presentations on decision making

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How to Make Great Decisions, Quickly

• Martin G. Moore

It’s a skill that will set you apart.

As a new leader, learning to make good decisions without hesitation and procrastination is a capability that can set you apart from your peers. While others vacillate on tricky choices, your team could be hitting deadlines and producing the type of results that deliver true value. That’s something that will get you — and them — noticed. Here are a few of a great decision:

• Great decisions are shaped by consideration of many different viewpoints. This doesn’t mean you should seek out everyone’s opinion. The right people with the relevant expertise need to clearly articulate their views to help you broaden your perspective and make the best choice.
• Great decisions are made as close as possible to the action. Remember that the most powerful people at your company are rarely on the ground doing the hands-on work. Seek input and guidance from team members who are closest to the action.
• Great decisions address the root cause, not just the symptoms. Although you may need to urgently address the symptoms, once this is done you should always develop a plan to fix the root cause, or else the problem is likely to repeat itself.
• Great decisions balance short-term and long-term value. Finding the right balance between short-term and long-term risks and considerations is key to unlocking true value.
• Great decisions are timely. If you consider all of the elements listed above, then it’s simply a matter of addressing each one with a heightened sense of urgency.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Like many young leaders, early in my career, I thought a great decision was one that attracted widespread approval. When my colleagues smiled and nodded their collective heads, it reinforced (in my mind, at least) that I was an excellent decision maker.

• MM Martin G. Moore is the founder of Your CEO Mentor and author of No Bullsh!t Leadership and host of the No Bullsh!t Leadership podcast. His purpose is to improve the quality of leaders globally through practical, real world leadership content. For more information, please visit, www.martingmoore.com.

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Podcast Ep 121 | How to Structure Presentations to Ensure Effective Decision Making

Leaders often waste a lot of time on decisions because meeting delegates are not well prepared with the information needed or aren’t well-disciplined with a process that can lead to an effective and quick decision.

In order to be a more effective leader, effective decision-making in meetings is crucial. Also, the format of rules and engagement to discuss, debate and decide impacts the effectiveness of meetings.

In this episode of the Growth Whisperers podcast, Brad Giles and Kevin Lawrence discuss how to achieve effective decision-making during presentations and meetings.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note that this episode was transcribed using an AI application and may not be 100% grammatically correct – but it will still allow you to scan the episode for key content.

Kevin Lawrence  00:13

Welcome to the Growth Whisperers podcast where everything we talk about every week is about building enduring great companies. Brad Giles, my partner down in Perth, Australia, and myself, Kevin Lawrence, up in Vancouver, Canada, get together weekly to talk about things that we’re passionate about things that we see happening in the companies that we work with, or in the studies that we do ourselves. All things that help us to build enduring great companies. So Brad, how you doing today?

Brad Giles  00:41

Lovely, very good indeed. And cold. It’s 11 degrees Celsius today, which might not sound a lot for you in Vancouver, but here in warm Perth, Australia, 11 degrees is cold. How are you doing?

Kevin Lawrence  00:55

We’re doing well. We’re in our summertime. So we’re warm, and we’re liking it. Even though we’re not getting the best summer. It’s alright. So hey, before we jump into the topic today, just a reminder to our subscribers, if you haven’t subscribed yet, just hit that subscribe button. And if you’re happy to give it a rating, we would appreciate it of course, any feedback or ideas you can always send to Brad or myself. So Brad, what are we digging into today?

Brad Giles  01:19

Today,  how to structure presentations to ensure effective decision making.

Kevin Lawrence  01:29

This one gets me and so many meetings, people make these presentations, which are interesting, informative, make it really hard to make an informed decision. In that moment, they just did some things differently. Man, it’d be much easier for them and for us, too. So yeah, this is a topic we’re both very passionate about. But first, let’s kick off with our Word of the Day. What’s yours?

Brad Giles  01:57

So what’s on my mind in this regard is its supply chain. We are just seeing so many people, it’s the holidays, the school holidays for kids over here at the moment. There are so many people who are reporting lost baggage with airlines or cancel our airlines are a mess.

Kevin Lawrence  02:17

Our airlines actually cut to national airlines have cut back service as a way to improve cut back the number of flights to try to improve service. Yeah. How’s that work?

