The Problem or Opportunity of Decisions

Active decision-making involves a responsible choice that you must make, while pro-active decision making is the practice of making decisions in advance just like "in the case of fire".

Decision Problems or Decision Opportunities: At one time or another, organizations develop an over-abundance of decision problems. Sometimes they can be linked to organizational trauma, like downsizing, budget restraints or workload increases, but sometimes they evolve over time with no apparent triggering event. Increased complaining, a focus on reasons why things can't be done, and what seems to be a lack of active role characterize the "problem" organization. If the manager is walking negative and talking in a negative way, staff will follow.

In many instances we forget to find positives. When an employee makes an impractical solution, we are quick to dismiss the idea. We should be identifying the effort while gently discussing the idea. Look for small victories, and talk about them. Turning a problem into an opportunity is a result of many little actions. Provide positive recognition as soon as you find out about good performance. Do not couple positive strokes with suggestions for improvement. Separate them. Combining them devalues the recognition for many people. It is easy to get caught in the general complaining and bitching, particularly in customers' complains.

Decisions are an inevitable part of human activities. It requires the right attitude. Every problem, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. In most situations the decision-maker must view the problems as opportunities rather than solving problems. For example, suppose you receive a serious complaint letter from a dissatisfied customer. You may turn this problem into an opportunity by finding out more about what is wrong with the product/service, learning from the customer's experience in order to improve the quality of your product/service. It all depends on the decision-maker's attitude. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity.

A deliberate effort to broaden your experiences is the single most helpful effort in making good decisions. By exposing yourself to a variety of different experiences causes you to look at things from different perspectives. This provides you with extra mind-eyes to see problems and issues, and compare them to apparently unrelated situations and see new opportunities.

For full article and credits:
http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/opre640/partXIII.htm#rlearngood

Author’s Comments:
From the book “Zillion Dollar Thinking” the MODELTM System provides four distinct steps. The first and most vital step is the distinction of problem versus opportunity:

“At the beginning or first stage of any decision is the question of why or if one should spend their time and/or talent to make the particular decision that is set before them. At this stage, a dilemma can have several fundamental labels such as problem, challenge, goal, direction, purchase, issue, opportunity or any of a wide number of platforms or options. For our standard, let's use the positive word of opportunity.

The key point at the opportunity stage is to take whatever time and research that is necessary to determine that a decision in fact needs to be made. This is done by defining, analyzing and categorizing the opportunity. If this step is brushed over or made to seem incidental, each step that follows will break down. Again, look at the base. It is the largest part of the graphic shape for a reason. That is because the largest amount of time (relative to the other steps) should be spent at this level to determine, define and discover what really needs to be decided.” (Zillion Dollar Thinking: pp: 23)