Decision making is a messy process. What looks (always after the fact) like a logical stepwise procession from problem identification to solution is usually a series of explorative forays. Indeed, in the course of trying to solve most problems, it's likely you'll reach a point where the process is so overloaded with information
that conditions resemble the chaos of Thanksgiving morning.
You know what it looks like: a thawing turkey, raw cranberries, potatoes and yams and a bunch of vegetables, bread crumbs and hard-boiled eggs… no indication of the feast to come and plenty of evidence to predict a last-minute Chinese dinner later in the day. Somehow it always comes together, because as anarchical as it seems, there is an underlying order to cooking that leads to a successful meal. You realize, after a few years, to trust the process.
And that's the lesson to be learned about decision-making. There is an inherent process and once you understand, trust and follow it, the chaos of crisis and the mid-air uneasiness of not having a solution disappear and order prevails.
What's the process? In keeping with our metaphor, it's as simple as cooking Thanksgiving dinner. First, gather and prepare all the ingredients… for problem solving this means to collect all the necessary data.
Second, follow the recipe, assembling each dish with its proper ingredients. In decision-making this means to organize the data… convert it into information that will "inform" your decision.
Third, keep in mind what you are preparing. Good cookbooks offer up more than recipes, they give you an idea of what a dish will look like and how it will taste. For problem solving it's important to have a vision of what you are trying to solve and what represents an acceptable solution (or resolution, which may be a very different thing). Solving a problem is not just about making a decision, it is about changing conditions from problematic to "non-problematic."
Finally, taste it before you serve it. Try out proposed solutions. Small prototypes, even simple models, point up how a good solution can become a better one.
The trick is to stay organized and trust the process.
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