Brad Giles  02:31

Yeah, they’re obviously struggling on so many levels. So yeah, it’s, that’s the pointy end. But broader than that, there are so many supply chain issues. It’s chain squeezes at the moment, what about yourself?

Kevin Lawrence  02:46

The phrase, that’s embarrassing. My daughter who is at the stage where she wants to get a job and is out there in the world, doing her own thing keeps using that phrase, that’s embarrassing for the things that she doesn’t want to do that put her out of her comfort zone. So I would say that, you know, as I we jokingly say, well, it’s embarrassing, it’s also embarrassing or uncomfortable not to get what you want. So there’s the discomfort of the doing the thing. And then there’s also the other discomfort of not getting the result that you want, and you’ve got to choose, and so joking with her with that, but a lot of times in companies, you know, that’s embarrassing, or which is code for that’s uncomfortable. You know, people avoid the hard things, and then they make it harder for themselves. So it’s really hard, or it’s embarrassing, what it’s embarrassing the supply issues that some supply chain issues that some people have, hey, well, well, we’ve got together pretty beautiful. Alright, let’s, let’s jump right in. So the idea here is that the distinction for today’s show is the distinction between discussing or debating, versus debating and deciding so one of the companies that I been doing some work with over the last couple of months, you know, I talk about a debate deficit where companies don’t get their debate, get through their debates. And they said, Kevin, we don’t have a debate deficit, man, we have nonstop debates. We’re always debating, we have a decision deficit. We don’t know how to get the darn things across the lines. Okay. I had to change my thinking from a debate deficit to a decision in company. And when you don’t make decisions, it constitutes up the whole system and slows the whole thing down. And you know, and we’re all guilty, including myself, sometimes dragging on decisions, you know, some decisions are hard. And the important ones that shouldn’t be hard. But it’s really today’s show, is that really, how do we make those important decisions better and faster, and the root of it is, we waste a lot of time discussing things because we are not well prepared. We don’t have the information we need for a well disciplined, well thought out. Effective decision. So then it takes way more time. time, people get frustrated. It’s not, for lack of actual, you know, intelligence, or knowledge or capability. It’s often process which we’ll dig into today or discipline at the core of it all.

Brad Giles  05:18

You know, it makes me think of Peter Drucker, who said that the job of the manager is to be efficient. And the job of an executive is to be effective. And if you’re going to be effective, a part of your role is you’ve got to do presentations, you’ve got to do presentations that lead to decisions. Okay, so the effectiveness of those presentations, is what matters.

Kevin Lawrence  05:45

Yes. And you got to teach your people to do the same. Yeah, you’ve got to teach your people how to make presentations to get the decisions that they believe are the right thing for the business. In many ways. It’s a little bit of sales person ship one on one, you know, we’re generally pretty good and selling some people better than others, but internally selling it to get the decision. Maybe we just need some sales training. Yep. So hey, if you want to take a look back at some previous episodes, Episode 58, collective intelligence, the key to leading a successful weekly meeting, also number 92, the meeting rhythm, the monthly leadership team meeting where we dig into some of this. And then finally, 114, the CEO only has one tool, which is meetings. And the root of this is creating highly effective presentations, discussions and decisions, which are a critical part of meeting so that sets it up. So the first point we have here is if you really want to make a presentation, have a successful outcome, know what the hell the question we’re debating, or the decision we’re making. And I don’t know how many times I’m in a room, and people start making their presentation. I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s the outcome we’re looking for here? Well, I want to give you an update. Well, I don’t want to listen to it. I don’t want I want a decision. I don’t I don’t want updates. I don’t want to I want to know, what are you going to share with us so that we can make a decision, period? Update presentation, send it to me, and we’ll review it if it’s critical. So I don’t want to update wanting to help make decisions. Tell me why we’re listening to it wouldn’t be that rude. But that’s the intent.

Brad Giles  07:24

Albert Einstein said that if I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the question. Now, it’s not exactly the same. But you know, what he’s really saying is, understand the question, get very clear on what is the outcome that we want to achieve?

Kevin Lawrence  07:42

Yeah. And why is that important Brad? Because well, it takes us into our second point, which we’ll get into in a minute, but it’s about the information you need, because depending on the question, you will need very different information. So to finish off point, number one, know the question that we’re discussing, or the decision to make, and Big Deal things like who owns it? Whose decision is it to make in the end? Is it a group decision, or it’s one person’s decision, and we want just alignment or feedback. Second, is it helps people love or hate racy, and we have it in a previous episode as well. But if you look at RACI, it’ll tell you who’s responsible, accountable, consulted and informed? And making sure that you know, we get later, but are the people that should be consulted involved? Or have they been involved in it? And there’s something out of your book made to thrive as well? Brad, you want to touch on that?

