SERIES: Part Three of a Four-Part Article

It is estimated that the top barriers to effective decision making in daily business run the gamut from procrastination and paralysis-of-analysis to fear and avoidance. Study any entrepreneur or perceived successful individual and what you will not observe is the presence of these barriers!

To increase your daily productivity, consider the basic functionality of how one’s brain processes data and how one can template that action for decision-making success.

In order to facilitate the basic process of decision making, your brain must:

1.        See the STIMULANT to be addressed.

2.        RATIONALIZE that stimulant as being worthy of one’s time.

3.        Establish realistic courses of RECOURSE in dispensing with that stimulant.

4.        COMMIT to that recourse which will then be made or implemented.

To facilitate the decision process in pursuit of increased productivity and, thus, profitability to an organization or business, one needs a decision-making formula that parallels the brain flow from a business perspective and ensures avoidance to the barriers to effective decision making. Consider the “STOP Formula©”:

1.        S: Stop and See the stimulant at hand. If you can isolate and see the stimulant needing attention, you will avoid procrastination. This means you are on your way toward increased productivity by avoiding the first barrier to success!

2.        T: Target and Think through why that stimulant has been raised to your attention. While you make a case for or against the stimulant, you are working through the rationalization phase. By moving smoothly forward and recognizing that there is another step, you will avoid paralysis-of-analysis, the second barrier to success!

3.        O: Organizing Options for forward movement is the concentration of this third step in the decision process. Explore multiple viable recourse or option plans, recognizing that the word “options” in this step is plural. Until there are plural forward pathways, one should not hastily move forward. By doing this, you can address fear-based reasons for not moving forward confidently and become more confident to move to the fourth, and final, step in the decision process for increased productivity.

4.        P: Pick and Proceed with the option that is most viable. By committing to that action plan, you will also always have a backup plan. If, in fact, you did step three effectively and not hastily, you will avoid the barrier of not moving forward.

The parallel applications of this formula are explosive. You can also use it in pursuit of presentations and decision making with others to facilitate a controlled, systematic dialogue, by presenting one item or step at a time. You will progress smoothly and increase group productivity. This can also be used in crises, decision-making situations in business to ensure tactical control and emotional containment, by addressing each of the four functional decision steps at a time.

Increased productivity comes from the basic functionality of the decision-making process gained by using the STOP Formula© daily!