According to an article ‘Decisions, Decisions, Decisions’ on the School of Thinking today, decisions are becoming one of the things most not talked about in the boardroom. Further, the article declares decision making to the the core of ‘innovation’. I have no reason to doubt the authors experiences that executives are not interested in improving their decision making – yet it does seem incredulous that executives are not seeking ways to work differently with overwhelming proof that the decisions they have made in recent years have not exactly lead to the results they dreamed of.
3 Absolutes of Innovation Decisions
Working in the world of strategic performance, with a strong foundation in performance dashboards I believe that innovation [decisions] requires three core competencies:
- Good information – relevant, current information available in a format the support rapid insight
- Quality thinking – that leads to asking the right questions, not just working the rote of traditional status quo. Questions need to be relevant to the desired outcome for today, and for tomorrow, not for yesterday.
- Effective decision process – one that ensures you are asking the right questions, challenging assumptions and avoiding personal bias and filters
It goes back to the old adage – do what you have always done, and you get what you always got. If you want innovation, you need to first decide to address the weaknesses in your information, thinking and decision making processes.
Author: Gail La Grouw. Insight Mastery Program Director, and Strategic Performance Consultant for Coded Vision Ltd.
