For assistance in making some of your important business decisions, you may want to turn to one of the six decision making techniques we have listed below. Each of these techniques has a lot to offer in the right situation, so it will be up to you to learn how to use them so you can deploy them at just the right time. Let’s take a closer look at each of these six useful options.

The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix

Given the importance of decisions in business, it only makes sense to use tools like the Kepner-Tregoe Matrix to assist in the process. When you use this matrix to guide your thinking when facing a particularly important decision, you will be able to frame the question at hand in a number of important ways. Rather than just ‘going with your gut’, this tool helps you to sort out all of the important factors before making your final choice. No tool can guarantee that you will make the right decision every time – no one makes the right choice every time – but being familiar with tools such as this is a big step in the right direction.

To use the Kepner-Tregoe Matrix, you are going to work through a four-step process. We have quickly outlined the four steps below.

1. Situational Analysis. This is the high level of the decision, where you weigh everything that is involved in the choice which needs to be made. You aren’t going to get into the specifics at this point. Rather, you’ll be thinking of the decision in broad terms, trying to decide what you want to accomplish and what success will look like.
2. Problem Analysis. The details of the decision start to come into focus during this step. Deep analysis of a problem is a step that is often skipped, but that would be a mistake if you want to be confident in the final decision you reach.
3. Decision Analysis. Here you are going to actually make your choice. Present yourself – or your decision making group – with the various options on the table at this time. Not only should the potential benefits of each decision be weighed, but the potential risks need to be considered as well.
4. Potential Problem Analysis. With your decision made, you are now going to imagine that you have put the decision into action – before you have actually done so. Do you see any potential problems coming up as a result of this choice? What could you do to mitigate those issues?

When important business decisions need to be made in your company, the Kepner-Tregoe Matrix is a great tool to have on hand.

Decision Matrix Analysis

As you are probably aware, the best way to make an important decision is to work through the various options at hand one by one, weighing each based on a number of factors before coming to a conclusion. That style of decision making is commonly used in business, and it is represented in the Decision Matrix Analysis model. Rather than using a pre-designed matrix – which may or may not be appropriate for your needs – you are going to create your own matrix when using this model. That way, the matrix will be completely customized to your needs, and it will be certain to help you land on a successful conclusion. The process might sound like a lot of work upfront, but it is actually relatively quick and easy to perform. Once you have a little bit of practice in building this kind of matrix, you will likely return to it time and time again in order to make your big decisions.

To create your decision making matrix, you’ll need to collect the various options in play for the decision. You need to be open-minded at first, keeping all options on the table – even if you don’t think they will be the winner in the end. List the options that you have for this decision down the left side of your matrix, and list the influencing factors across the top. Within the matrix, rate each combination of option and factor on a scale of 1-5. Once you have filled in each square on the matrix, add up the scores and see which option comes out on top. You might not necessarily go with the highest scoring option if there are other issues to consider, but this matrix will be a great way to get started listing your options in order of viability.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process applies a mathematic approach to any decision that needs to be made. By using math at its core, this model is able to help you make an unbiased, logical decision based completely on the factors that have been determined to be important in the selection process. What this system lacks in simplicity it does make up in accuracy and conviction – the numbers don’t lie, and the best available option will be identified when AHP is used properly.

The details of the math used to complete this process are beyond the scope of this article, but you will find that this is a particularly powerful decision making machine when you are faced with a complex issue. By starting the process by identifying the goal for the decision, you can then use the mathematical process proposed in this system to make an analytical choice that will take your organization in the right direction.

Pareto Analysis

Pareto Analysis is based on the famous Pareto Principle, which states that 20% of the work you do will generate 80% of the results you are looking for. In other words, there is not a direct 1:1 relationship between the work you do and the results you get. If you pick out the right work to do, you can achieve most of your desired results without doing anywhere close to all of the work. Obviously the 20% – 80% relationship is not an exact measurement, but it does highlight the lopsided nature of the connection between work and results.

This relates to decision making because each day you have to decide how time is going to be spent – either your own time, or the time of the members of your team. Efficiency directly correlates to the bottom line, as the way you spend time each day is going to dictate how productive the organization is as a whole. To use Pareto Analysis effectively, you are going to follow the steps below.

1. Find your problems. Make a complete list of the problems you would like to solve in your organization.
2. Match up root causes. For each of those problems, do your best to identify and highlight a root cause.
3. Give the problems a score. Not all problems are created equal – rate the problems you would like to solve, with the highest scores going to the most important issues.
4. Create groups. Take some time to group your problems into like categories so you can attempt to solve more than one problem at the same time.
5. Score the groups. The problem groups which have the highest total score are those which should be addressed first. This simple process will help you to make sure your time and attention are being spent on problems which are affecting the business in the most significant way.

The Futures Wheel

This is a tool which was created in the early ‘70s and remains very much relevant today. Before you make your next big decision, consider putting together a Futures Wheel to decide if you are heading in the right direction. The whole reason to think about how the future is going to be affected is the fact that you are considering a change of some kind. Maybe this is a change that is being forced upon you by market factors or other conditions, or maybe it is a change that you are initiating as a way to improve your organization.

Using this model starts by writing a proposed change in the middle of a sheet of paper – this will become the hub of your wheel. From there, you are going to move out to write down lower-level changes that would need to occur in order to achieve the main change that is the focus on this process. The idea here is to move into deeper and deeper levels of change, one step at a time. You are building a wheel gradually, with the spokes getter longer as you think of more changes that could be made to support the main change in the middle.

Force Field Analysis

In business, it is often the simple tools that are the most effective. That is certainly true in this case, as Force Field Analysis has been around for many decades and yet it remains a powerful tool to this day. When you are faced with making a decision that is going to impact the way your business moves forward, you might want to consider preparing a Force Field Analysis in order to determine whether or not you should continue with your plan. Doing this type of analysis is a great way to see both sides of a potential change, which is key in deciding how effective the change is going to be. Mistakes are made when only one side of a decision is considered, but that won’t happen when Force Field Analysis is used properly.

To get started using a Force Field Analysis, the first thing you are going to do is write down your plan in the center of a sheet of paper. You should have clearly defined this plan before even getting started, as having an ambiguous plan from the beginning is going to make it extremely difficult – if not impossible – to make an accurate assessment of the forces at play. Any business decision making tool is only going to be as good as its inputs, so take the time to make a clear and well-defined plan before getting started on this process

Now that the plan is in place, you are going to create your Force Field Analysis by forming a simple chart with two columns – one with items working in favor of the plan, and one with items working against. You are going to list down on this chart all of the relevant ‘forces’ at play here, both for and against your idea. Once you have completed the lists, you are going to assign a value to each of these forces, based on its power. Add up all of those scores to get the final tally in the ‘for’ and ‘against’ columns. If you find that the ‘for’ column receives a significantly higher score, it may be wise to pursue this plan. If the ‘against’ column wins out, however, you might want to table the concept for now.

Each of the decision making techniques we have included in this article has the potential to lead your business in the right direction. Of course, you will have to know when to use the right one at the right time, and when you need to use one at all. For instance, you probably don’t need to use a complicated technique for a decision that you make several times a day – doing so would be overwhelming and unnecessary. Rather, these kinds of techniques should be saved for those choices which are going to have a meaningful and long-lasting impact on your business. When those types of decisions roll around, pick out your favorite of these valuable techniques and get to work making the best possible choice.

Six Key Decision Making Techniques eBook (43 Pages)
This free eBook describes six key decision making techniques that bring structure to the decision making process. These techniques can be used in isolation or can be combined in order to make decisions in a rational way that can be justified later if this is necessary.

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With that in mind, it may be a good idea to use some of the creative thinking tools included in this article. These tools are designed to get the creative juices flowing, and they just may help you stumble on your next great idea. Sure, these models aren’t going to do the thinking for you, but they can help to at least point your mind in the right direction.

To help you get started, we have provided an overview of each of these five tools. Let’s get started!

