PM Career | Making Decisions

Leading a project requires constant decision-making. How do we address the customer's needs? What should be the risks that need immediate action? Who should we assign a task to? We'd like to share a critical thinking principle for making decisions. 

• Understand the situation (Observer). You can't decide without fully understanding your situation. You would collect evidence and data to find out: What is the problem? What is the current status? The accurate observation is the basis for the steps followed. 
• Ask for help (Orient). For a high stake decision with broader impacts or difficult to reverse or perform damage control, ask for help when you consult your manager or experts in the field to share experiences, suggestions, or clarifications of your doubts. Sometimes you would even need a devil's advocate to help avoid your strong biases.
• Plan for changes (Decide). You will carefully outline a plan to handle the changes and impacts for the appropriate decision.  
• Take action (Action). If any decision requires changes, consider taking small steps to validate your thoughts first and take steps with a well-thought action plan. 

The described approach is also called the OODA decision approach, which has four steps for decision-making. The approach focuses on filtering available information, putting it in context, quickly making the most appropriate decision, and taking actions to validate the decision. Remember that no matter how well we plan the decision process, we can't guarantee to make the right decisions. However, the decision-making process helps us make the best decision we can in our current capacity. ​​​ 

When you have to make challenging decisions that are not popular, here are some additional suggestions:

• Explain When people are not happy or strongly oppose the decision, don't ignore their voice or be overwhelmed by their objections. Understand their perspectives. After the decision is made, take your firm and clear stand and respect people by explaining why the decision was made this way. However, avoid delaying or flip-flopping a decision. 
• Take ownership While we can't guarantee every decision is correct, the most important thing to do is take ownership by admitting errors and addressing problems.
• Cut through Ambiguity with a Plan. The decision becomes problematic when we can't wait to know all before moving forward. We need to rely on our existing knowledge, process and take risks. The fundamental approach is to connect ideas, define the path and ways to experiment and adjust. ​

The key is to make time for contemplation and take the courage to make the choice. When we are busy with meetings, emails, phone calls, and other immediate demands, we often lack time for reflection, leading to decisions based on reflex rather than careful consideration.​​

Interview Question

• Tell me a time when you make a tough decision. How do you handle that with your team and the lessons learned? The answer should describe the decision process, including the basics of the OODA approach.

Editor's Note: "Plan creates clarity but not a certainty." Project managers keep staying engaged and are always ready to adapt. ​​