Leadership (5-6)

Decision Making Process

Unit Highlights
It was Ian E. Wilson, Chairman of the General Electric Corporation who noticed that our knowledge is about the past and all our decisions are about the future. Have you ever thought about that? In the next two units we will examine the past and learn from it to move into the future of better and more strategic decisions. Moreover, as part of your time management exercise, you will be asked to manage your time for the two units and all materials for the two units will be provided all at once. Thus, you will have to prepare your own plan when you will do all the tasks required in the two units and submit your work on time. Are you already stressed out? No need to be. Time management and decision making process are skills, like all others—the more you exercise, the better you become at them. You will also learn the basics of stress management and to ease your planning, you will be provided with an empty space of unit 6 that you will have to fill with tasks to ease the planning process for you.

Remember, your work for the two weeks is all included in this unit and it is up to you to manage it: divide it into manageable chunks and allocate time as needed. You will have to decide what you will do and when.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Are decisions made or taken? Grammatically, of course, they are made in English and taken while relying on prior knowledge and experience of others, in French. However, if we stop for a moment to reflect on this significant difference, we might realize that the above noted grammar issue might be revealing common questions that arise with decision making: how do we reach a decision and what kind of conversations based on deep understanding of the issues at hand we must have prior to acting on our decisions. What grammar implies here is that if we follow the English language path, we create the decision making process-step-by-step to make it. Or, if we ascribe to the French language example, we search for the decision to ``take`` it because we might believe that a similar decision exists somewhere in the universe and perhaps someone else has already created it and we could just join in the group to ease the process for ourselves. What do you think?

In your mother tongue are decisions made, taken, or something else happens to them? To what extent do you think this notion of making or taking decisions has an effect on how you reach your decisions? Do you usually try to ask others for advice, or do you consult others, but realize that you have to create YOUR DECISION from A to Z? Are you comfortable with decisions because they are part of life or are you trying to avoid making decisions only to find out that others will gladly do it for you, but you will have to pay the price? Of course, there are many other complicating factors here, and we do not want to imply that Anglophones or Francophones are in any ways better in making or taking decisions, but merely imply a notion that we all differ in viewing and practicing the decision making process. We differ to the point of realizing that there is a significant gap in decision making process that describes one as a Manager and another one as a Leader. We will study in unit 7, that decision making process, like many others might be very much culturally based, thus you, as a student and future business leader will need to be cognizant of your cultural background, biases and tendencies at any times.

In today’s globalized world the issues of collective or individualistic approaches in decision making process are part of our contemporary reality and anyone running a business needs to be aware of existing differences in approaches related to decision making. Based on our make and take example could we state that Francophones tend to be more collective and Anglophones more individualistic when it comes to decisions and that is why there is different verb choice in the two respective languages? Let’s leave this question for now as we will study these issues later while examining the topic of diversity in unit 7.

At this point, though, you do need to ask yourself a question: how did you reach decisions in the past and and how did you learn from good and no so good decisions? Moreover, you need to become cognizant of how your individual preferences could impede making decisions on organisational level, and how to leverage your style to get the most benefit for your future organisation and its employees.



Introduction Whom have you been asking for direction?

One day, Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. `Which road do I take? ‘she asked. Its response was a question. `Where do you want to go? ` Ì don’t know ‘Alice answered. `Then, `said the cat, it doesn’t matter. `

Lewis Caroll

Yes, it does matter where we are going and how are our planning skills. Do you know where you are going? Are you clear about your objectives? Do you understand the process of decision making? In this unit we will examine the decision making process and look at important elements of decision making. It is really important while learning about the decision making process to fully appreciate that we need to live with our decisions, and as leaders, our decisions impact a lot of people who need to live with not only the decisions but also the changed realities. Leaders’ decisions impact all areas of our lives, including performance, environment, budgeting, quality of life, future outcomes related to local and global economies, safety, etc.