Doblin’s 10 Types of Innovation

For starters, we are going to look at Doblin’s 10 Types of Innovation. As the title of this tool would indicate, it is essentially a list of innovation options. Those 10 options are as follows –

• Profit Model
• Network
• Structure
• Process
• Product Performance
• Product System
• Service
• Channel
• Brand
• Customer Engagement

The first two items on the list are two of the most powerful, so we are going to highlight those at this point. Most organizations have to find a way to make money in order to continue operations, so it makes sense that Profit Model is the first type of innovation on the list. This kind of innovation is the way you make money, so it is essential to the basis of what it is that your organization does on a daily basis. Without this type of innovation working for you, it is unlikely that you will be able to make it into any of the other nine options.

With regard to networking, there is tremendous value to be found in working with others. Very few individuals or organizations are able to be successful on their own, as the world is far too competitive to take on alone. By networking as a form of innovation, you will be able to rely on the experiences and talents of others to work toward a brighter future.

If you would like to learn more about the rest of the list in Doblin’s model, it would be a good use of time to research this model specifically. As a way to get the creative thoughts flowing in your office, the options Doblin presents are a wonderful starting point.

The Four-Step Innovation Process

Putting yourself through the Four-Step Innovation Process outlined in this model could lead to a surplus of creative ideas when all is said and done. It won’t necessarily take long to work through this model, yet the results could be quite powerful. Let’s take a look at each of the four steps.

1. Observe Problems. You can learn a lot in business by watching your customers. What is it that gives your customers trouble? Is there something specific that you can see which is a significant problem for a majority of your target market? If so, solving that problem is an obvious opportunity for your company. One of the big points to keep in mind when innovating new ideas is the access that you have to a specific market. Rather than having to track down a new market to sell on your new product or service, it would be better to develop something new that can be sold to the same market. You already have the attention of that group of people, so why not return to them with another solution to a common problem?
2. Develop Solutions. Now that you have a good idea of the problems that are being faced by your market, the next step is to actually find solutions to those problems. Of course, this is really where you have to get down to business, as it likely won’t be easy to solve problems that have not yet been solved by others. It is important to not only find ways that you can solve the problems of your customers, but also that you can do so in a way which will be profitable down the line. If you have a solution to a problem that is never going to be able to turn a profit in the marketplace, there will be very little reason to actually take that idea any farther.
3. Try It Out. Once you have a solution or solutions to the problem at hand, the next step is testing. Instead of trying to figure out the absolutely perfect solution to the problem before you develop a product, the better plan would be to put together a first version which can be tested out for you by a portion of the market. It is almost impossible to perfectly master a product on the first try, so give up on that notion and simply get as close as you can initially. Through testing and refinement, you can move from an initial offering which is rough around the edges to something that is perfected by the time it is seen by the market as a whole.
4. With all of the homework and preparation done, it is time to hit the market and see how successful you have been in solving a problem. Of course, just because you have now implemented your concept and the product is on the market, you still don’t have to put a stop to your development process. Every product in your line can always be improved, so there is no reason to ever stop taking feedback and ideas from your customers. The company that is willing to continually innovate even after a successful product is on the market is the company that can take a larger and larger share over time. Don’t get too comfortable just because you have done a good job of innovating this current product, as there will always be more problems to solve.

This is likely going to be one of the most useful models presented in this article, simply because it is so practical. Once you get comfortable moving through these four steps, you will find that this process is useful in a variety of business situations.

The Charette Procedure

The Charette Procedure is a form of brainstorming which is designed to help you keep the process on track and headed toward a successful outcome. As you already know, brainstorming is one of the main tools used by managers to inject creative thinking into an organization. If you are facing an upcoming brainstorming session which you hope will produce a number of creative ideas, the Charette Procedure could be the perfect way to guide the meeting.

To understand how the Charette Procedure works, consider the following example with a meeting room filled with 20 people. As a first step, you are going to divide the 20 people within the meeting into four groups of five. Working in smaller groups is almost always a good idea in a large meeting, as this reduces the chaos and allows more productive conversations to take place. Give each group a dedicated place to work – each group could even work in its own room, if necessary.

Each group is going to have a dedicated ‘recorder’, whose job it will be to record the ideas produced within the group. Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, and have an initial brainstorming session. When that time is up, the recorder will move on to another group, and the timer will start again. The process continues until each recorder has worked with each group for one session. In the end, everyone has been exposed to many different ideas, yet the meeting has remained organized and productive, rather than chaotic.

Crawford’s Slip Writing Method

To gather creative ideas from a group of people efficiently, consider using the Crawford’s Slip Writing Method. This is a system that is intended to help you pull ideas from large groups of people, while avoiding the messy, loud meetings that can take place when you simply gather everyone up in a room. Those big, open meetings may be productive from time to time, but they usually lead to just a few people dominating the conversation. The quiet, shy people in your organization won’t get heard in that setting, meaning their ideas are going to be missed. Give everyone a chance to be heard by using a system that encourages contributions from all.

This is a simple method, which is part of what makes it so effective, and so popular. A basic outline of the process is as follows –

• Those in the meeting will be given a list of topics that are to be considered
• Slips of paper and writing implements should be distributed throughout the room
• Instructions should be given to only write one idea down on each slip
• A time limit will be put into place for each topic at hand. For instance, you might allow for 10 minutes on each of three topics, to create a 30-minute session
• At the end of the meeting, the slips will be collected and the participants can go on their way

When you want to generate a large number of creative ideas in a short period of time, it is hard to do better than Crawford’s Slip Writing Method.

SCAMPER Technique

To finish up our list of creative thinking models, we are going to look at the SCAMPER Technique. SCAMPER is an acronym which stands for the following –

• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Modify
• Put to another use
• Eliminate
• Reverse

Each of those points is meant to spur thinking with regard to one of your existing products or services. In other words, when thinking about your existing product line through the lens of those seven points, you just may be able to think of new products that could serve your market. Rather than trying to start from scratch, the SCAMPER Technique is going to help you find new ideas from within those products and services that you already offer.

It can take a tremendous amount of time and energy to think through all of your products and services using the SCAMPER Technique. However, when you have taken the time to do so, you will likely come away with an incredible number of ideas you can pursue moving forward. If even just one or two of those ideas turns into a big success, you will be extremely glad that you invested the effort required to use this method.

Picking the Right Tool

With five great tools for creative thinking listed above, how do you know which one is right for your needs at the moment? Well, that is where you have to think critically about the problems at hand in your organization. What are you trying to accomplish, or what issues are you trying to solve? Usually, an indication of which tool you should use can be found by looking more closely at the problem itself.

For example, if you feel like your business is stuck in a ‘rut’ and you need to move in a new direction, Crawford’s Slip Writing Method could be the perfect way to generate a number of new ideas. Or, if you need a practical way to solve a problem or problems, the Four-Step Innovation Process could be the right option. It really is going to depend completely on what you hope to accomplish.

Thank you for taking the time to review this article, and we hope the tools included above will help you take the creative thinking in your organization to a new level. Each of these tools has its own individual merits, so it is worth taking time to understand them all. Then, when the right moment arrives, you’ll be able to put the appropriate tool into action.

Creative Thinking for Managers eBook (37 Pages)
This free eBook describes five popular creative thinking techniques that can help managers to encourage creativity within their team and to be more creative themselves.

The post Creative Thinking for Managers – Five Valuable Tools appeared first on Free Management Books.

Below, we have listed five decision-making models which have served countless businesses over the years. Take a few moments to get familiar with each model, and consider putting one or more of them into use the next time you need to make a key decision.

The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model

At the heart of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model is the fact that not all decisions are created equal. Some decisions are extremely important and will require input from many people, while other decisions can be made quickly as they won’t have long-lasting effects on the company as a whole. Understanding this basic concept is important, because you aren’t going to use the same decision-making process for all choices that you have to make. With the assistance of this model, you can customize your approach to decision making based on the situation at hand.

