Dawna Jones

Can you make decisions swiftly and confidently when vast amounts of data cross your desk and inbox every day? How do you prioritize and rapidly respond in the midst of changing conditions? Well, you use the skills you already possess but may not be tapping into.Here's an interesting correlation: The way you process information as you drive a vehicle works for making an informed decision, as well.

In a business environment of complexity and uncertainty, excellent decision-making skills are paramount. Employees, customers, and others touched by a company's actions respond to what they trust — ethical decision-making in business has become a strategic asset. Learn how to communicate decisions effectively, how to make faster and more informed decisions on the fly, and how to incorporate your core values into your decision-making.

Management styles are undergoing a total overhaul as the "tell, sell, and make-it-so" approach gives way to co-creating solutions horizontally across and vertically up levels of authority. The impetus for this change is high levels of employee disengagement. This crisis of disengagement is the opening you need to convert your workplace into a better climate for decision-making and creative innovation.

Core values reflect what is important to your company. They serve as the unshakeable foundation for what your company stands for in good and bad times. When integrated into decision-making, core values are part of decision-makers' mindsets at every level in the company. Consider core values the nonnegotiable part of your company's reputation, sustained by the commitment of executives and employees at every level to live those values in their decision-making and in their relationships with company personnel, customers, suppliers, and communities.

To increase your ability to access and interpret inner guidance when you need it most, you can develop your intuition muscles. Here are some suggestions: Make decisions. Don’t wait to be perfect. The more experience you have making decisions, the better. Whether your decision proves to be right or wrong helps you know what works under specific circumstances.

Where order and structure are important to a company, employees are expected to follow established procedures. Such a “flight plan” clarifies who does what so that each team member knows his or her role and what to expect. These various factors — management style, working environment, authority structures, and so on — influence the dynamics of decision-making.

After you gather information, the next step is to make sense of it. In short, it’s time to analyze the data. Factors that determine how you’ll proceed include how much time is available and whether you need to justify your decision to investors, customers, employees, or shareholders. Follow these steps to sort and analyze the information you’ve gathered: Identify the facts, data, and raw numbers relevant to the decision and determine how you’ll crunch the numbers so they can inform the decision or selection of options.

Consensus is a group decision-making process in which the final outcome requires agreement by all parties involved. To gain consensus, you invite diverse perspectives so that the groups can explore the issue from different angles. Consensus adds value by building support and commitment for implementation of a decision and action plan.

You can have the best team in the world working collaboratively, but if you or your colleagues are not committed to turning the decision into a reality, you may just as well go to your favorite coffee shop, order copious amounts of caffeine, and buzz out. Commitment can be undermined by the following: Poorly thought-out plans or decisions: Plenty of half-baked ideas end up being implemented without being thought through.