How to be more decisive while tackling problems?

Introduction

Last week I've been studying the exciting course for ‘Problem solving and decision making’ provided by University of California, Irvine on the amazing Coursera platform. This course aims to provide you with a quick but intensive overview of practical managerial approaches to identify and tackle problems, also to come up with a solution through a proper decision making process. Here’s some of the best points I learned in this course.

The process of being decisive

Well, you may wondering “Is there such a process that really called a decision making process?” isn’t it something intuitive? We do that by nature by nature! When we try to pick up the best piece of cloth to wear, when we choose one product over the others, etc..! Do we really need a process for that?


Actually, things don’t seem to be always the same way, specially when you’re dealing with more complicated problems that relates to complicated entities (people, organizations, money). In such problems, you don’t have a direct guide to the root cause of a certain problem, and if you managed to figure out that one, you still have many options with many scenarios for each one.


So, we need a process! And the key elements for that process would be something like this:

1. Know your purpose.

Know what you’re aiming for. What’s the thing that you need to take action for, in other words, what’s your problem?

2. Understand your biases.

Being decisive means that you’re aware of weapons under your belt, the limits you can go through, and the restrictions that may block you!

3. Consider different consequences.

You need to know the impact for your aim, what can be affected by your goal and your way to achieve it? What other costs you have to pay in addition for your original bill? Be ready for those side effects.


How to know your purpose? In other words, how to define your problem!

In order for your way to be more decisive, you need to identify your problems clearly! You can’t approach what you don’t see!

So what’s a 'Problem'?

A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired state

So the problem is a special situation that requires a special approach to drive it back on rails. A rock on the way that hinders us from reaching the destination. Okay, challenge accepted, let’s take an example for a problem and dive more deeper.


Let’s say that you’ve put some extra weight (observation) and you’re wondering about the cause for that? After some self-criticism you figured out that the problem is the bad food habits you’ve developed over the last couple of years. So you’ve identified your problem now and you’re aware at least of what your enemy looks like! This process of studying (analyzing) the problem in more detail in order to come out with a solution is called the problem solving process.

And I'll write more about these problem analyzing tools in the incoming articles related to the same topic.

Wish you more decisive day!