There are three factors which this model uses to analyze the decision that needs to be made. Those factors are listed below –

• Decision Quality. Simply put, this is where you think about how important it is to come up with the right decision. Sure, you always want to make the right choice, but some circumstances are more important than others in the context of business as a whole. Committing a large number of resources to each and every decision you make would be inefficient, as many decisions just are not important enough to warrant that kind of investment. Pick and choose your spots and only invest a large amount of time and energy into the decisions that are truly going to shape your organizational future.
• Subordinate commitment. Some decisions that you make are going to have a strong impact on your team, while others will not affect them at all. When thinking about each decision, consider how much of an affect it is going to have on your team and others within and around the organization. If you it essential that you have ‘buy in’ from the people on your team, you will be more inclined to include them in the decision-making process. If not, you may be able to make the decision on your own with very little input from others below you.
• Time constraints. Obviously, the timeline that you have in front of you for a given decision is going to impact the process that you can use to make your choice. If you are in no particular rush to make the decision, there will be plenty of time to include others, conduct research, and more. On the other hand, if the matter if time sensitive, you might not really have the option of going to others for help. Develop a clear timeline right up front for your decision and then chart out whether or not you are going to have time to get input from various areas.

Once you have held up the decision you need to make to the light that is offered by each of these three points, you should have a much clearer picture of the path needed to make a quality choice. Moving on, you will then decide which leadership style will be best for making this decision. You can pick from three options – autocratic, consultative, and collaborative. You can read more on the specifics of this model for more detail on these three, but their titles largely speak for themselves. By thinking about the factors that make up each decision, and the type of leadership style best-suited for the decision, this model can lead you to a wise choice in the end.

The OODA Loop

As an owner or manager, it is up to you to make the tough choices that steer the business in the right direction. To do so, you may wish to turn to tools such as the OODA Loop. This model is relatively simple and straightforward, but it can be highly effective. When you think about the operations of your organization in the frame of the OODA Loop, you will quickly see that you are never going to be finished making decisions. This model is a loop for a reason – it continues with no end in sight, for the life of the organization in question.

There are four stages built in to the OODA Loop. Those stages are as follows –

1. Observe
2. Orient
3. Decide
4. Act

That’s it. It is a simple model, yet it says so much about how you are going to make decisions in business. Three of the four stages – observe, decide, and act – are pretty straightforward, and will be familiar to any business professional. That second stage, however, – orient – might be foreign. The idea here is that you need to orient yourself correctly with the information at hand in order to make a good choice. Allowing your personal orientation to get in the way, such as past experiences which really aren’t relevant to this decision, you might not come away with the best decision.

The Recognition-Primed Decision Model

In business, you don’t always have a lot of time to make a quality decision. While it would be great to be able to sit down in your office for a period of time to think through the various options at hand before making a choice, that simply isn’t how things work in the real world. Sometimes, you have to act quickly based upon the information that you have available. When that is the case, you might want to turn to the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) Model for assistance.

Within this model, there are three steps that you are going to work through as you make your decision. Those steps are as follows –

1. Experiencing the situation.
2. Analyzing the situation.
3. Implementing the decision.

At the first stage, you are going to ‘take in’, or experience, as much as possible about the situation that needs to be solved. If you don’t have all of the information available at the time, you aren’t going to be able to make a clear and appropriate decision. One of the best things you can do at this stage is to listen. Listen to the people who are directly involved in the situation and will be able to tell you exactly what is going on, why it is a problem, and how they think it may be fixed.

Once you have a basic understanding of what is going on and why it is a problem, you next need to move into the analytical process to start to work toward a solution. You can ask yourself a number of different questions at this stage in order to trigger potential solutions based on past experience. For example, what about this situation is surprising, and what parts of it might you have seen coming? Is this something that has happened previously, even if in a slightly different way?

Finally, once a decision has been made, it will need to be implemented in a timely manner in order for it to be able to actually take effect. It does no good to quickly make a decision if you are then going to take your time implementing your choice – so get right down to business on putting this decision to work once you have gone through the first two steps of the model. As you are thinking about the various decisions you can make, the implementation phase is something that should always be in the back of your mind. After all, it isn’t going to be an effective decision if you aren’t able to implement it quickly to rectify the situation. Only those choices that are going to work in the practical application of implementation will be successful in the end.

Paired Comparison Analysis

Understanding priority is an important part of making good decisions. Even if you don’t think about it consciously at the time, it makes sense – you are making your choices in most cases based on the underlying priorities that you have in mind. Of course, the priority in business is often to make money, but that isn’t always the case. Or, at least, that isn’t always the guiding light for the decisions you need to make. So how do you make a decision when you aren’t exactly sure where your priorities lie? The Paired Comparison Analysis model is a great way to make tough choices that have many complexities to consider.

The process of using this model involves first creating a table which is going to layout all of your various options. Every option you have at hand with regard to the decision that needs to be made should be listed in the chart, both across the top and down the side. Now, you have a chart that will let you compare options directly against one another. This is where the ‘paired analysis’ comes into the picture. You are going to compare one option against another, and determine a winner. Repeat this process until all options have been compared against all other options.

In the end, the option which has won the most head-to-head showdowns should be considered the winner. This isn’t going to be the right decision-making tool for every situation, but it can help to shed some light on a situation where there are many competing options at play.

The Ladder of Inference

The idea behind the Ladder of Inference is to help you avoid making poor judgments based on your past experiences, biases, or other factors. You should be aiming to set aside as much personal influence as possible in order to make choices that are simply in the best interest of the organization as a whole.

In this model, there are a total of seven ‘rungs’ on the ladder that is supposed to represent the common thought process that we go through while making decisions. Those rungs are as follows – listed from bottom to top as they would be seen on the ladder.

1. Reality and facts
2. Selected reality
3. Interpreted reality
4. Assumptions
5. Conclusions
6. Beliefs
7. Actions

If you think about how this theory of how we think would work in the real world, you can see how it might be dangerous when making business decisions. Specifically, your judgements can be warped as they move through the ‘selected reality’ and ‘assumptions’ stages. When you allow your own personal beliefs to interfere with the choices you are making, you might lose track of the actual facts that are sitting right in front of you.

In many ways, using the Ladder of Inference is all about tearing apart your lines of thinking in order to build them back up again on a better foundation. It is only human nature to start to make decisions quickly when faced with a new problem – even if those decisions really aren’t based that deeply on facts. So, by using this model, you can effectively look for holes in your logic, only to plug those holes and then move back up the ladder again in a logical manner. You always want to be able to defend your decisions in business, and using this tool will help you to do just that in the end.

If you have not previously used any of the decision-making models included in this list, you are likely going to appreciate what they can do for your business once you put them into action. You may find that you start to use these models regularly to make even minor decisions, or you might only put them to use when big choices come up. Whatever the case, your performance on the job should benefit from the assistance of these models.

Top 5 Decision Making Models eBook (40 Pages)
This free eBook describes the top 5 popular decision making models. These models can help you to use facts, analysis, and a step-by-step process to come to a rational decision.

The post Top 5 Decision Making Models appeared first on Free Management Books.

In many cases, it will be better to make decisions as part of a group. When a group comes together to make an important choice, the company as a whole will enjoy several advantages. For one thing, the knowledge of all of the various people in the group will be used to make the choice, not just the knowledge of one individual. There are sure to be many different backgrounds and types of experiences within the group, which means great things for the quality of the final decision. Also, bad ideas tend to get filtered out in the group setting, meaning the eventual choice is less likely to be a dud.

With all of that said, group decision-making is not perfect. It can be tough to get everyone on the same page, meaning it may take quite a bit of time to make an eventual decision, even if that decision does wind up being a good one. To make the group decision making process run as smoothly as possible, you may wish to employ one of the methods outlined in the content below. We have identified seven methods for group decision making, so there is a good chance that one of these options will be right for your needs.

The Hoy-Tarter Model of Decision-Making

Originally created for use within a school system, the Hoy-Tarter Decision-Making Model can actually be applied in a number of different settings. If you are the owner or manager of any kind of organization, you already know just how difficult it can be to make decisions. Specifically, it can be hard to decide how to make those decisions, in terms of who you should include, what you should consider in the process, and more. Making good decisions is a key to success in business, but you can only make good decisions if you have an appropriate process in place.