When we have to follow the process of decision making, we also need to rely on our questioning skills: Did we take into account all necessary factors? Are we proactive? Do we have biases? What are they? Did we consult the stakeholders? Did we follow someone else’s path or did we have to create a new path? What about consequences? What would be the best future for our corporation? Did we take into account short term and long term consequences? Did we consider implications stemming from creating precedence? Do we have tools or patterns that we could use in the decision making process? What are the expected organisational outcomes?

We have started working on posing strategic questions in the previous two units and you will be able to appreciate in this unit how important it is to pose strategic questions while deciding. You will discover this while continuing to sharpen your asking questions skills in this unit as well.

Wait a moment. Maybe decisions are sometimes made and sometimes taken and some other times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(fill in the gaps to indicate whatever happens to decision in your mother tongue). Let’s find out.




Visit the following website created by Dr. Hossein Arsham
from the Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore:
http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/opre640/partXIII.htm
and read the following chapters on Leadership Decision Making:
1. Introduction and Summary
2. How People Avoid Making Serious Decisions
3. When One Should Not Make Serious Decisions
4. How to Make Good Decisions
5. Decisions Concerning Personal Life
6. Problem of Determination of Values and Rank among Values
7. Thinkable Decisions and the Economy of Strategic Thinking
8. What Is Man? Man Has No Nature, But Has History
9. How the Mind Works: From Deciding to Action
10. How to Distinguish among Rumor, Belief, Opinion, and Fact
11. Leadership versus Managerial's Duties and Styles





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management

Time management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope.

Categorization

Stephen R. Covey has offered a categorization scheme for the hundreds of time management approaches that they reviewed:

* First generation: reminders based on clocks and watches, but with computer implementation possible; can be used to alert a person when a task is to be done.
* Second generation: planning and preparation based on calendar and appointment books; includes setting goals.
* Third generation: planning, prioritizing, controlling (using a personal organizer, other paper-based objects, or computer or PDA-based systems) activities on a daily basis. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.
* Fourth generation: being efficient and proactive using any of the above tools; places goals and roles as the controlling element of the system and favors importance over urgency.[1][2]

Time management literature can be paraphrased as follows:

* "Get Organized" - paperwork and task triage
* "Protect Your Time" - insulate, isolate, delegate
* "Set gravitational goals" - that attract actions automatically
* "Achieve through Goal management Goal Focus" - motivational emphasis
* "Work in Priority Order" - set goals and prioritize
* "Use Magical Tools to Get More Out of Your Time" - depends on when written
* "Master the Skills of Time Management"
* "Go with the Flow" - natural rhythms, Eastern philosophy
* "Recover from Bad Time Habits" - recovery from underlying psychological problems, e.g. procrastination

More unconventional time usage techniques, such as those discussed in "Where Did Time Fly,"[3] include concepts that can be paraphrased as "Less is More," which de-emphasizes the importance of squeezing every minute of your time, as suggested in traditional time management schemes.

In recent years, several authors have discussed time management as applied to the issue of digital information overload, in particular, Tim Ferriss with "The 4 hour workweek",[4] and Stefania Lucchetti with "The Principle of Relevance"[5]
[edit] Time management and related concepts

Time management has been considered as subsets of different concepts such as:

* Project management. Time Management can be considered as a project management subset and is more commonly known as project planning and project scheduling. Time Management has also been identified as one of the core functions identified in project management.[6]
* Attention management: Attention Management relates to the management of cognitive resources, and in particular the time that humans allocate their mind (and organizations the minds of their employees) to conduct some activities.
* Personal knowledge management: see below (Personal time management).

[edit] Conceptual effect on labor

Professor Stephen Smith, of BYUI, is among recent sociologists that have shown that the way workers view time is connected to social issues such as the institution of family, gender roles, and the amount of labor by the individual.[7]
[edit] Personal Time Management

Time management strategies are often associated with the recommendation to set personal goals. These goals are recorded and may be broken down into a project, an action plan, or a simple task list. For individual tasks or for goals, an importance rating may be established, deadlines may be set, and priorities assigned. This process results in a plan with a task list or a schedule or calendar of activities. Authors may recommend a daily, weekly, monthly or other planning periods associated with different scope of planning or review. This is done in various ways, as follows.

