Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: Deming, lean thinking, innovation, customer focus, continual improvement, six sigma.
November 24, 2009
Making Better Decisions

I think the most important thing you can do to make better decisions is to learn from the decisions you make. It sounds easy, but very few people do so effectively.

The best strategy to learn from decisions is to:

3 Responses to “Making Better Decisions”

  1. shaun sayers Says:

    The problem with decision making is that many people can’t accept the limitations of it. That being that there is no guarantee that the decision you make will lead to the desired outcome. In effect, if the outcome is not achieved then the decision is branded “bad” – but that is simply not the case. We have both written in the past about Deming’s views on the complexities of this and also permanent inconvenience of the “unknowables”, and that just means that sometimes the outcome turns out to be bad because of a set of circumstances or dynamics we could not have accounted for. That doesn’t mean the process is necessarily wrong, or that we might not take the same approach again. Next time round, in fact, we may have a greater chance of success if we learn from our experiences, that is to factor in that which was previously “unknown” but which is now “known”

    The use of data to drive decision making simply reduces our odds of a bad decision. It does not guarantee the desired outcome, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing to do

  2. Il meglio della blogosfera lean #14 — Encob Blog Says:

    [...] Making Better Decisions dal blog Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog di John Hunter, che spiega che la cosa più importante per prendere le buone decisioni è di imparare dalle decisioni prese… (traduzione automatica) [...]

  3. Tim McMahon Says:

    Good advice on writing them down. I would also try to avoid these common pitfalls in decision making.

    http://leanjourneytruenorth.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-make-better-decisions.html

Leave a Reply


Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog © curiouscat.com 2005-2010

Internal Links

Author

John Hunter

Tags

Bill Hunter blogs Books Career Carnival cars commentary Creativity curiouscat Customer focus Data Deming Economics economy engineering executive pay Google Health care Innovation internet Investing IT Japan John Hunter lean manufacturing Lean thinking Madison management managing people Manufacturing overpaid executives Performance Appraisal Process improvement Psychology Quality tools quote respect for people Six sigma Software Development Statistics Systems thinking tips Toyota Toyota Production System (TPS) webcast
Full tag could

Other

Search Blog

Web Search

Management Improvement web search

Recent Comments

  • Nick McCormick: Agreed John. Slogans can be good or bad. They can be effective if the rank and file come up with...
  • Halvard: I have reservations about the Obama Healthcare Plan. Can it create costly effects to my families well being?...
  • Rob: Absolutely excellent videos. Deming is timeless and his message resonates today.
  • Jamie Flinchbaugh: I am curious to watch it. I believe the executives will probably have some ah-has and some good...
  • Jamie Flinchbaugh: Thanks for including me. I’m glad you choose Fail, Learn, Lead. I think it’s a really...
  • ilskan: @Kyle: I suppose so. Ideally you want a happy medium, though; the other end of the spectrum can be pretty...
  • Anonymous: I recently stayed in a ski lodge in the white mountains Arizona for me and the wife’s anniversary....
  • Jamie Flinchbaugh: I’m sure you are right that there are many frustrated people, but one of the benefits of...
  • Karen Wilhelm: Great find – lean starters in need of do-it-yourself training curriculum can really benefit from...
  • Mark Graban: Nice post, John. I’ll hold out hope that this is more than a form of industrial tourism. Executive...

Archives

November 2009
M T W T F S S
« Oct   Dec »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30