In this model, the main goal is to figure out exactly who should be included in the decision-making process. Different decisions are going to require different inputs from various people, so determining who should be included in making the decision (and who should be left out) is a key step not to be overlooked. Including the wrong people, or failing to include the right people, is a mistake that can have serious consequences.

If you decide to take a closer look at how to use this model, you will find that it requires you to create a matrix which will be filled with evaluations of expertise and whether or not an individual has a personal stake in the decision. It can take a bit of time to understand exactly how this model works, but it’s worth the effort because of its effectiveness.

Multi-Voting

If you would like to use voting to help make important organizational decisions from time to time, you may wish to employ the popular Multi-Voting Decision Making method. With this method, you can select the most popular options from a list in order to get an idea about the consensus of the group. Multi-voting is not always the right solution when trying to make a decision, but it can be perfect in specific circumstances.

If you would like to use the Multi-voting method, the first thing you need to do is develop a list of ideas that are going to be the subject of your vote. Ask the team that is working on this project to collaborate on a list. At first, you can put any idea that is presented onto the list, but you will want to slightly narrow down and ‘clean up’ that list before it goes to the vote. Before taking the vote, you will want to decide on exactly how many votes each individual is going to be given. Generally speaking, each person should be allowed to vote for roughly 1/3^rd of the ideas on the list. So, given a list of 15 items, each person would be allowed to place five votes (thus the name ‘Multi-voting’). Of course, you are free to alter the number of votes allotted as you see fit, but the 1/3^rd rule is a good place to start.

With all votes cast and collected, all you’ll need to do is count up the totals and determine the winning ideas. If you would like, you can narrow down the list of contenders and do the vote again, further concentrating your list to just a few of the strongest options. Multi-voting is the perfect way to gauge the opinion of a large group when several ideas are on the table.

The Modified Borda Count

You can think of the Modified Borda Count method as an extension of multi-voting. It works in a similar manner, only the votes are weighted in order to potentially reach a more meaningful outcome. Instead of just voting for one item, or voting for a few items as in the case of a Multi-voting system, you are going to have each voter assign points to their chosen ideas. Before starting the vote, you will need to inform each individual as to how many ideas they can support on their ballot. With a ballot of 10 items, for example, allowing each voter to support 5 of the 10 ideas is a good place to start.

So, each person will get to pick 5 of the 10 ideas. When choosing those five, they are going to give each a point value from 1 to 5. Their favorite idea in the entire list is going to get 5 points, the next favorite idea will get 4 points, and on down the list until they assign their 5^th choice with a single point. The five ideas that they choose not to vote for will receive no points.

Finishing off the use of a Modified Borda Count is simple – just tally up the points from the vote, and you will have a winner. Using a spreadsheet is the best course of action for this task, as you will easily be able to reorder the spreadsheet to put the highest point totals at the top after all of the ballots have been included. The options with the highest number of points will be the winners of the vote.

Organizing Team Decision Making

No organization can consistently succeed in any market without quality decision making. It is the decisions that you make on behalf of your organization that chart its course for the future, for better or worse. Great decisions will likely lead you toward your goals, while poor decisions could quickly lead you out of business. When you are faced with a particularly difficult or important decision, it may be necessary to involve some or all of your team members in order to make the right choice.

When you are going to include others in the decision-making process, you need to start out with a plan in mind right from the start. Simply asking others to help you make the decision at hand could quickly become a disorganized mess if there is no structure to the process that can be followed to the conclusion. Fortunately, there are many forms of team decision making that have already been outlined and used by many previous organizations. Some of the tools that can be used to organize your team decision-making process have been highlighted elsewhere in this article, including multi-voting and the Modified Borda Count.

Hartnett’s CODM Model

In this application, CODM stands for ‘consensus-oriented decision-making’, and that title tells you just about everything you need to know regarding the goal of this model. The idea here is to bring your group to a consensus as far as the best decision for the situation at hand. Once you have a group assembled that you are going to use to help make this important decision, Hartnett’s CODM Model calls for following through with a seven-step process. The seven steps are as follows:

1. Framing the problem
2. Having an open discussion
3. Identifying Underlying Concerns
4. Developing Proposals
5. Choosing a direction
6. Developing a preferred solution
7. Closing

Regardless of the decision that needs to be made, this is a solid framework that you can use to walk through the process from start to finish. Of course, it may be necessary to tweak the model slightly in order to have it fit nicely with the needs of your organization.

Bain’s RAPID Framework

One of the biggest keys in decision making is understanding who has responsibility of which parts of the decision. When dealing with a large decision that features many moving parts, it is likely that you will have plenty of different people involved in the process. Without a clear distinction with regard to who is in charge of what, there is a strong possibility that confusion will reign. You already understand just how important it is to make good decisions – with Bain’s RAPID Framework, you can gain an appreciation for how important it is to have the right people in the right roles during the decision-making process.

As you would likely assume, RAPID is an acronym for five roles that can exist within the decision-making process. Those roles are as follows –

• R – Recommend
• A – Agree
• P – Perform
• I – Input
• D – Decide

Despite the name ‘RAPID’, this is not necessarily a decision-making model which is meant for speed. By getting so many people involved in the decision, it is naturally going to take more time to make a choice than it would if you acted alone. Generally, Bain’s RAPID Framework is best used when there are important decisions to be made that are going to affect the direction of the organization as a whole.

The Delphi Method

The basic idea behind the Delphi Method is providing everyone involved with a platform on which they can share their honest opinions without fear of any repercussions. To achieve this goal, the Delphi method is based on a system of anonymity. Throughout the process, everyone who participates is going to offer up their opinions and ideas on an anonymous basis, to ensure that the group feels comfortable giving their honest views on the topic. Even after the decision is made and the process is over, the structure of anonymity is going to remain.

There are several benefits to using the Delphi method to gather ideas with the goal of solving a problem. First, you are going to be able to easily avoid two common problems with group decision-making – appeals to authority, and groupthink. No one will know where the ideas are coming from, so there won’t be any temptation to appeal to the authority behind the ideas. Also, since there are no face to face meetings at this point in the process, groupthink will not be an issue either.

To make this method work for you, it will be necessary to assign a ‘facilitator’ to manage the process. It is important that the facilitator is someone who can be trusted to maintain the confidentiality in the process, and it should ideally be someone who is separated in some way from the decision that needs to be made. For instance, it might be an experienced member of a different department, who has no stake in the decision at hand.

No matter which group decision-making method you choose to employ, the goal is always the same – to tap into the knowledge and experience of everyone in the group, in order to make a great choice. We hope you are able to use some of these methods in your organization to improve the decision-making process and achieve better outcomes moving forward.

Effective Group Decision Making eBook (52 Pages)
This eBook describes seven popular techniques that mangers use when needing to make decisions involving others. As a manager you will be faced with numerous situations where you are unable to make a decision on your own and require input from others. This may be either because you lack all of the information required or because you need to make sure that the decision is acceptable to everyone involved.

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Unfortunately, solving problems properly is an extremely difficult task in many cases. The problem may be complex or you may have a number of different potential solutions to consider. Or, in some cases, you may have both a complex problem and a lot of possible solutions on your plate. When things get complicated as you are trying to make a crucial problem solving decision, it is helpful to have tools available to use.

In this article, we are going to highlight five of the top problem solving tools available to business owners and managers. Once you understand how to use these tools, and why they can be effective, you will be able to look for opportunities to put them into action in real-world applications.

Below is content which highlights each of the five problem solving tools we have selected. If you aren’t sure which of these tools is going to be the best bet for your needs, we’ll offer some help at the end of the article.

Six-Step Problem Solving Model

If it is simplicity that you are after, the six-step problem solving model is a great place to start. This is all about the basics of problem solving – each of the six steps will take you a bit closer to a positive outcome. This model might not be complex enough for your needs, but you may be surprised to find just how many times this technique is able to do the job.

To give you a better understanding of how the six-step problem solving model works, let’s quickly walk through each of the six steps.