Brad Giles  08:36

Yeah. So all team meetings are conducted with an agenda and data is available to effectively make decisions during meetings. So this is from my book made to thrive, which is about the five roles of a CEO. So, you know, you have to make sure that the meetings are run? Well, you know, in the US military, they have a saying, which is any decision is better than no decision. So if you’re in a combat situation, even if it’s kind of the wrong decision is better than standing around and getting shot at.

Kevin Lawrence  09:07

And it’s sometimes easier in the high pressure, high stakes. Yeah, it’s these the it’s these not important, sorry, are not urgent, but important decisions where we tend to get locked down. So look, you got to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Start the conversation with that to set people’s head in the right direction and make sure that the right people are involved. So number two, we need a whole bunch of information to make this now we need a whole bunch of information and we need it succinctly. We don’t need 427 slides. Please don’t send us 400 line spreadsheets. Right? If you want an executive decision need to present information in an executive way and it’s like, you know, why are we doing this? What are alternatives? What is our likelihood of success? Like how what’s the risks in this and if we Get it right. What’s the real benefit? No, I love this when we talk about like implementing CRMs, and Salesforce and stuff like that. And you know, it’s funny. Some people think implementing Salesforce increases sales. I think it’s almost hilarious. Now, if you have a problem in your company with tracking leads, and losing leads a CRM or something that manages leads that come in lots of people use HubSpot, and stuff like that. It can to help track and better manage leads. But last I heard sales management software doesn’t make salespeople have more meetings and make more presentations. I don’t know, maybe it does. But I generally think people get lost in this stuff. So anyway, you’re gonna have these beautiful debates like, is it actually gonna have the benefit that you think you gotta think of what dependencies and then and then you got to back it up with numbers, like, show us that you got to show us some current data in the business that relates to this and show us how it will be different IE, do you have a model, financial model, and then the main thing, if you’re going to bring a financial model, you better have had a finance person go through it with you. If you’re an operator, or you’re an HR, or you’re an IT or something else, and you want a decision, let your colleagues and finance validate your thinking with real math from the business, you’ll have a way better chance and some companies, it’s actually required.

Brad Giles  11:31

I saw a great example to this point, that CEO does when he’s running a meeting, he will send the slide deck, like you said, 427 slides, it’s not like that it’s you know, 10, 20, 30 slides, he’ll send it in the days prior to their meeting, expecting that everyone will review it. And then his job during the meeting is to talk about the nuance of the slide or talk to the deck. So assuming that you’ve already read it, he’s gonna say so this is why this chart matters.

Kevin Lawrence  12:14

I love the theory in practice, people reading stuff before a meeting, unless it’s a big strategic meeting, and people are setting aside for hours to prepare. I don’t ever count on it. Because some of the most important people often don’t read the damn stuff. If they have the discipline in the company, that’s great. It’s just that it’s rare.

Brad Giles  12:38

He has the discipline. And this is his weekly update. A part of collective intelligence, that type of thing.

Kevin Lawrence  12:45

Hey, if it works, then that is an outstanding approach. Yeah. And I would never count on it. But so which takes us to our next part of the point.He gets it prepared and shares it. I just find that generally, getting people to read information before him unless it’s a big meeting. It’s, it’s just challenging. So. So which takes us? So the final thing on the date, what you need to know is basically, what’s the ask? Clearly? How much you ask him for? Over what period of time? You know, we’ll talk about in a future episode, like, is this a bullet? Or is this a cannonball? Like, is it proven? Is it not proven? Yeah, but the on to the next point number three is, is that I call it you know, 80/20 meeting for decisions. The value is in the questions and the perspectives that it’s in the discussion. The mistake people make is they’ve got an hour slot to talk about the new IT infrastructure. Yeah. And then they present for 57 minutes. And there’s only three minutes to discuss. You’re not going to get a decision, I can guarantee it. So we help leaders in companies by saying if there is an hour slot 20% of that time maximum to present, which would be up to 15 minutes to present 12 minutes, I aim for 10. And if you can’t make your whole pitch in 10 minutes, you haven’t thought it through well enough yet. Or you don’t know how to present to executives. Yeah. So generally, even if you have sent it in advance, which is ideal for sure. Reviewing the key slides, or in some companies, just everybody reads it, executives seem to think that them making a verbal presentation is the best thing to do. It’s everyone does a PowerPoint. And that’s why they always take an hour. The other theory is write a two page document and we’ll just sit quietly and read it in the meeting, and then we’ll discuss it. I think it takes more discipline to write a two page document than a PowerPoint although they’re just you know, they’re not as pretty.

