Decision management: 3 steps for more impact

One in four decisions made by managers come to nothing and are therefore wasted. The solution: strategic decision management in three consecutive steps.

Ideally, this process consists of three stages that have a significant influence on the success of a decision: Preparation, decision-making and implementation follow-up. It is also worth digitizing decision management and making your work easier with the right software.

Step 1: Preparing the decision

Depending on the complexity and importance of the decision, gathering the necessary information is the first step in strategic decision management. Decision-makers can delegate this. The more precise this research phase is, the better it is for the subsequent decision-making process.

The collected data should be stored in writing in a digital location and not disappear in individual drives. It is also important to ensure that the security standards of the system used are adequate to protect the data. Standardized documentation makes the results of this phase clearer and more comprehensible. In addition, the information can be shared more easily with third parties and is ideal for preparing the decision.

The success of this phase depends not only on the quantity of data collected, but also on its quality and relevance. To avoid getting lost in the wealth of available information, Jeff Bezos' 70 percent rule can be applied here: Decisions should be made with 70 percent of the desired information. If you wait for 90 percent, your decision-making process is too slow.

Step 2: The decision-making process

If the first step of decision management has been carefully completed, sufficient information is available for the second phase, in which an informed decision is made. In many cases, this decision is made during a meeting in which several topics are discussed. Clear and comprehensible documentation for everyone and communication to the right people are key here.

Strategic decisions in particular should be recorded in a standardized, digital form - this also makes it easier to find the decisions made at a later date. Apollo.ai offers a full-text search, for example, which displays past decisions and the associated todos and minutes in real time. In addition to the decision itself, the relevant measures, deadlines and responsibilities should also be defined and documented - this is the prerequisite for being able to track the status of subsequent implementation.

In addition to the information gathered, a person's own intuition plays a role in decision-making, which is primarily based on the experience of the person concerned. Experienced managers can rely particularly well on their gut feeling and usually need less data and time for individual decisions than people with little management or decision-making experience.  

Step 3: Systematically track decisions

After the decision has been made, the momentum for successful implementation should be used and the status should be kept in view. This leads to a significant improvement in cooperation within management teams and beyond.

It is precisely this step that is often neglected in reality: studies show that around a quarter of decisions are not implemented at all or not implemented correctly. This causes millions in damage to companies. Potential reasons for this "bogging down" are that no one feels responsible for implementation, the decision-making process was not adequately documented and/or communicated or the people concerned were not or poorly informed. The lack of follow-up also means that managers miss out on the opportunity to react in good time if something does not go as planned. The good news is that with Apollo.ai, everything can be fully documented, the right people can be informed and decision-makers can have automatic status reports sent to them on individual decisions and measures so that they can always keep an eye on implementation.

Digitize decision management with Apollo.ai

Decision management and the associated processes can be systematized with the support of the right software - so that the potential of the individual steps can be exploited and all important information can be collected, archived and easily retrieved later in a secure platform. Apollo.ai offers many practical functions, from preparing the meetings in which decisions are made to recording individual resolutions and todos with all the important details to strategic follow-up.

Other advantages of using software are the seamless documentation and traceability of individual steps, the practical search function and the high level of security that these systems normally guarantee. Apollo.ai can be easily integrated with other systems such as the Microsoft world, for example by linking appointments to the Outlook calendar or logging into the system with Microsoft 365 access, so that the use of a tool simplifies the fragmented daily routine of managers and assistants.

Process circular resolutions digitally

Do joint resolutions always require a meeting? No! With Apollo.ai, circular resolutions can be processed very easily and with just a few clicks. From recording the resolution in the system and sending it to the decision-makers to the current status and visualization of the result, this process can also be mapped completely digitally - this not only saves time and money, but also protects the environment.