1. Define the problem. Obviously, you aren’t going to get far if you don’t know what the problem is that you are trying to solve. Take some time at this first step to understand the problem on a deeper level so you will be able to take logical action later on.
2. Determine the root cause. This is an important step that is frequently missed when individuals or teams are trying to solve problems. What is it that is causing you to wind up in this situation? Is there just one root cause, or is it a combination of issues coming together negatively?
3. Develop alternative solutions. At this point, you aren’t trying to find the single answer to the problem – instead, you are trying to find all possible answers. Anything which you believe may be able to help you solve this issue should be on the table at this point.
4. Select a solution. Now that you have a list of possible solutions to consider, you can pare them down and wind up picking out the one which you believe will resolve the matter.
5. Implement the solution. With your choice made, it’s now time to put that choice into action and see what happens. Of course, implementation itself can be a complex process which may require its own methods and tools to work through successfully.
6. Evaluate the outcome. This is important. Once you implement a solution, you need to follow through with that solution to make sure it actually worked. If not, you may need to go back and consider one of your other potential solutions that was identified in step three.

There is nothing particularly complex about the six-step problem solving method, but that is exactly what makes it so effective. Take your time on each step, seek out collaboration as necessary, and trust the model to lead you to a wise choice.

The Drill Down Technique

You can probably guess from the name of this problem solving method roughly what it involves. The term ‘drill down’ is frequently used in business to highlight any process that narrows something down from bigger components into smaller pieces. That is exactly what is going to happen within the Drill Down Technique of problem solving. When you are facing a large and complex problem with significant potential ramifications, one of the best things you can do is break that problem down into its various components until you have it solved.

To use the drill down method successfully, you are going to need to have a plan. You can choose to work through this process either on your computer or with a pen on a piece of paper, whatever suits your personal preferences. To start, write down the problem that you are facing in big letters at the top of the page. Try to sum up the problem in just a word or a short phrase, even if it is complicated in nature. This will be your starting point, and the rest of the drill down process will take place from here.

At this point, the problem needs to be broken down into smaller chunks. Try dividing the problem up into three – five smaller issues which come together to form the bigger matter. You are going to keep ‘drilling down’ on the problem by dividing up the problems, layer by layer, until you feel that it would not be possible to go any farther.

This technique is a great way to uncover the complicated nature of most business problems. It is not typical for a business problem to be isolated within the organization – more often, the problem will be built upon layers of smaller issues. This is exactly what you are going to try to untangle by using the drill down technique. Look over the entire chart that you have created and figure out which of the ‘sub-problems’ is most likely to blame for the bigger problem. Once you have identified those lower-level issues which are creating trouble, you can get to work on correcting them as necessary.

The Four Frame Model

The Four Frame Model is a concept that divides up any given organization into ‘four frames’ – with the goal of understanding these organizations better when they are divided up in this manner. Organizations are extremely complicated entities, with a potentially huge number of personalities, motivations, capabilities, limitations, and more at play. If you are going to get the most out of your organization, you need to understand it as intricately as possible. While many tools exist for this purpose, the Four Frame Model is one of the most in-depth and one of the most successful.

So what are these four frames? Let’s take a quick look at them below, along with a description.

• The basic organization of your business is the structural frame. These are the systems that are used to run the business, the hierarchy of the people within the company, and more.
• Human Resource. The people who make up your organization are incredibly important – in fact, they are the most important asset you have. Are your people being well taken care of? Are they happy with their work, and challenged to do their best each day? Many problems can arise when the human resource frame is not functioning properly.
• You aren’t going to be able to keep politics out of your organization completely, as they are the natural outcome of having many different individuals work toward the same goal. However, it is important to keep the political climate within your business as healthy as possible.
• How does the organization work as a whole, as its own being? Above the level of the individuals, what direction is the organization moving in both in the short- and long-term. This final frame is a bit abstract, but important nonetheless.

Eight Disciplines of Problem Solving

Anytime a problem solving tool or process has been developed by one of the world’s largest companies, it is certainly worthy of a closer look. That is the case here with the Eight Disciplines Problem Solving process, which has been developed and used by Ford. As you certainly are aware, Ford is among the leading automakers in the world, and this process has played a role in the success that they have enjoyed over the years. Even if you own or manage an organization significantly smaller than Ford, you can still benefit from the proper application of this process.

If you are going to try to solve a large problem within your organization, you need to have a plan and a process. These eight disciplines give you just that. They are as follows –

• Build the team
• Describe the problem
• Implement a temporary fix
• Identify and eliminate the root cause
• Implement a permanent solution
• Prevent the problem from recurring
• Celebrate team success

In many ways, this is a more complex and detailed version of the six-step problem solving model we discussed at the start of this article. It probably won’t be necessary to go into this whole process for each problem you encounter, but this can be a good choice for the major issues plaguing your organization.

The Cynefin Framework

Rather than provide you with a problem solving plan as is the case with other tools, the Cynefin Framework instead helps you figure out how you should be thinking about a problem in the first place. In many ways, this framework is a level ‘above’ other problem solving processes. You could theoretically use the Cynefin Framework to figure out how you should be dealing with a problem, and then you could move into another problem solving method if you so choose to get down to the business of finding a solution.

This framework helps you move problems into one of five contexts. Those contexts are listed below –

• The problems here are self-explanatory, and these are the easiest problems to solve.
• Many of your most-difficult problems will fall into the complicated context, which is usually going to require you to bring in help from throughout the organization in order to find a solution.
• A problem which is considered complex might not be able to be solved today. Rather, it might need to simply stay on your radar until a viable solution becomes available.
• These are problems you can’t understand at the moment, but need to solve anyway. Usually the best bet is to implement a temporary solution until the problem can be further analyzed.
• Our final context is not an enjoyable one, as you won’t understand the problem or even identify the issue as a problem right away. The only step here is to gather more information until the problem comes into focus.

Choosing Your Method

So which of these valuable problem solving tools should you use in your organization? Well, that is going to be up to you in the end. It would be wise to learn how to use all of them, because one that works well for one of your problems might not work at all for another. For instance, many of your day to day business problems can likely be handled with the six-step problem solving model at the start of our list. For more complicated problems, however, you will need to use one of the other tools. In some cases, you might need to start with the Cynefin Framework to get a handle on the problem before you put one of the other tools to use in order to get the job done.

We hope this list of business problem solving tools has been helpful to you. For business owners and managers, the task of solving problems is not going away anytime soon. Learn how to use these methods and you will be able to fill your duties at a higher level going forward.

Top 5 Problem Solving Tools Book (40 Pages)
This free eBook outlines five problem-solving tools that can each be used to look at a particular problem from a different perspective. This can help you to find solutions that that might not be immediately obvious and to compare possible solutions before choosing the best one.

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Of course, not all brainstorming sessions are created equal. There are a variety of ways to go about the process of brainstorming new ideas, and the right one for your need will depend on what you are trying to accomplish. Only when you apply the right technique in the right situation, and with the right people, will you get the results you desire.

With that in mind, we have assembled five of the best brainstorming techniques here in this article. By the time you have read through this content, you should have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each brainstorming technique, and you will probably be able to make an easy decision as to which one is right for your organization. Or, better yet, you may identify two or more than you can use from time to time, depending on the situation at hand.

To get started, we are going to provide a quick overview of each of the five brainstorming techniques. Once that is complete, we will provide some advice on how to pick the right one for your business.

Brainstorming

Our first stop on the list is simple brainstorming – this is probably what you think of when you hear the word ‘brainstorming’ mentioned at work. You aren’t going to give any specific form to this type of brainstorming, which keeps it more legitimate in the minds of many. To some people, brainstorming is supposed to be natural and ‘wild’, and placing constraints on it is only going to limit what can be created. If you decide to have a traditional brainstorming session, you will simply open the floor and allow everyone in the meeting to toss out ideas that come to mind. When it goes right, this can be a powerful way to develop new ideas using some of the smartest people in the company.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go right. The biggest strength of a traditional brainstorming session – the creative freedom that it offers – is also the biggest drawback. Since there is no structure, a standard brainstorming session could quickly break down into a meeting that is dominated by just one or two people. Those with aggressive, outspoken personalities tend to rise to the front in this kind of session, while others fade to the background – even if they have great ideas.

