Effective and Swift Decision-making is an essential, 21st century capability for all leaders. This presentation shows how good leadership is inextricably linked to decision-making; and how decisiveness requires that the "thinking" and "acting" aspects of our competencies are melded for effectiveness.
The Wakhlu Advisory - Bharat Wakhlu's webinar presentation "Effective and Swift Decision-making' ; June 13, 2017
1. A Strategic Imperative for the 21st Century Executive
Effective and Swift Decision-Making
Mr. Bharat Wakhlu
President & Founder, TWA
2. I. Leadership, decision-making and greatness
II. Decision-making basics and effectiveness
III. How decision-making has changed
IV. Decision-making in organizations
V. Becoming decisive
Webinar Flow
4. Successful Leaders
• Use decisions to galvanize people
• Create high-performing teams
• Help achieve collective greatness
Leadership Moments are those rare and unique times when leaders
encountering a “critical fork in the road” step-up, by being decisive
Have you ever met a leader who doesn’t take decisions?
Leadership is Decision Making
5. • Leadership is about people, and leading them to higher
ground
▫ Better results, greater outcomes
• Followers and leaders are inter-connected
▫ Great leaders achieve extraordinary results by empowering
followers
• Unified results (some with wholesome outcomes and some
without) are achieved when the leaders and followers share
their chosen destiny
Leadership is not a Solitary Unfolding
6. Capable, decisive people whose decisions are collectively
adopted are viewed as leaders
• The people who are inspired and motivated to follow the
leader to the envisioned goal, enhance the leader’s
influence
• When people collectively and cohesively work towards
chosen goals, great results are likely
Leadership, Influence and Results
8. Signal / Information
Source #1
Signal / Information
Source #2
Signal / Information
Source #N
Cognitive Analysis
and Filters
Decision-Making Basics
Intuition
Desired or
Beneficial
Outcome
9. • It takes a normal human brain just 13 milliseconds to
process an image on the retina
• Interpretation of signals leads to action- The Fight and
Flight response
• If early men were not swift in reacting to the rapid
decisions, they got eliminated by predators!
Our Brain’s are Swift…
10. • Confirmation Bias, Loss aversion, Framing and other
decision traps
• Working on improving decision-making requires
exercising one’s cognitive abilities
• Seeking alternative perspectives as inputs minimizes
biases and contributes to better decisions
…Yet, Cognition is Prone to Bias
11. • Flawed decisions
▫ Do not achieve the best outcomes; adverse results are a
consequence
▫ Undermine team morale and fail to bring the best out of
people
• The costs can be measured in terms of
▫ Enhanced risk
▫ Financial or material loss
▫ Diminished opportunities
▫ Restricted access to resources
▫ Bad Hires
▫ Despair
▫ Conflict/War
The Cost of Poor Decisions
12. • Effective decisions are those that yield desirable outcomes
– for all involved and over a long period of time
• Indecision – the inability to process existing alternatives
and acting to achieve a desirable/essential goal– is a
negative trait
• Despite the outcomes coming after a lag in many cases, a
decision “now” is considered better than no decision
• Team decisions often yield superior outcomes in certain
situations
Good Decisions = Good Outcomes
14. • Complexities arise from:
▫ Simple to more intricate outcomes
▫ Homogenous vs. heterogeneous
people/groups
▫ Stakeholders with diverse and
conflicting needs or aspirations
Decision-Making is Complex
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity
in the information sources add to the difficulties of decision-
making
15. • Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled
machines to “think” and act like humans - become
autonomous
▫ Benefits of speed, repeatability, precision, trend-
determination
• This capability is used by robots for repetitive activities,
data analytics etc
• This field will continue to make rapid strides; more
repetitive or less risky areas will continue to be automated
AI is Algorithmic
16. • Deployed for decisions in day-to-day life and emergencies/
where matters of life and death need to be decided quickly
• In corporate organizations that need the creativity and
efforts of large numbers of people working together to
achieve meaningful goals quickly
• All other areas that impact what matters most to us as
humans: love, relationships, showing compassion,
kindness, forgiveness, etc. Managing AI, Innovating, using
Technology…
Human Ingenuity is Unique
18. Good Organizations hire good people… yet many end up
being slow and bureaucratic when it comes to decision-
making and action
• Large organizations especially prone to
▫ Tardiness
▫ Decisions concentrated at the top levels
▫ Others “looking upwards” for guidance
▫ Distributed decision-making not in evidence
Organizations = Bureaucracy?
19. • Indecision or flawed decisions at the top of the hierarchy
can be far more damaging than at lower levels
• Chief Executives need to practice and then perfect being
decisive; those who cannot are not viewed favorably
• Four Factors contribute to typical decision-dysfunction
Leaders Need Decision Smarts
20. 1. Culture, Politics and “Red lines”
2. Social Architecture
3. Analytical Support Systems
4. Individual Capabilities and Choices
Four Factors Affecting Decisiveness
21. • Values, beliefs and guidelines – Talking the talk and
Walking the talk
• Discipline and systems that prevent violation of written-
down Protocols, Procedures, and conditions (red-lines)
• Appreciating decisiveness and distributed decision-
making; not using politics to make people “yes men”
1. Culture, Politics and Red Lines
22. • PAMS Alignment – is decision-making encouraged?
• Organization structure, career paths, learning and
development opportunities
• Systems of Recognition, rewards and growth in the
organization
• Are conscious decisions with not-so-favourable outcomes
penalized? Or would this be viewed as a learning
opportunity?
2. Social Architecture
23. • Using Business Intelligence, data mining and Big-data analytics
for Decision-support and improving the Quality of Decisions
• Refined processes and computational resources to make
available pertinent data – whenever and wherever in the
organization it matters
• Encouraging intuition but with data-driven decision-making
3. Analytical Support Systems
24. • Thinking methods (risk-taking, Situation analysis,
personal choices, action-orientation, focus on results); the
future is always uncertain, but does that result in ‘analysis-
paralysis’?
• Working styles (alignment of results, no conflicts of
interest, and transparency); Clarity of the outcomes one
wishes to achieve
• Choices that continuously improve decision-making
(taking more decisions, achieving better results and
eliminating judgment flaws and biases)
4. Individual Capabilities and Choices
26. Individual Actions:
• Learn by doing – Think clearly, and take more decisions ; keep
practicing
• Function ethically
▫ Avoid obvious or hidden conflicts of Interest
▫ Clarify the values you stand for
• Avoid decision-traps and biases
• Analyze situations to determine the risks and the urgency
• Determine how the decision process needs to evolve – then
ACT!
Becoming Decisive – Now!
27. Group Actions:
• Communicate and listen
▫ To the guidance and ideas of others
▫ Adhere to values and don’t cross red-lines
▫ Reconcile divergent ideas and then, act
• Expect high levels of performance from the team
▫ Keep emphasizing the desired goals
• Empower the team to take decisions of their own; encourage
decisiveness
• Be honest, and truthful
▫ If errors are made inadvertently, accept them and move on
• Know that thoughtful decisiveness is better than inaction
Becoming Decisive – Now!