Brad Giles  15:01

But succinctly get the key points across that is that contains the information required for a decision to be debated. A and B decided and allocate. Your point is 80/20 rule is not an hour, 10 minutes to present, please, and then let’s discuss it.

Kevin Lawrence  15:21

It’s the discussion that will help us to get to the point of the debate. And if you’re really smart, you should anticipate every single question. And if you’re not that smart or experienced, your managers should prepare you. And you should, the best people that make presentations, they already know what we’re going to ask. And they already have the questions. We don’t have that experience run up by somebody else. First. It’s this is for the person preparing it is super important, because it’s pretty predictable if you’re an experienced leader. So the value is in the questions at 20 Present 20% of the time maximum no matter what you’re allotted, because you want to hear from people. Yeah, the next thing is, how do you actually go ahead, set the table for debate?

Brad Giles  16:12

So how do you make sure that the debate will be healthy, that the debate won’t go on. And as always happens, people bring up the same old things, the same old problems, time and time and time again, and you go down into these rabbit holes, or people have personal missions that they want to address. So allocate an amount of time, we’re going to talk for 20 women debate this for 20 minutes, or 40 minutes, whatever it is, and keep people to that time. We’re now halfway through, we’ve now got 10 minutes remaining, we’ve still got to cover off those three points before we get to the decision.

Kevin Lawrence  16:58

Yeah, I even use a timer. If there is 40 minutes for discussion, I set a timer for 30. And I say there, look, I’m setting the timer for 30. That lets us know that we have 10 minutes left, just and I’m putting on my phone. So it’s loud, so people can hear it. It’s a guideline or a guide post to help us.

Brad Giles  17:15

Yeah, yeah. So understand the rules for debate. Like we don’t do this. And we don’t do that. Like it should be healthy debate. We say how do we here’s one thing that I’ve noticed, you know, on Zoom meetings, they’ve got this raise hand function. Yeah, with most of the teams that I’ve been working with, we weren’t using that. And one team, they just, they just started using it. And it was so effective as facilitating it.

Kevin Lawrence  17:46

Most of our teams, we got the habit of using the user. The only problem is, as a facilitator, sometimes I’m so focused on what’s going on, I would still miss the hands. I know. But then, but then other people are calling it out. And the best thing on Zoom, you look on the right hand side, and they’re put in order of when they came up so you can easily manage and respect the order. But yeah, that raise the hand once you got that going. It’s beautiful. We often have it in our meetings, including myself, a facilitator, we have the hand raising, and it’s interesting. The team all owns it. Again, I’ll be facilitating a debate and I’m in it, and we’re working on it. And someone’s gonna go I go, Oh, Brendan, you’re next. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, sorry. Sorry. Josephine was so Joseph. The team will help it but it’s the raising the hand is a simple, elegant way to not trample and just obviously facilitator schools to help that but, you know, it’s a great exercise for a team to come up with your rules for debate. Like how do you do it? Like what is you know, like one of my ones I hate is soldier gathering. Well, everybody thinks you’re an idiot. Now I can tell you I think you’re an idiot. But everywhere you go, you start gathering other people’s opinions to put more weight behind your own cheese anyways, people have their own things and you know, one company I’ve worked with they have phrases like Have you considered instead of I think anyway, just however you do but yeah, the main thing is you’re saying there Brad is set yourself up for an effective debate and one of the big things is are the right people in the room because if there is someone who is a key part of this if this decision is there pitching the new IT system, but you don’t have the user like if it’s a new retail POS point of sale system and the head of retail right or or the people in that part of the business aren’t there you can’t have a discussion because if the back of house it people love it, but the front of house don’t. It’s a waste of time, so having the right people in the room to make the decision.