It should be noted that not all brainstorming techniques need to be done in a group setting. When appropriate, you can simply have your own brainstorming session while sitting alone in your office or at your desk. In this case, standard brainstorming makes a lot of sense, because there are no meeting dynamics to be concerned with. You can just let your mind run wild, write down your best ideas, and see where the time takes you.

6-3-5 Brainwriting

As you move on, we get to the concept of 6-3-5 brainwriting. This is a method of brainstorming which introduces some additional structure to the process. If you have tried to use brainstorming in a large group but found the process to be unproductive, you may wish to consider this option for your next such meeting.

The title of the method refers to the process that it uses to arrive at new ideas. Read through the points below to understand what is meant by 6-3-5 brainwriting.

• The ‘six’ in the title of this method refers to the number of people involved in the brainwriting process. There are going to be six people tasked with developing ideas to solve a given problem, in addition to one person who is going to serve as the moderator (for a total of seven).
• During each round of the brainwriting session, each person involved is going to be asked to come up with three ideas. These ideas will be written down on a worksheet (more on the worksheet later). While it is common to simply write out the ideas that come to mind, some applications may call for ideas to be drawn or otherwise represented visually.
• Five minutes are going to be allotted for each stage of this process, during which each of the six people will need to come up with three ideas. While this time limit is helpful to keep people focused and to prevent the session from taking up too much time, it can be altered to suit the needs of your organization specifically. For instance, if you are trying to solve a particularly difficult problem, it may make sense to bump up the time limit slightly.

Some simple math will reveal that you are going to need to dedicate a half hour to this process in order to complete it successfully. That allows for five minutes in each rotation, and six rotations in total. With a little time to get setup at the start, and then some time to review the results in the end, you are still looking at under an hour for what could be a powerful session of brainstorming.

This is likely to be a successful method to use when the people involved in your meeting are used to structure and order. Some types of employees are comfortable in the freeform environment of regular brainstorming, while others are not. If your group will fare better when rules are in place, 6-3-5 brainwriting is a great option.

Reverse Brainstorming

In business, you will occasionally run into problems that just seem as though they can’t be solved. You will look at the same problem for days, weeks, or even months – with no progress to speak of. This is not only frustrating, but it can be costly to the company as well. The success of your organization may very well depend on you and your team cracking this problem to get things back on track.

When nothing is working in terms of problem solving, you may wish to turn to reverse brainstorming. In this method, you are going to turn your problem around and look at it from a completely different perspective. The problem will not make much sense when viewed through this lens, but that may lead you to a solution that you never expected. Consider the following examples.

• If the problem at hand is ‘what can we do to increase sales?’, you will flip that problem around and ask ‘what could we do to intentionally decrease sales?’. Obviously, you would never take action that would intentionally cost you sales, but you can benefit from looking at the problem from this reverse direction. While you are thinking about what you could do to intentionally sabotage your sales numbers, you just might stumble across actions that can be taken to have a positive effect.
• Another potential problem that you could have is the issue of too many of your employees leaving for other jobs. If there has been a mass exodus from your organization in recent months, the question of ‘how can we keep our employees?’ is sure to be on your mind. To use reverse brainstorming, you would ask yourself what you could do to chase employees out the door. What would you do if you wanted your employees to quit? Things like lowering pay, offering less time off, micromanagement of the staff, and more are likely to come to mind.

As you can see, traditional business issues look totally different when you turn them around. Give this unique method a try when nothing else seems to be working – it just might lead you to a surprising resolution.

Round-Robin Brainstorming

If you have previously conducted a brainstorming session with a large group of employees, you know that the conversation is not usually divided equally among participants. Most likely, the speaking will be done by just a few people – usually the most self-confident and outgoing of the bunch. The shy and reserved members of your team probably won’t get a word in edgewise.

To correct this problem, consider using round-robin brainstorming during an upcoming meeting. This is a ‘silent’ meeting, in that ideas are written down rather than verbalized. You are going to give everyone in the meeting an index card, on which each person will write their first idea. Then, the cards will be passed along, and the next person can add to that initial idea on the card (or simply write down a new idea). This process continues all the way around the room, or until a predetermined time limit is up.

Now that you have taken away the requirement to speak up in the meeting, everyone should feel comfortable enough to express their opinions and ideas. And, there will be a written record of all the ideas that were developed, meaning the moderator can look back and the end and have plenty of ideas to consider.

Rolestorming

The last method on our list is Rolestorming. To take brainstorming in a new direction, it is possible to turn to the technique of Rolestorming. As you might be able to guess from the name, this is a system that is going to combine role playing and brainstorming. Basically, instead of taking part in a brainstorming session as themselves, your team members are going to ‘take on’ other personas while brainstorming. This is obviously a unique way to approach creativity, but it has some surprisingly powerful advantages.

The main plus to Rolestorming is that you might be able to get people to ‘come out of their shell’ and express their true opinions while they are acting as another individual. This may simply lighten the mood in the room overall, as it will be a fun session as well as a productive one. Of course, not everyone will feel comfortable with the acting element of this method, which may hold some people back from participating fully.

Picking the Right Method

As you can see, there are plenty of brainstorming options to pick from. If you are simply going to be trying to think of new ideas on your own, the choice is easy – just stick with standard brainstorming. The other methods are geared toward group creativity, and there is nothing wrong with a basic brainstorming session when working alone.

For groups, your decision is going to depend on two things – the personalities of the people involved, and the type of problem that you are trying to solve. Reverse brainstorming is a good idea for solving a stubborn problem, while the 6-3-5 brainwriting method is ideal when you need to generate a number of ideas in a short amount of time.

Should you happen to have a particularly outgoing and creative team, Rolestorming will probably be a popular pick. These meetings will no longer be seen as a boring obligation, since there will be some acting and performing involved. Finally, if you have a diverse group with a divergent set of personalities, round-robin brainstorming will help promote an environment where everyone’s ideas can be heard.

In the end, you know your organization best, and you should be able to determine which one – or more – of these brainstorming methods is going to serve you well. Keep them all in mind each time the need for creativity comes up, as you might find that the perfect fit for one situation does not work as well in another case. Brainstorming is all about coming up with the next big idea that is going to transform your organization. Use these methods to put your people in the right position to do just that.

Top 5 Brainstorming Techniques eBook (38 Pages)
This free eBook describes five of the most popular brainstorming techniques used in group situations to encourage creative thinking. Brainstorming has moved beyond just being used by marketing professionals and is now popular in all areas of management. Make sure that you know how and when to use each of these techniques to aid your decision-making.

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In this assessment, Benziger identifies four brain types, each of which comes along with specific strengths and preferences. By identifying which of the four ‘modes’ an individual falls into, it will be possible to place them in the best possible situation for success.

It is not that any one of these ‘modes’ is better than the other; they are simply different. The four possibilities are as follows –

• Basal Left
• Basal Right
• Frontal Right
• Frontal Left

Of these four options, each person will have one of the four where they do their best work, so to speak. By pairing up people who operate best in a specific mode with a job that asks them to stay in that mode most of the time, performance can be optimized. The content below is going to take a closer look at each of the four modes.

Basal Left

Someone who operates best in the Basal Left mode is an individual who prefers to have clear-cut systems and procedures in place for their work day. This is a practical person who others can rely on to be steady, sensible, and logical. Those with a preference for the Basal Left mode tend to be solid employees who are excellent at filling their role within the organization. Most likely, your business has plenty of roles which would be nicely held by this kind of individual.

While there are many jobs that can be handled beautifully by this person, there are areas where a Basal Left thinker may be out of his or her element. For instance, this person may not be particularly creative, preferring to stick to the plan or the rules rather than branching out with a new idea. Also, this individual may struggle when work gets ‘messy’ and has to be improvised on the fly. If a particular job calls for the employees to frequently adapt on-the-fly, it might not be a good fit for someone in the Basal Left category.

