Simple Tools for Complex Problems

One of the key ingredients in successfully managing a project is the ability to make timely and appropriate decisions. The projects that are the most painful are those where the decisions created the pain. Whether the decision was delayed, premature or non-existent, the decision caused the project distress. Making decisions requires a few ingredients. It requires an understanding of the question, available information influencing the decision and an understanding of the consequences, positive or negative, of making or not making the decision. Armed with this data and a process for making decisions, project managers and project teams can navigate the decision making realm.

A decision making process can be fairly straight forward and doesn’t have to take very long. A decision log can help track the decision that need to be made and those that have been decided, much like a risk or issue log. Tracking decisions is helpful. How many times have you heard “I thought we already decided that” or “I know we decided that, I just can’t remember why”. The mechanics aren’t as important as tracking that it was done. Simply put, the question that needs to be addressed is documented, possible options are identified, impacts of the options are determined, a recommendation is formulated, the decision is made and the consequences of the decision are tracked or monitored. The process is similar in nature to the Deming Cycle, a science experiment or an issue resolution process.

The tools for making decisions are similar to the tools used for process improvement or issue resolution as well. There is a great little book called The Memory Jogger. It contains tools for brainstorming, categorizing ideas, analyzing results and other capabilities associated with quality improvement. The book provides an easy to understand format for the use of the tools including the purpose, reasons to use it and the process of using the tool. Armed with these types of tools the decision making process can be straightforward.

There are some tools that aren’t in the memory jogger that I have found extremely helpful in making decisions. The main one is the four quadrants. Much like the quadrants of First Things First by Stephen Covey, the tool helps provide focus and narrows the options fairly quickly. It is possible to use the four quadrants by providing a two values for the x-axis such as easy to implement and difficult to implement and two values for the y-axis such as low cost and high cost. The diagram would look something like the diagram below.

The team would then place the ideas associated with the options in the quadrants, relative to the other ideas. This would quickly narrow the options that the team would review. This tool is a very simple to use tool and can be used whether the question is simple or complex.
The important aspect of making decisions is having a process to use. It helps maintain an objective rather than a subjective review and decision making process. It also will help put together information for others to make a decision with. Simple tools for complex problems helps to reduce the complexity and the risk.

Ride On, Manage On