Brad Giles  19:59

Yeah, and then we move to the next point, which is, eventually it’s time to decide why minutes left, we’re at 55 minutes of a 60 minute discussion. Yeah, we’ve presented you understand all of the data, the costs, whatever it might be, you understand the situation. we’ve debated, we’ve heard from disparate people’s questions and perspectives. Okay, so now it’s time to decide, when the whole reason that we’ve come together is to make a decision, what are we going to do? Are we going to go for this? Or are we not? Or is there a third option that we hadn’t considered, that we’ve had has come up through the debate? But yet, what are we going to? How do we land this? And who’s accountable for it?

Kevin Lawrence  20:40

Yep. And often, it’ll come down to disagree and commit, right? Is that you’re not gonna, if you push them for consensus, it’s gonna take forever, and we’ll all go around the room and some decisions if I’m in the room, say, okay, just, you know, so the final decision, is this just show of hands, okay? And just go around, everyone’s good, good, good, good. Someone’s waffle in their head. You know, hey, Margarita Margarita. is still on the edge. She’s like, yes. Are you willing to although you don’t fully agree, commit to this? And wholeheartedly follow through? Yes. Okay, great. Let’s go. Decision made. Yep. And then document it, write the damn things down. You know, in a lot of companies, we have a discipline and noting who what wins, we’ve actually tweaked it to decisions and actions, actions is the who owns but also logging those decisions. And then it gets circulated to anyone that was missing at the meeting. So documenting those decisions. And, you know, if those notes aren’t enough, sometimes there’s other specific people that need to be informed. But some point you got to call it, I think, in Robert’s Rules of Order, they call it calling the question, I think, is what they call it. So the key point here is, hey, people make a lot of presentations, they burn up a lot of our time, and don’t get decisions. So they have to come back and present again, that’s our fault. We need to set them up to win, and not let them into the room until they’re ready to win. By the way, I spent half an hour with an executive Friday afternoon. She wanted to present something I know, it’s a very sensitive and challenging issue to get a decision in that company. So I asked to see it first. Well, we went through and I helped her with it, because I was passionate about it. And we had to make some notable changes just on her third, last slide, which is a third to last slide. Because if she needed to have strong recommend, there wasn’t a recommendation. It was an information share. Yeah, which would lead to a nightmare. And so we helped to figure but basically, we had to restructure it so that it now can be effective, with the two of us putting our brains together on so how do we be effective, get the decisions we want and move ahead and not bore people to death and waste their time. So number one, be clear on the what we’re debating and the decision that we want made? What’s the ask to who’s accountable and is going to prepare all that information. So we can succinctly have it and then three, in the meeting 80% of the time is discussion at only up to 20% the presentation, right?

Brad Giles  23:25

So once we understand the question that we’re answering, once we understand the values and the perspectives, but then we’ve got to make sure that we’re facilitating a debate, which is the bulk of the time making sure that everyone is heard, making sure that all of the questions are answered and that everyone understands what’s being done using some of those things such as timers, the rules for debate, raising hands that we mentioned before. And then finally get to the point where it is time to decide, call it out. explicitly say now how are we going to sort decide how are we going to close this issue? Make sure that we walk away with a decision and with accountability. We mentioned racy earlier, maybe that’s something to consider but making sure that the decision is made and the accountabilities are set.

Kevin Lawrence  24:15

Yeah, one last point branches that I loved is making sure everyone’s heard. One of my favorite techniques and I forget but as we always get to hear from the quiet ones, because they’re thinking while the rest of us are yapping, but as to go around the room. Hey, what’s your perspective and literally do a circle around the room to get the views? Yep, as long as you’re awesome. All right, sir Brad.

Brad Giles  24:39

Well, I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of the growth whisperers You can find us on YouTube by searching the growth whisperers whispers if you’re interested in seeing our smiling faces. Also, we have interesting newsletters that we produce each week. Kevin’s website is Lawrence and co.com and mine is evolution partners.com dot I you do hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, how to structure presentations to ensure effective decision making. Have a great week.

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Using presentations for decision-making

July 11, 2011 by Ellen Finkelstein 2 Comments

We hear a lot about how to persuade using presentations, but little about how to resist persuasion and make the best decision possible. So let’s talk about how you can use presentations to make a decision.

You have a decision to make and you want to make the best decision. You know that you need input, so you’ve asked a couple of subordinates or colleagues to present you the options. In other words, you can set the specifications for the presentation.

