Problem-Solving, Decision-Making

People make decisions about many things. They make political decisions; personal
decisions, including medical choices, career decisions, and financial decisions. Some choices are
simple and seem straight forward, while others are complex and require a multi-step approach to
making the decisions.
Factors that Influence Decision Making
There are several important factors that influence decision making. Significant factors
include past experiences, a variety of cognitive biases, an escalation of commitment and sunk
outcomes, individual differences, and a belief in personal relevance. These things all impact the
decision making process and the decisions made.
Past experiences can impact future decision making. It stands to reason that when
something positive results from a decision, people are more likely to decide in a similar way,
given a similar situation. On the other hand, people tend to avoid repeating past mistakes. This is
significant to the extent that future decisions made based on past experiences are not necessarily
the best decisions. In financial decision making, highly successful people do not make
investment decisions based on past sunk outcomes, rather by examining choices with no regard
for past experiences.
In addition to past experiences, there are several cognitive biases that influence decision
making. Cognitive biases are thinking patterns based on observations and generalizations that
may lead to memory errors, inaccurate judgments, and faulty logic. In decision making,
cognitive biases influence people by causing them to over rely or lend more credence to expected
observations and previous knowledge, while dismissing information or observations that are
perceived as uncertain, without looking at the bigger picture. While this influence may lead to
poor decisions sometimes, the cognitive biases enable individuals to make efficient decisions.
A leader is expected to get the job done. To do so, he or she must learn to plan, analyse
situations, identify and solve problems or potential problems, make decisions, and set realistic
and attainable goals for the unit. These are the thinking or creative requirements of leadership
and they set direction. These actions provide vision, purpose, and goal definition. Decision-
making and problem-solving are basic ingredients of leadership. More than anything else, the
ability to make sound, timely decisions separates a leader from a non-leader. It is the
responsibility of leaders to make high quality decisions that are accepted and executed in a
timely fashion.
Leaders must be able to reason under the most critical conditions and decide quickly what
action to take. If they delay or avoid making a decision, this indecisiveness may create hesitancy,
loss of confidence, and confusion within the unit, and may cause the task to fail. Since leaders
are frequently faced with unexpected circumstances, it is important to be flexible — leaders must
be able to react promptly to each situation. Then, when circumstances dictate a change in plans,
prompt reaction builds confidence in them.
SEVEN-STEP PROBLEM-SOLVING, DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Having a logical thought process helps ensure that you will not neglect key factors that
could influence the problem, and ultimately your decision. In fact, you should always apply a
clear, logical thought process to all leadership situations that you encounter. The seven-step
process is an excellent tool that can guide you in solving problems and making those sound and
timely decisions. The seven steps are:
1. Identify (recognize/define) the problem.
2. Gather information (facts/assumptions).
3. Develop courses of action (solutions).
4. Analyze and compare courses of action (alternatives/solutions).
5. Make a decision; select the best course of action (solution).
6. Make a plan.
7. Implement the plan (assess the results).
Identify the Problem
Being able to accurately identify the nature of a problem is a crucial undertaking. All
leadership problems are exploratory in nature — that is, leaders do not always identify the right
cause of a problem or develop the best plan. In fact, two of the most common errors of leaders
are identifying the wrong problem and identifying the wrong causes of a problem. If leaders are
given false information, it may lead them to incorrect problem identification and to incorrect
assumptions about the causes of a problem. Then, if leaders fail to determine the true source of a
problem, they may develop an inadequate plan. So leaders should learn to identify the real
problems. They have to consider all angles, learn to seek only accurate information that leads to
the real causes of a problem. To ensure that information is accurate, they have to question its
validity. In other words, leaders must take what accurate information they have, use their best
judgment, and make educated assumptions about the causes of a problem.
Gather Information
In this step, leaders must gather all available information that pertains to or can influence
the situation (identified problem) from sources such as higher, lateral, and subordinate levels of
command as well as from applicable outside agencies. Although some of the information may
not bear on the problem at hand, it must be available for leaders to consider when developing and
analyzing courses of action.
The amount of available time in a leadership situation can be a limiting factor on how
much time a leader spends performing the various steps of the problem-solving, decision making
process. If time is extremely limited, this is the only step that leaders may omit so they can
quickly think through the remaining steps.
Develop Courses of Action
With the problem identified and available information gathered, the leader will be now
ready to develop possible courses of action. The leader should keep an open mind throughout
this step and be prepared to anticipate change. The leader should think of as many “what-ifs” and
be prepared for them and do not be surprised by them. The leader should develop courses of
actions to counteract events that might hinder accomplishment of the mission. Conducting
“brainstorming” sessions is a good technique to use when there is difficulty in developing
courses of action. Brainstorming is a creative technique that encourages several people to suggest
as many solutions to a problem as possible. Generally, there must be at least two or three
possible courses of action — more if the situation dictates and time permits.
Analyze and Compare Courses of Action
The next step is to determine which course of action will best to solve the problem.
Therefore, leaders should develop as many advantages and disadvantages for each course of
action as possible. Then, they must objectively and logically analyze the advantages and
disadvantages of each one against the advantages and disadvantages of the others. It is a fallacy
to think that the course of action with the most advantages or the fewest disadvantages is the one
that the leader should use. In most cases that may be true, but by weighing the importance of
each advantage and disadvantage, there may be times when the “best” course of action has fewer
advantages and one or more disadvantages than another choice.
 Up to this point in the problem-solving, decision-making process, leaders should have
involved subordinates to research the problem, gather information, and develop and analyse the
various courses of action. Subordinates are more likely to support a plan or decision if they took
part in its development. This technique will pay off in terms of increased interest, higher morale,
and better efficiency by team members.
Make a Decision
After carefully analysing the possible courses of action, using all available information,
the leader has to consider his or her intuitions and emotions. The decision-making process is not
a purely objective, mathematical formula. The human mind does not work that way. Instead, the
mind is both rational and intuitive, and since the decision-making process is a thought process, it
is also both rational and intuitive. However, the leader should never make the mistake of making
decisions guided totally by emotions or intuitions and immediately doing what “feels” right.
Instead, the leader has to follow the problem-solving process as rationally and objectively as
possible.
Make a Plan
The leader should make a plan that includes who would do what, when, where, how, and
why. The plan has to be as specific as time permits, but should not leave out vital information
that could prevent mission accomplishment. In addition to, the leader should include
contingencies in the plan that addresses possible unexpected situations or actions. These
contingencies should be developed based on the assumptions made when the problem was
identified and gathered available information. The ability to make appropriate changes in
decisions and plans requires a certain flexibility of mind — a crucial trait of a good problem-
solver, decision-maker, and planner.
Implement the Plan
Once the decision and plan are made, it is time to act. In this final step, the leader must
put the plan into action, then evaluate it to ensure that the desired results are being achieved.
Evaluation is often a neglected step in the decision-making process. The key to evaluation is to
seek feedback constantly on how the plan is doing. The leader should go to the point of the
action and determine if the plan is working or not. If not, the leader should determine why not
and take immediate action to correct the plan.