Time management also covers how to eliminate tasks that don't provide the individual or organization value.
[edit] Task list

A task list (also to-do list or things-to-do) is a list of tasks to be completed, such as chores or steps toward completing a project. It is an inventory tool which serves as an alternative or supplement to memory.

Task lists are used in self-management, grocery lists, business management, project management, and software development. It may involve more than one list.

When one of the items on a task list is accomplished, the task is checked or crossed off. The traditional method is to write these on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil, usually on a note pad or clip-board.

Writer Julie Morgenstern suggests "do's and don'ts" of time management that include:

* Map out everything that is important, by making a task list
* Create "an oasis of time" for one to control
* Say "No"
* Set priorities
* Don't drop everything
* Don't think a critical task will get done in spare time.[8]

Numerous digital equivalents are now available, including PIM (Personal information management) applications and most PDAs. There are also several web-based task list applications, many of which are free.[9]
[edit] Task list organization

Task lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or task-holding file) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish, and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.[8]

Task lists are often prioritized:

* An early advocate of "ABC" prioritization was Alan Lakein. In his system "A" items were the most important ("A-1" the most important within that group), "B" next most important, "C" least important.[10]

* A particular method of applying the ABC method[11] assigns "A" to tasks to be done within a day, "B" a week, and "C" a month.

* To prioritize a daily task list, one either records the tasks in the order of highest priority, or assigns them a number after they are listed ("1" for highest priority, "2" for second highest priority, etc.) which indicates in which order to execute the tasks. The latter method is generally faster, allowing the tasks to be recorded more quickly.[8]

* Another way of prioritizing compulsory tasks (group A) is to put the most unpleasant one first. When it’s done, the rest of the list feels easier. Groups B and C can benefit from the same idea, but instead of doing the first task (which is the most unpleasant) right away, it gives motivation to do other tasks from the list to avoid the first one.[12]

* A completely different approach which argues against prioritising altogether was put forward by British author Mark Forster in his book "Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management". This is based on the idea of operating "closed" to-do lists, instead of the traditional "open" to-do list. He argues that the traditional never-ending to-do lists virtually guarantees that some of your work will be left undone. This approach advocates getting all your work done, every day, and if you are unable to achieve it helps you diagnose where you are going wrong and what needs to change.[13]

[edit] Software applications

Modern task list applications may have built-in task hierarchy (tasks are composed of subtasks which again may contain subtasks),[14] may support multiple methods of filtering and ordering the list of tasks, and may allow one to associate arbitrarily long notes for each task.

In contrast to the concept of allowing the person to use multiple filtering methods, at least one new software product additionally contains a mode where the software will attempt to dynamically determine the best tasks for any given moment.[15]

Many of the software products for time management support multiple users. It allows the person to give tasks to other users and use the software for communication[16]

In law firms, law practice management software may also assist in time management.

Task list applications may be thought of as lightweight personal information manager or project management software.
[edit] Attention Deficit Disorder

Excessive and chronic inability to manage time effectively may be a result of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Diagnostic criteria include: A sense of underachievement, difficulty getting organized, trouble getting started, many projects going simultaneously and trouble with follow-through.[17]

* Prefrontal cortex: The prefrontal cortex is the most recently evolved part of the brain. It controls the functions of attention span, impulse control, organization, learning from experience and self-monitoring, among others. Some authors argue that changing the way the prefrontal cortex works is possible and offers a solution.[18]

[edit] Caveats
[edit] Dwelling on the lists

* According to Sandberg,[19] task lists "aren't the key to productivity [that] they're cracked up to be". He reports an estimated "30% of listers spend more time managing their lists than [they do] completing what's on them".

* This could be caused by procrastination by prolonging the planning activity. This is akin to analysis paralysis. As with any activity, there's a point of diminishing returns.