How do you get the best input possible? And, how do you use the presentations to make the right decision? There are many models for making decisions, but here is one approach.

1. Describe the problem

What problem is leading you to have to make a decision? By describing the problem clearly, you can make sure your decision will solve that problem. You can make a presentation describing the problem to your presenters.

2. Identify your goal

If you don’t identify your goal, it’s easy to be swayed to make a decision that doesn’t meet your goal. Include your goal in your presentation specifications so those working with you will look for the right data.

3. Identify the components

4. Collect the data you need

Collect as much information as you can about the situation. Data can be in many forms, such as lists of features, recommendations by others, historical information, surveys of users, expert opinion and research, etc. In our scenario, you are delegating this task, so your presenters make their presentations on the information they collected and how it relates to the problem and your goal.

5. Create a matrix of options

A table of the components and options, and ratings for each can help you decide. Here’s where you consider and balance the information you received. Perhaps your presenters promote a certain solution. Or you may listen to a series of sales pitches from various solution providers. But you need to stand back and evaluate before making a decision.

You may want to assign a person to be a “Devil’s advocate.” According to Wikipedia, “During the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, …the  Devil’s advocate was a canon lawyer appointed by Church authorities to argue against the canonization of the candidate. It was their job to take a skeptical view of the candidate’s character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc.” In the same way, your Devil’s advocate can look for holes in the presentation’s argument to help you make a better decision.

6. Evaluate the effect of a decision on everyone who will be affected

It’s important to ask others what they think. Get pluses and minuses. This step will give you deeper insight into the implications of any decision.

Then implement it. You may use a presentation to present the results to those affected by the decision. You’ll be able to explain how this decision will help solve the problem.

8. Evaluate your decision after some time

If you think you made a poor decision, analyze how you could have made a better one and use that information for your next decision.

How do you integrate presentations into your decision making? How do you make sure that presentations you attend give you the balanced information you need

Related posts:

• Making great PowerPoint handouts in Microsoft Word
• Support your statements
• Inside secrets to making your visuals look professional
• Tell a story, or where’s the point in all this?

2 Leave a Reply

[…] Using presentations for decision-making […]

Very interesting topic on this site. I was just speaking about this subject. Thanks

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Top 10 Decision-making Templates with Samples and Examples

Nidhi Aswal

In today’s business landscape, decisions drive change! Whether a business thrives in competition or languishes at the bottom depends on the quality and promptness of its decision-making.

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Template 3: Decision-making Framework Template

With thirteen dynamic presentations, you'll have ample opportunity to explore a diverse range of topics. It helps give an overview and keeps the audience interested when discussing important topics, including decision-making with financial risk evaluation. This PPT Set has a slide that explains the three-step decision-making framework with business goals. It is a resource far too important for you not to have in your toolkit. Get it now.  

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Template 4: Decision-making Matrix Bundles

Building a decision-making matrix isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. This PPT Template is your savior as it helps build effective ones. It has predesigned frameworks that serve as starting point for constructing a solid decision-making matrix for project and client, business operations, recruitment, product ideas, and more. Download now. 

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Template 5: Introduction to Data-driven Decision-making Layout

Use the ideas in this slide to unleash the value and potential of data-driven decision-making. Learn how you can make better business choices using concrete metrics, evident facts, and proper steps. This Data-Driven Decision-Making Layout demonstrates how BI tools in IT can provide you with the knowledge you need to make smarter business choices. Download now.

Template 6: Steps Of Data-driven Decision-making Training Set

This presentation slide describes the process of making decisions based on data. Contextualization, Key Performance Indicators, Visualization, Action Plan, Prioritization of Decision, Execution, Analysis of Results, Learning from Results, and Adjustment of Action Plan are the phases involved. Our team of experts crafted this deck, ensuring that each slide contains relevant and valuable information. Get it today.

Template: 7 Data-driven Decision-making Dashboard 

Here’s a decision-making dashboard that focuses on revenue and customer overview. With insights presented using easy-to-read graphs and charts, making conclusions and strategizing actions become easy. This dashboard highlights average revenue per customer, customer acquisition cost (CAC), CAC vs. customer lifetime value (CLV), and more. Download now.

