A Checklist to Help You Make Better Decisions Faster

Decision-making overload is a common experience among managers. But you can process choices more efficiently and achieve better outcomes by using a checklist:

  1. Write down five company goals that will be impacted by the decision. This helps you avoid the trap of making up reasons for your choices later.
  2. Write down at least three realistic alternatives.
  3. Write down the most important information you are missing.
  4. Write down the impact your decision will have a year from now.
  5. Get buy-in from a team of at least two (but no more than six) stakeholders. Hearing different perspectives reduces your bias, but bigger groups have diminishing returns.
  6. Write down what was decided as well as why and how much the team supports the decision. This increases commitment and helps you measure results.
  7. Schedule a follow-up in a month or two to make course corrections.

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*Source: Adapted from Harvard Business Review’s Management Tip of the Day.

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