Strategenics hosted another amazing event as part of our Executive Leadership Series. Our guest speaker for the evening, Ian Coombe, is a world leading authority with over 40 years experience in learning decision-making through his time in senior and executive leadership positions, in public and private companies as well as charity and non-profits. He brought his wealth of experience and life-long passion to our Brisbane Office to discuss the importance of Decision Making for Executive Leaders.
A bit about Ian Coombe
– Ian developed the Army’s first group decision-making system,
– Helped the nation’s leaders with his 5 step formula known as WIKID POWER,
– Has spoken at TEDxBrisbane in 2018 and written 3 #1 bestsellers on decision-making,
– Been an advisor to leaders in Governments, NRMA, Canberra Tourism and Olympics,
– Recently elected as President of QUT’s Business School Alumni.
Find out more about Ian here.
Decision Making
A few notes that taken from Ian is that every action we take is the result of a decision. And when you hear that we make as many as 35,000 recognised decisions every day, that’s a lot of actions we want to ensure are correct.
We discussed barriers to decision making for Executive Leaders and that acknowledging these barriers is a good step understanding why and how we can make poor decisions, and in turn, take steps to alleviate these barriers.
Analysis Paralysis – Too much information surrounding a decision can cloud our thoughts and prevent us making a decision at all.
Decision Fatigue – Too many decisions in quick succession lead to making poor decisions. Sometimes, just taking much-needed break provide clarity.
Uncertainty – Not enough information or clarity around a subject can result in inaccurate decisions.
On top of this, we learnt that if you want to make better decisions, it is best to be aware of your cognitive biases. As difficult as this may seem, removing pre-conceived biases will increase the likelihood of better decisions being made.
Finally, the three Effs play a big part in how we, as individuals and collectively make decisions:
Efficient – Is this decision going to yield a worthwhile outcome.
Effective – Can the outcome of this result be realised.
Efficacy – Is there an intent to follow up on a decision.
Ian is has spent his life learning as much as he can about making better decisions. And it shows.
Better Business Decisions
At Strategenics, we wholeheartedly believe that the more we learn about decision making, the better decisions we are able to make, and the more successful we can become. Though our own learnings, we provide consultative services, analytics, and software solutions that enable our clients realise the potential of making their own better decisions.
If you are interested in being part of future discussions, like this one, please feel free to get in touch. We run the Executive Leadership Series from our Brisbane Office at Level 2/40 Edward Street, Brisbane.