Basal Right

This next mode is quite different from the first stop on our list. Here we find a person who is more concerned with emotional connections and finding harmony than staying within the lines and following strict processes. They trust their feelings most of all, and they have a need for solid personal relationships. In your organization, this person will usually be known as a ‘team player’ whom others can trust for support.

Of course, you can probably already see where the discussion is headed with regard to this type of employee. This is likely not a person you want to place in a highly structured role, both because they would not be effective and because they would not feel satisfied. Rather, this individual needs the room to be creative while getting to work regularly with others.

Frontal Right

At this stop on the list, we find another individual who will prefer to be creative and open-minded as opposed to stuck in a structure of rules and procedures. This is an employee who likes to work on intuition rather than hard fact – which can be both a good and a bad thing, depending on the situation. Finding meaning in their work is important for a person who settles into the Frontal Right part of this model, so this person is not likely to be a good fit for repetitive, basic tasks.

In some cases, for some organizations, this is the type of person who may be a good fit for dealing with the customer. Along with those who work well in the Basal Right mode, someone in the Frontal Right mode will appreciate the meaning that can come from working with people, and their intuition may come in handy when trying to foster a strong relationship.

Frontal Left

To conclude our list of the four modes in this model, we find the Frontal Left mode. This individual is someone who likes to think clearly and logically about the situation at hand. Analytics are a strong point of this person, and specific targets and goals are always appreciated. Very likely, this is someone who will work hard to climb the corporate ladder by checking off a variety of achievements along the way.

Many jobs within a traditional business are a perfect fit for this kind of employee. By laying out expectations and criteria for this person, management can expect to get excellent results. Of course, this is the type of person who tends to struggle when creativity is called for on the job. Without clearly defined objectives and the structure that comes with a set of goals or benchmarks, this person may feel out of place and a bit lost. As long as they are left in an environment which suits their mode of thinking, someone who tends to the Frontal Left mode can be a tremendous asset.

Allowing people to use their natural talents is a powerful thing. A person who is placed in the right job for their strengths – or, at least, is given the right tools to perform the job in a manner that they see fit – is going to be a more productive employee. Not only will this person provide more value to the company, but he or she should be happier on the job as well. In the end, everybody wins when employees are able to find their way into the right role based on their dominant mode of thinking.

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In order to be a successful leader, you have to think carefully about yourself and how you are going about your duties. Thinking specifically about the person you are in the work place, and what that persona says to those around you, can be a great exercise. You always want to make sure you are giving off the right kind of positivity to others, so you can be a beneficial influence that everyone else can draw from.

One handy tool you can use in this pursuit is known as the GIVE model. In this setting, GIVE stands for the following –

• Growing
• Integrated
• Virtuous
• Esteemed

In the content below, we will take a closer look at each of these four points to see how it can impact your professional life.

Growing

This one can be difficult for established professionals. If you have risen to a position of leadership in your organization, you already have plenty of positive career experiences under your belt. With that in mind, you might not feel like you need to grow in any significant way in order to have success. You’ve thrived to this point, so why change now?

You might not need to change in a significant way, but ongoing growth is essential for long-term prosperity. Learning new management techniques, being trained in new skills, and opening up to new forms of communication are all signs of meaningful growth on the job. The exact types of growth, which are helpful for your career will depend on your specific role and your current set of skills. Be honest with yourself, think about where you might be falling short currently, and look for ways to make improvements.

Integrated

On this point, you are thinking about all parts of your life integrating into a single, cohesive person that is working toward the same goals in all settings. You don’t want to have your professional and personal life in conflict, for instance, as that will make it difficult to keep your mind moving in the right direction. This doesn’t mean that you have to always take your work home with you, but it does mean that you shouldn’t try to pretend to be someone that you are not.

Many business professionals are not properly integrated and the quality of their work suffers as a result. Think about all of the things you do on a daily basis, and think about whether or not they are in line with one another. If not, take steps to change that reality. By making even subtle changes, you can integrate your life more fully and enjoy the benefits, which stem from that achievement. Most people are more productive in all areas of life when they feel that everything is moving in one common direction.

Virtuous

Working toward something greater than yourself is what being virtuous is all about. Do you do anything on a day-to-day basis that is placing someone else in front of yourself? These activities can be very rewarding, even if they are relatively small things. We aren’t just talking about charity work here, either, although that is very noble in its own right. More so, we are talking about things like being supportive to other people in the workplace, having integrity in your business dealings, sharing your knowledge and experience, and more.

If your goal is to gain respect and trust on the job, and as a leader, you would be wise to focus on virtuous behaviors. It is easier to be more self-centered when in the workplace, but going the extra mile to consider the needs of others instead of yourself will be worth it in the end. Think about various ways you could add virtue to your daily activities and it is quite likely that you will be rewarded in one way or another.

Esteemed

The final point in this model has to do with esteem.

• How are you viewed by your team members?
• How are you seen by your peers?

If you are held in great esteem, you can expect to move forward with your career successfully as the months and years go by. Of course, to be held in esteem, you have to earn those feelings in the first place. What are you doing on a daily basis that is worthy of this positive regard others may have for you? In other words, you need to give people a reason to like you, and a reason to respect you.

The four points highlighted in the GIVE model are all positive, and they should all make their way into your thinking on the job. It is far too easy to get caught up in things like climbing the corporate ladder and increasing profits at all costs. There is nothing wrong with having objective business goals for both yourself and the company, but you should be thinking about more than that each day. Place these GIVE traits near the top of your priority list and make sure others are seeing you in the manner in which you would like to be seen.

These Interview Skills eBooks will help you to be successful in your chosen career. Whether you’re looking for a new job, facing an interview or trying to get your career back on track, there is something here to help. Download these free eBooks, checklists and templates for your PC, Mac, laptop, tablet, Kindle, eBook reader or Smartphone.

Management Assessment eBook
This eBook explains what you can expect if you attend a management assessment center.
ISBN 978-1-62620-783-9 (32 Pages) PDF

Preparing for Management Interviews eBook
This eBook explains how to prepare for a management level interview.
ISBN 978-1-62620-784-8 (34 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Questions eBook
This eBook describes the various types of interview question that you can expect to be asked and gives you detailed guidelines for answering them.
ISBN 978-1-62620-786-6 (31 Pages) PDF

Competency Based Questions eBook
This eBook explains how to answer competency-based interview questions.
ISBN 978-1-62620-785-7 (26 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Exercises eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in management interview exercises including: in-tray, presentations, group discussion, role play, and media interviews.
ISBN 978-1-62620-780-2 (38 Pages) PDF

Management Aptitude Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed at the management aptitude tests that often form part of the job selection process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-781-1 (39 Pages) PDF

Management Personality Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in the personality tests that are used as part of the management recruitment process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-782-0 (34 Pages) PDF

The post GIVE Model appeared first on Free Management Books.

This is an important topic for the business world. Generally speaking, you want to work with people who feel that they have a strong degree of control over what happens to them each day. If your employees, or your managers and directors, feel like they don’t have any control – or they have very little control – you are unlikely to get their best effort. By surrounding yourself with people who feel that they control their own destiny and outcomes, you will have a group of people who are willing to work hard to achieve the vision they have for the future.

To help you think more about how the concept of locus of control can impact your day to day life, we have provided further information below.

Internal Control

As you would expect, those who think they have a great degree of control based on internal factors feel they have the ability to control the world around them. It is not a future which is predestined and they are simply living it out – rather, the future is a blank slate, and they will forge their own way. In nearly every case, this is an excellent way to think about life, and think about the world.

One of the positive attributes that comes from this perspective is confidence. These people tend to be confident, since they feel that it is important to take action when trying to make some kind of change. They aren’t going to sit back and just see what happens – and it takes confidence to get out in the world and make a difference in one way or another.

While it might seem like things are all positive on this side of the ledger, the downside can be that these types of individuals will feel responsible when problems arise. If you feel like you are completely in control of your future, and that future doesn’t go to plan, you won’t have anyone to blame but yourself. That is not a reason to avoid an internal outlook, but it is part of the price to be paid for taking control of your life and its path.