Template 8: Time Management Benefits of Streamlined Decision-making PPT

This slide highlights the importance of time management in enabling employees to make informed decisions by planning and avoiding last-minute rushes. Understand and internalize the three-step process of managing time and drawing up a schedule; make certain decisions quickly and learn how to make better decisions. An extensive study went into creating this deck's stunning visuals and relevant text. Get it right away.

Template 9: Decision-making Chart PPT Deck

Make your argument clearly with the help of this Decision-making Chart Layout. This resourceful package is adaptable to a broad range of contexts, from product launches and customer purchases to business optimization, construction, and healthcare. You can get all nine slides right now and use them whenever you want. Download now.

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Template: 10 Option-Based Decision-Making Alternative Problem Identification Layout

This PPT Theme explains the four-step decision-making process. Its design promotes appropriate discussion on these four steps that are ‘Identifying the Problem,’ ‘Considering Options,’ ‘Selecting an Alternative,’ and ‘Addressing the Effectiveness of the Decision.’ Similarly, our PPT Bundle has slides that offer additional steps that complement the above points, ensuring a more comprehensive approach to decision-making. Download now.

Decide, Deliver, Dazzle

In the realm of decision-making, your presentations need to pack a punch. With our game-changing Decision-Making PPT Templates, you hold the key to captivating your audience, sealing the deal, and leaving a lasting impression. Don't settle for mediocrity when you can soar with excellence. Elevate your presentations to new heights and embrace success with our powerful templates. The choice is yours—make it count!

FAQs on Decision-Making

What are decision-making types.

The four main types of decision-making are:

• Command: Decisions using the command approach are made alone, without consulting or any discussion with others. These options are fraught with unpredictability.
• Consult: In the consultation approach, many people are consulted, but only one person has the authority to make a final choice. 
• Vote: The voting method takes place when everyone can voice their opinion before the speaker calls for a vote. 
• Consensus: By sharing their ideas and listening to those of others, group members, using the consensus approach, eventually come to a decision.

What are the five keys of decision-making?

Here are the five keys to decision-making:

Identification

First, decide what you want. Why are you making that choice? Why is it necessary? Identifying objectives clarifies the situation and aids decision-making.

Seek advice from  the wisest in the group

You don't have to solve everything, even if you're the boss. Talk to someone who has made a similar choice. You must decide whether to fire a talented employee who is outstanding with clients but frequently late or absent. An experienced businessperson can advise you.

Take a call

Determine the proper course of action before making any practical decisions.

Put your plans into action.

Collect information on what's working and what's not.

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7 Easy ways to create decision-making presentations with the help of AI.

David Lavalle | 14 July, 2023

• Introduction

Why are decision-making presentations important for businesses and other domains?

• Take Advantage of the AI-powered presentations today!.
• Every once in a while, we get the opportunity to fascinate someone. It can be anyone, your boss, your team, a sponsor, a benefactor, a group of students, or just random people whom you need to build trust with. You can easily captivate and persuade anyone with your ideas through a well-crafted decision-making presentation!
• At  WeSlides , we create compelling templates and carefully articulated decision-making presentations for the satisfaction of our users. Coming up with an idea and thinking of ways to implement it is hard enough, and you shouldn’t have to waste any precious time dragging and zooming text boxes, fixing font sizes, and stressing over a color theme.
• You can leave the rest to us and focus more on how you would like to present your work. Today, you will get to explore how AI technology can change the way people perceive and react just by adding a few tweaks here and there.

Convincing others is a tough job especially when there’s money at stake. However, using an AI presentation maker can change your prospects of gaining success by a huge percentage.

• Time-Saving

Time is your best friend when it comes to achieving your goals. It can be stubborn and slow for Some but favoring and fast for others. Just think, when it comes to decision-making presentations, it will be nothing but a gift in disguise even if you’re running late! That’s the beauty of having a variety of decision-making presentation templates at the tip of your fingers. Get ahead of time and let the AI tool take care of writing styles, dragging around stuff, building color schemes, and enhancing the viability of your project, particularly when delivering those all-important decision-making presentations.

• Collaborating

These presentations can give you the opportunity to collectively discuss matters with your team and propose better options in the future. It is an excellent way for your team to collectively analyze presented data, statistics, and money management through AI-based presentations.

• Influential

You can never persuade someone without influencing them. A decision-making presentation covers that for you. Gaining support from your audience is your main purpose which is completely fulfilled by using these AI tools.

