Steps in Decision Making Process

Decision making process is like a school exam. Those who take good decisions will pass the exam and the rest who does not take right decisions will have to bear the consequences. Being able to take good decision is important for everyone, whether he/she is a student, teacher, manager, principal, president, leader of any institution etc. A student has to take decisions about his career, a president has to take decisions regarding his country’s benefit, and a manager has to take decisions regarding his company and likewise the leader of any institution. So every single person has to pass this step in order to progress in their field.

The meaning of decision in Latin is to ‘cut off’. This means that from all the available alternatives you choose one thing and then cut off from all the other alternatives. Due to this, the decision making process sometimes becomes very difficult. Choosing the right option from all the available alternatives is very hard to do.

Decision making process requires thinking process, time, efforts, resources and also a little bit of knowledge and past experiences. Thinking process plays an important role in decision making process because it allows you to judge each and every thing. Timing is also important.

Taking right decisions on right time can save you from any trouble. Taking too little time to take decisions or taking too much time to execute your decision can cause many problems for you. Decision making processes also requires knowledge, experience and research. If you have knowledge, you can find out different alternatives for the problem faced. Making decisions without having proper knowledge about the problem can cause difficulties.

In our view decision making power is the key to progress in life. You might have seen many people who do not take proper decisions and then they have to suffer. On the other hand people who have this decision making power, continues to progress in their life. Not all of us have this decision making power. We try to make right decisions but sometimes we make mistakes because we don’t know the steps that we should follow during the decision making process. So in order to take right decisions, it is important that we should know all the steps of decision making process and follow them.

The decision making process involves the following steps:

  1. Curious Observation
  2. Existence of Problem
  3. Goals & Planning
  4. Search, Explore & Gather the Evidence
  5. Generate Creative & Logical Alternative Solutions
  6. Evaluate the Evidence
  7. Make the Educated Guess (Hypothesis)
  8. Challenge the Hypothesis
  9. Reach a Conclusion
  10. Suspend Judgment
  11. Take Action

These steps will help you to take proper decisions

Each of these steps will be explained one by one in further articles. Anyone who wants to be a good decision maker should follow these steps. Whether your problem is big or small these steps will show you the right path to solve your problem and will lead you towards progression.


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The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.


Decision Making