External Control

Here we are on the opposite side of the equation. This is a person who believes that he or she does not have much of any control over the things that happen around them. This person may ascribe the journey of life to simple luck or random chance, or they may decide that others are controlling their destiny for them. Either way, it is usually not an optimistic viewpoint to hold. It is hard to feel good about the life you are living when you don’t think you are actually in control of what is taking place.

One of the hallmarks of a person who feels like things are outside of their control is failing to take credit for success. Even when this person accomplishes something significant, he or she will probably just pass off the achievement as good fortune or random chance. This is not the reaction that would be held by a person who has an internal locus of control. While it is possible to find people of any age in either of these categories, those young and old are more likely to see the world in an external control manner.

It Can Change Based on Setting

You aren’t necessarily going to see the world in the same way in all walks of your life. For instance, you might feel like you have a lot of control over your personal life, while feeling completely powerless in your professional life. Or, it could be the other way around. There is certainly no template for how you are going to feel, but you shouldn’t expect people to have just one view of the world in all situations.

From a business perspective, it is ideal to have mostly people who see their professional lives as being within their control. Even if these people see the world differently away from the office, their internal control tendency on the job will make them better employees in most cases. Organizations tend to thrive while employing people who have a strong will, plenty of confidence, and the motivation to get things done.

Helping Others

For those who are already in your organization, you may be able to help them perform at a higher level simply by suggesting that they adjust your outlook. You probably can’t change the entire way they look at the world, but you might be able to make subtle shifts by mentioning how they can impact the results of their work. Showing them examples of how they have direct control over outcomes could be enough to alter their attitude on the job. At the same time, paying attention to how others see the level of control they have in life might cause you to review the way you think about the world at the same time.

Thinking about the concept of locus of control is another way you can gain some insight into the motivations and attitudes of your team members. Each person within your organization is an individual, and they are all going to have their own unique way of looking at the world. By taking their perspective into account – and helping them improve it when possible – you can better the company as a whole.

These Interview Skills eBooks will help you to be successful in your chosen career. Whether you’re looking for a new job, facing an interview or trying to get your career back on track, there is something here to help. Download these free eBooks, checklists and templates for your PC, Mac, laptop, tablet, Kindle, eBook reader or Smartphone.

Management Assessment eBook
This eBook explains what you can expect if you attend a management assessment center.
ISBN 978-1-62620-783-9 (32 Pages) PDF

Preparing for Management Interviews eBook
This eBook explains how to prepare for a management level interview.
ISBN 978-1-62620-784-8 (34 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Questions eBook
This eBook describes the various types of interview question that you can expect to be asked and gives you detailed guidelines for answering them.
ISBN 978-1-62620-786-6 (31 Pages) PDF

Competency Based Questions eBook
This eBook explains how to answer competency-based interview questions.
ISBN 978-1-62620-785-7 (26 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Exercises eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in management interview exercises including: in-tray, presentations, group discussion, role play, and media interviews.
ISBN 978-1-62620-780-2 (38 Pages) PDF

Management Aptitude Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed at the management aptitude tests that often form part of the job selection process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-781-1 (39 Pages) PDF

Management Personality Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in the personality tests that are used as part of the management recruitment process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-782-0 (34 Pages) PDF

The post Locus of Control appeared first on Free Management Books.

There are two mindset categories offered up by Dweck in this book. Those are the growth mindset, and the fixed mindset. Below, we will take a closer look at each of these two options.

The Fixed Mindset

As the name would indicate, a person with a fixed mindset is someone who thinks that they are stuck with whatever they possess at the moment in terms of skills, talents, etc. This person thinks that those abilities they come by naturally are all they have to work with, and improvement is not going to take place.

Sadly, it is relatively common for adults to believe they can no longer improve in their chosen career field. No matter what it is you do – even as a business owner or manager – you can always find new ways to improve your own performance. Staying away from a fixed mindset just might be one of the best things you can do for your professional life.

The Growth Mindset

You won’t be surprised to learn that this is the ideal place to be. Those with a growth mindset are always optimistic about their own future, thinking they can learn the skills they need to advance in the business world. This kind of person isn’t worried about what he or she doesn’t know at the moment, because they simply assume they will be able to learn it when necessary.

Of course, growth doesn’t happen by accident. It is great to feel like you can develop as a professional, but it won’t happen without effort and a plan. You will need to gain experience in a variety of areas, seek out training, and simply work hard if you are going to see progress.

Moving in the Right Direction

It is plain to see that you want to find yourself in the growth category, rather than as someone who feels like his or her abilities are fixed permanently. But how do you get there? How do you wind up with a mindset that allows you to seek out persistent growth as the months and years go by? There are some tips you can use to help keep yourself in this frame of mind.

One of the first steps you can take is to listen carefully to the thoughts inside your head. Do you notice that you are regularly telling yourself that you can’t do something? For example, when a new challenge comes along, do you run in the other direction or do you meet it head on? If you are shying away from new things, you might be doubting your ability to learn. Simply by noticing that this thought pattern is taking place in your head, you can combat it and turn things around.

Another step on the road to a growth mindset is to realize that you have a choice in the matter. You aren’t predestined to have one mindset or the other – the choice is yours. It is how to respond to your challenges that will determine the way your mind works. Are you going to settle for the status quo, or will you choose to believe that you can do better? Seeing everything as an opportunity rather than an obstacle will help you make the kind of progress you need to make in order to advance your career and your life.

Be Willing to Fail

For some people, it is the fear of failure that leads to a fixed mindset. Afraid to try something and come up short, these people never even bother to try in the first place. There will be no failure when you don’t try new things, but there will be no progress or accomplishments, either.

It is important to understand that there is no shame in coming up short sometimes. In fact, there is no shame in falling way short of the mark, as long as you tried and learned something along the way. The only way to really learn anything is through effort and trial and error, so put yourself out there and experience new challenges. Yes, you are going to fail sometimes, but you are going to succeed sometimes as well.

When you look at some of the most successful individuals in the world of business throughout history, they have failed plenty on their way to prosperity. Inventors are famous for getting it wrong many times before they get it right. Plenty of well-known business owners and executives have had failing ventures on their way to a winning one. If you fail at something, you will be in good company with some of the best to ever work in any given field. There is no reason to fear failure, as there is always something to be learned from the mistakes made along the way.

If you are looking for ways to further your professional career – or if you are looking for tools which may help your employees be at their best – Dweck’s Mindsets is something to consider carefully. These two mindsets stand in opposition of one another, meaning one can lead to success while the other promotes stagnation. Learn how to put yourself into the category of a growth mindset and you should be able to look forward to positive steps in your professional life.

These Interview Skills eBooks will help you to be successful in your chosen career. Whether you’re looking for a new job, facing an interview or trying to get your career back on track, there is something here to help. Download these free eBooks, checklists and templates for your PC, Mac, laptop, tablet, Kindle, eBook reader or Smartphone.

Management Assessment eBook
This eBook explains what you can expect if you attend a management assessment center.
ISBN 978-1-62620-783-9 (32 Pages) PDF

Preparing for Management Interviews eBook
This eBook explains how to prepare for a management level interview.
ISBN 978-1-62620-784-8 (34 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Questions eBook
This eBook describes the various types of interview question that you can expect to be asked and gives you detailed guidelines for answering them.
ISBN 978-1-62620-786-6 (31 Pages) PDF

Competency Based Questions eBook
This eBook explains how to answer competency-based interview questions.
ISBN 978-1-62620-785-7 (26 Pages) PDF

Management Interview Exercises eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in management interview exercises including: in-tray, presentations, group discussion, role play, and media interviews.
ISBN 978-1-62620-780-2 (38 Pages) PDF

Management Aptitude Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed at the management aptitude tests that often form part of the job selection process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-781-1 (39 Pages) PDF

Management Personality Tests eBook
This eBook explains how to succeed in the personality tests that are used as part of the management recruitment process.
ISBN 978-1-62620-782-0 (34 Pages) PDF

The post Dweck’s Mindsets appeared first on Free Management Books.