analizar la toma de decisiones por el nivel de riesgo asumido y por el nivel de dependencia de los decisores, siendo el proposito principal de la investigacion, analizar la toma de decisiones en equipos gerenciales de Lima, Peru., para lo cual fue necesario profundizar en una serie de conceptos teoricos e investigaciones. En la literatura revisada se encuentran elementos de toma de decisiones tanto individuales como conjuntas. Las decisiones sin riesgo, bajo incertidumbre y arriesgadas se encuentran dentro de la toma de decisiones individuales y asociadas a la toma de decisiones conjuntas se tiene la teoria de la racionalidad en el juego, la teoria de regateo de Nash y los sindromes individuales y grupales. Los estudios encontrados analizan la interrelacion de estos elementos en forma especifica, pero no profundizan en forma conjunta ni bajo un enfoque que permita observar sesgos predominantes y diferencias entre factores demograficos, empresariales, psicologicos y sociologicos. Las personas actuan influenciados por emociones, manias y su entorno social; los cuales se manifiestan a traves de ciertos sesgos que afectan significativamente su comportamiento. El anclaje, el exceso de confianza, el costo hundido, el sesgo de confirmacion y la falsa analogia son los principales sesgos individuales que influyen en la toma de decisiones interdependientes. Por otra parte, los sesgos grupales que afectan la toma de decisiones conjuntas son el pensamiento grupal, la escalada del compromiso, la paradoja de Abilene, polarizacion del grupo y las decisiones no eticas. Los resultados permitieron identificar diferencias en la toma de decisiones de los gerentes y equipos gerenciales, principalmente, en funcion del sector, el tamano, el tipo de empresa y el nivel de crecimiento de las empresas; diferencias vinculadas a la informacion, la eficacia, los riesgos, la confianza, los sesgos y la cultura. Ademas, de mostrar la incidencia de los sesgos en determinados aspectos economicos de las empresas. En general, se presentan las condiciones adecuadas para evaluar, desde una base sectorial mas homogenea en resultados y oportunidades, el comportamiento frente al riesgo, la influencia personal y social en la toma de decisiones.

Sesgos presentes en la toma de decisiones de los gerentes y equipos gerenciales en Lima, Perú

El Peru vive un momento especial en su historia economica, al crecimiento sostenible en los ultimos anos, se suma la reunion del XVI Foro de Cooperacion Economica Asia – Pacifico (APEC) en nuestro pais, una vitrina mundial para exponer nuestras potenciales riquezas, parece que los peruanos hemos comprendido que tenemos una gran oportunidad que no podemos desaprovechar, el liderazgo empresarial es importante para enfrentar los nuevos retos y poder tomar decisiones que nos conduzcan al exito. El buen liderazgo y la buena toma de decisiones van de la mano. El liderazgo eficiente depende de la capacidad de saber cuando avanzar y cuando cambiar de curso, ademas de la capacidad de demostrar proposito y direccion. Esto resulta esencial cuando se moviliza a la gente, se determinan prioridades y se genera compromiso. Este Articulo trata de describir el rol del liderazgo y el compromiso de los lideres para garantizar que las decisiones estrategicas se desarrollen y se implementen con eficiencia. Tambien proporciona pautas para lograrlo y un resumen de las ideas y los temas principales que hay detras de este proceso de toma de decisiones.

Perú: liderazgo y toma de decisiones en el momento actual

Managers often make decisions in organizations without being aware of the results and hence, their effectiveness. I evaluated three decisions managers made during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, using a hypothetical model of the decision-making process (DMP) so as to measure the percentage of effectiveness business results (PEBR) achieved. This article analyzes the impact of DMP on PEBR and identifies similarities and differences among top performing managers. Results reveal that the model not only predicts the PEBR, but also there are positive associations between the predictor variables that give meaning to validates the model, so I designed a comparative scenario by gender, age, company size, highlighting the profile of the managers with the best results. To understand the relationship between DMP and PEBR academics must adopt a perspective that considers not only the acceptance of decisions, but also distinguishes the association forces DMP variables; and managers can use this decision-making model to improve the process and the expected results. Practical implications, limitations and future studies are discussed.

/pdf/decision-making-and-effectiveness-of-business-results-in-liws7i0gh7.pdf

Decision-making and effectiveness of business results in times of covid-19

Purpose This study extends the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and analyzes the influence of skepticism (SKP) on the purchase intention (PI) of organic products, through the mediation of subjective norms (SN) and planned behavior control.Design/methodology/approach This was a quantitative, correlational and cross-sectional study. The study population comprised 446 university Millennials from Ecuador. Results were processed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).Findings The study showed that SKP does not directly influence the PI. However, if it does so through the mediating effect of SN and perceived behavior control (PBC). Also, the study found that attitudes (ATTs), SN and PBC influence the PI of organic products in university Millennials.Originality/value The study used TPB constructs and identified the influence of SKP on the intention to buy organic products in Ecuadorian university Millennials.

Carlos Arturo Hoyos-Vallejo

Papers

Decision-making and effectiveness of business results in times of covid-19

The influence of skepticism on the university Millennials’ organic food product purchase intention