[edit] Rigid adherence

* Hendrickson asserts[20] that rigid adherence to task lists can create a "tyranny of the to-do list" that forces one to "waste time on unimportant activities".

* Again, the point of diminishing returns applies here too, but toward the size of the task. Some level of detail must be taken for granted for a task system to work. Rather than put "clean the kitchen", "clean the bedroom", and "clean the bathroom", it is more efficient to put "housekeeping" and save time spent writing and reduce the system's administrative load (each task entered into the system generates a cost in time and effort to manage it, aside from the execution of the task). The risk of consolidating tasks, however, is that "housekeeping" in this example may prove overwhelming or nebulously defined, which will either increase the risk of procrastination, or a mismanaged project.[citation needed]

* Listing routine tasks wastes time. If you are in the habit of brushing your teeth every day, then there is no reason to put it down on the task list. The same goes for getting out of bed, fixing meals, etc. If you need to track routine tasks, then a standard list or chart may be useful, to avoid the procedure of manually listing these items over and over.[citation needed]

* To remain flexible, a task system must allow for disaster. A disaster occurs constantly whether it is personal or business-related. A company must have a cushion of time ready for a disaster. Even if it is a small disaster, if no one made time for this situation, it can blow up bigger, causing the company to bankruptcy just because of poor time management.[21]

* To avoid getting stuck in a wasteful pattern, the task system should also include regular (monthly, semi-annual, and annual) planning and system-evaluation sessions, to weed out inefficiencies and ensure the user is headed in the direction he or she truly desires.[22]

* If some time is not regularly spent on achieving long-range goals, the individual may get stuck in a perpetual holding pattern on short-term plans, like staying at a particular job much longer than originally planned.[citation needed]

[edit] Techniques for setting priorities

There are several ways to set priorities.
[edit] ABC analysis

A technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities are ranked upon these general criteria:

* A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important,
* B – Tasks that are important but not urgent,
* C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important.

Each group is then rank-ordered in priority. To further refine priority, some individuals choose to then force-rank all "B" items as either "A" or "C". ABC analysis can incorporate more than three groups.[10]

ABC analysis is frequently combined with Pareto analysis.
[edit] Pareto analysis

This is the idea that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the disposable time. The remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time. This principle is used to sort tasks into two parts. According to this form of Pareto analysis it is recommended that tasks that fall into the first category be assigned a higher priority.

The 80-20-rule can also be applied to increase productivity: it is assumed that 80% of the productivity can be achieved by doing 20% of the tasks. Similarly, 80% of results can be attributed to 20% of activity.[23] If productivity is the aim of time management, then these tasks should be prioritized higher.

It depends on the method adopted to complete the task. There is always a simpler and easy way to complete the task. If one uses a complex way, it will be time consuming. So, one should always try to find out the alternate ways to complete each task.
[edit] The Eisenhower Method
A basic "Eisenhower box" to help evaluate urgency and importance. Items may be placed at more precise points within each quadrant.

All tasks are evaluated using the criteria important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent and put in according quadrants. Tasks in unimportant/not urgent are dropped, tasks in important/urgent are done immediately and personally, tasks in unimportant/urgent are delegated and tasks in important/not urgent get an end date and are done personally. This method is said to have been used by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is outlined in a quote attributed to him: What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.[citation needed]
[edit] POSEC method

POSEC is an acronym for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing.

The method dictates a template which emphasizes an average individual's immediate sense of emotional and monetary security. It suggests that by attending to one's personal responsibilities first, an individual is better positioned to shoulder collective responsibilities.

Inherent in the acronym is a hierarchy of self-realization which mirrors Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of needs".

1. Prioritize - Your time and define your life by goals.
2. Organizing - Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful. (Family and Finances)
3. Streamlining - Things you may not like to do, but must do. (Work and Chores)
4. Economizing - Things you should do or may even like to do, but they're not pressingly urgent. (Pastimes and Socializing)
5. Contributing - By paying attention to the few remaining things that make a difference. (Social Obligations).