BUSINESS SCENARIO PAPER PART 2

Business Scenario Paper Part 2

Business Scenario Paper Part 2

Decision Making Techniques

For this paper I will use the PMI Technique for decision making. Edward de Bono refines the T-Chart idea into a three part structure, which he calls PMI for plus, minus, and interesting (Safa, 2008). Here you first list all the plus or good points of the idea, then all the minus or bad points, and finally all the interesting points--consequences, areas of curiosity or uncertainty, or attributes that you simply don't care to view as either good or bad at this point (consequences that some people might view as good and others might view as bad, for example) (Safa, 2008).

The "interesting" category also allows exploration of the idea or choice outside the context of judgment--you don't have to evaluate the attribute into a positive or negative category (Davenport, 2000). As simple as this technique seems to be, and as often as others will tell you, "Well, of course, everyone does that all the time," this is a very powerful but much neglected technique. Most people believe they list the pluses and minuses of a decision before making it, but in actual practice, many people make a decision or form an opinion before they consider the evidence in an orderly way (Safa, 2008). Only after they make a decision do they hunt around for reasons to support it.

Steps in Applying the Decision Making Technique

A significant part of decision making skills is in knowing and practicing good decision making techniques (Davenport, 2000). One of the most practical decision making techniques can be summarized in those simple decision making steps:

Identify the purpose of your decision. What is exactly the problem to be solved? Why it should be solved?

Gather information. What factors does the problem involve?

Identify the principles to ...