Leadership and Business Wisdom - Decision Objectives.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

A decision, to be effective, needs to satisfy the boundary conditions.

A decision process requires clear specifications as to what the decision has to accomplish. What are the objectives the decision has to reach? In science these are known as "boundary conditions." A decision, to be effective, needs to be adequate to its purpose. The more concisely and clearly boundary conditions are stated, the greater the likelihood that the decision will indeed be an effective one and will accomplish what it set out to do. Conversely, any serious shortfall in defining these boundary conditions is almost certain to make a decision ineffectual, no matter how brilliant it may seem.

"What is the minimum needed to resolve this problem?" is the form in which the boundary conditions are usually probed. "Can our needs be satisfied," Alfred P. Sloan presumably asked himself when he took command of General Motors in 1922, "by removing the autonomy of the division heads?" His answer was clearly in the negative. The boundary conditions of his problem demanded strength and responsibility in the chief operating positions. This was needed as much as control at the center and unity. The boundary conditions demanded a solution to a problem of structure, rather than an accommodation among personalities. And this, in turn, made his solution last.

ACTION POINT: Take a decision you are facing today. Clearly specify what purpose or need you want to fulfill by making the decision.

Let's all sing the redneck national anthem: Settle for what you can get.

Barbara Kingsolver

Just the usual formality before the chaos begins. Like playing the National Anthem before a Cubs game.

Berkeley Breathed

And now we have the formalities over, we'll have the National Anthems.

Brian Moore

"If you were a country," I said, "what would your national anthem be?"I meant a pre-existing song - "What a Wonderful World" or "Que Sera, Sera" or something to make it a joke, like "Hey Ya!" ("I would like, more than anything else, for my nation to be shaken like a Polaroid picture.")"

David Levithan

In the newspapers I read a biography about an American. He left his whole huge fortune to factories and for the positive sciences, his skeleton to the students at the academy there, and his skin to make a drum so as to have the American national anthem drummed on it day and night.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Hardly worth the effort, really," he muttered. "It's a homunculus lock...