You are the Decision Executive!

Decision not to take a decision is a decision itself. On daily basis, we face situation where we make decision either for ourselves or other people.

There are situations where decision making is natural and no-brainer, you don’t need to think about it because there is no other option except to do it. So, in those instances, action becomes decision. For instance, you are hungry. You will need to get something to eat. That is natural decision or what I will call ‘Default Decision’ (DD). The only condition for such decision to be thought of is when there is any constraint in taking the expected action – get something to eat. Constraints like no food item to eat at home, not near where you can get something to eat, etc will negate DD and introduce deliberate action of thinking on options available to make decision.

However, there are some decisions that you will make which may have significant impact on yourself, family, colleagues at work and your organization. Such decisions are critical and nothing taking the decision is a decision itself. Considering the potential 360degree effect of decisions, it is smart to learn how to make smart decisions in life.

Analysis of Business Problems (ABP) is one of the courses for students of Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA)of Lagos Business School (LBS, Nigeria). As a participant in the program, I have come to realise that ‘ability to make smart decisions is a fundamental life skill’[1].

Yes, it is one thing to make smart decision and other to know how to make smart decisions. The ABP course will provide opportunity for students to learn how to make smart decisions. Use of tools that also aid in making smart decisions will be taught during the course. Such tools like cognitive, right data sets, ability to understand, optimize and interpret alternatives for robust and smart decisions.

The course introduction also explains how the correctness or otherwise of our decisions can impact short- or long-term performance of an organization. Sometimes, decisions will take are done intentionally with clear target in mind when such decisions were being taken.

In our class reading materials, the issue of Advocacy and Inquiry was discussed as two (2) tools that can help to analyse how decisions are fed through the Advocacy and Inquire. It will be quite interesting to learn the better tool among the 2 mentioned above as we continue the journey of making decisions in every aspect of life.

[1] Making Smart Choices, HPR September 2021