presents
The Effective
Decision Maker
BY LARRY CHONKO, PH.D.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON
The Effective Decision Maker
What makes decision makers effective?
They follow eight practices:
1.
They ask, “What needs to be done?”
2.
They ask, “What is right for the enterprise?”
3.
They develop action plans.
4.
They take responsibility for decisions.
5.
They take responsibility for communicating.
6.
They are focused on opportunities rather than problems.
7.
They run productive meetings.
8.
They think and say “we” rather than “I.”
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
The answer to the question
“WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?”
almost always contains more
than one urgent task.
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
Decision Makers are doers; they execute.
Knowledge is useless to decision makers
until it has been translated into acts.
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
Effective Decision Makers and Social Media
It is imperative to focus on the prospect.
SCENARIO: A direct selling representative is
in the process of recruiting someone to enroll
with a direct selling company. During their
dialogue, the prospect brings up a blog with
which she is familiar and that is highly critical
of the company. How can the direct selling
representative handle the situation?
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
 Takes responsibility
for decisions.
 Takes responsibility
for communicating.
 Makes sure that both their
action plans and their
information needs are understood.
 Focuses on opportunities and problems.
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
Six situations for ethics decision making opportunities:
1. An unexpected success or failure in their own enterprise, in a competing
enterprise, or in the industry
2. A gap between what is and what could be in a market, process, product,
or service (for example, in the nineteenth century, the paper industry
concentrated on the 10% of each tree that became wood pulp and totally
neglected the possibilities in the remaining 90%, which became waste)
3. Innovation in a process, product, or service, whether inside or outside the
enterprise or its industry
4. Changes in industry structure and market structure
5. Changes in mind-set, values, perception, mood, or meaning
6. New knowledge or a new technology
The Effective Decision Maker
The Effective Decision Maker
Runs Effective Meetings
The meeting’s objective
Use time wisely
Satisfy participants
that a sensible process
has been followed
Uses “we” instead of “I”
The Effective Decision Maker
Five Common Ethical Traps
The False Necessity Trap
People act from the belief that they’re doing what
they must do.
1. Consider the XYZ Corporation’s actions when it
discovered that its supplier was providing artificial
apple juice. XYZ cancelled its contracts but
continued to advertise and sell the adulterated
“apple” juice as a 100% natural product in its
baby food line. Apparently falling into the false
necessity trap, XYZ felt it had no choice but to
continue the deception.
The Effective Decision Maker
Five Common Ethical Traps
The “Everybody Does It” Trap
Unethical actions sometimes look good when
compared with the worse behavior of others.
2. Using your PC at work to send a little personal email
(just a few quick notes) and perhaps do some muchneeded research on an SUV you are considering
buying. After all, the fellows in Engineering told you that
they spend hours on their PCs checking sports scores,
playing games, and conducting recreational Web
surfing. Your minor infraction is insignificant compared
with what’s happening regularly in Engineering.
The Effective Decision Maker
Five Common Ethical Traps
The Rationalization Trap
People try to explain away unethical actions by
justifying them with excuses.
3.
Consider employees who “steal” time from their employers by
taking long lunch and coffee breaks, claiming sick leave when not
ill, and completing their own task on company time. It’s easy to
rationalize such actions: “I deserve an extra-long lunch break
because I can’t get all my shopping done on such a short lunch
hour,” or “I’ll just write my class report at the office because the
computer printer is much better than mine, and they aren’t paying
me what I’m worth, anyway,”
The Effective Decision Maker
Five Common Ethical Traps
The Self-Deception Trap
Applicants for jobs often fall into the self-deception
trap.
4. Sometimes, students are all too willing to inflate
grade-point averages or exaggerate past
accomplishments to impress prospective
employers. For example, suppose someone
claims experience as a broker’s assistant at a
prestigious securities firm. A background check
reveals that the applicant had interviewed for the
job but was not offered the job.
The Effective Decision Maker
Five Common Ethical Traps
The Ends-Justify-the-Means-Trap
Taking unethical actions to accomplish a desirable
goal is a common trap.
5. Consider a manager in a Medicare claims
division of a large health insurance
company who coerced clerical staff into
working overtime without pay. The goal
was the reduction of a backlog of
unprocessed claims.
The Effective Decision Maker