• Documentation

You can go over these presentations powered by AI a hundred times if you want. You get to store them on the cloud or share it with the world. In return you get full transparency for your audience, references for future analysis, and the option to review and renew anytime!

The 7 ways you can create decision-making presentations.

• Use Natural Language Processing for generating content in decision-making presentations.

Gone are the days when we had to learn the language of zeros and ones to give instructions to a machine/computer. Today you can type your command and let the machine interpret it for you. That’s what an NLP is, and you can utilize it to produce a coherent outcome.

You just punch in a topic, even something complex like decision-making presentations, and it will generate content, summarize it accordingly, and present it to you highlighting the key points as well. A perfect partner for making informed choices. It can also be used as a research tool that can extract data from every nook and corner of the internet with a factual guarantee.

You won’t even have to worry about making your words sound professional, informal/formal, or attractive because an AI PowerPoint presentation maker will also do that for you.

• Get help from visuals to enhance decision-making presentations.

Create exciting and impactful presentations by adding special visual effects .

Colors are more important than you think. That’s why decision-making presentations also help you visualize your output by carving out color themes and palettes according to the topic you provide. It can also be a great tool to psychologically impact the people listening to you. Warm colors instill happiness in the subconscious while dark colors strike mystery, power, and elegance.

The color theme can also play an important role in building your company’s brand color or logo. You can also choose different shades or tints for the same color scheme to portray different aspects of an enterprise’s focus.

Apply predictive analysis and forecast the results while creating decision-making presentations.

You can be at ease with this one because AI develops the path for you including your vision. It’s worth noting that these features are especially handy for crafting decision-making presentations. It will also give you valuable advice along the way and predict possible outcomes. With hundreds of templates available at WeSlides , you can just dial in all the information you have and allow the AI tool to build subtopics and generate a separate section for each topic!

• Leverage AI tools to present well-researched and in-depth information.

With the machine’s judgment and probability of success, you have more focus on communicating with the audience.

Digging out algorithms, unstructured articles, research, graphical representations, reports, sources, and leads and binding them together to build a compelling decision-making presentation can make your workload heavier, thus you should consider utilizing the AI tools to their full extent to blow off some steam.

When you have too much information at hand, you can become stressed out trying to prove it correct. With AI tools you can be a hundred percent assured that all the data and information is factually congruent with your topic.

• Get creative with personalizing your decision-making presentations.

You know your audience best and you have to cater to their needs. Since AI does not have any emotional intelligence, it cannot create an exact replica of what you have in mind. This is where you have the leverage to customize and re-create any template or slide you deem fit.

Feel free to alter the tone of the content, manipulate the use of language, or change font types and sizes. You may also modify some of the information in the text. After all, a machine can’t surpass human intelligence. It’s your unique perspective and approach that will give the text the distinctive touch it needs.

• Collaborate with your team and produce a mutually structured decision-making presentation.

Don’t get stuck with emailing the same thing to your colleagues over and over again. Use AI-based presentations to come together with your team without being present in the same room.

You can post comments on each slide, set reminders, and even chat while making the presentation. Get the confusion out of your hair and communicate with your team effectively.

You can even share your work on social media and view the response rate through the analytics tool . This will provide you with commendable feedback and showcase your weak points so you and your enterprise can enhance them in the future.

• Overcome language barriers and use AI to develop highly interactive decision-making presentations.

Presenting on an international level or educating people in their native language can be tough when creating decision-making presentations because of non-fluency.

However, AI does not have any language barriers. It can respond to any language even if written in slang. You can create your presentation in the native language of your audience or even add a few slides in between with slogans/sayings with their translations to entice traditional values in your viewers.

You can also utilize this tool to extract information from an unknown language to you and present it in the language you are familiar with or the other way around.

Take Advantage of the AI-powered presentations today!

Hope this triggered the innovator inside you, and you are now fully informed of all the ways you can create a decision-making presentation! Artificial Intelligence has made our lives so much easier and more beautiful, yet people are afraid of making the right move.

Work smarter, not harder by multi-tasking with a virtual assistant. You can put all the monotonous, brain-teasing tasks on the shoulders of your AI business presentation maker and exercise delivering your ideas to build rapport with your spectators.

In today’s world, an AI that makes PowerPoint presentations is the only ligament that saves us time, effort, energy, and useless meetings on who gets to create what part of a presentation. You can run a whole organization or just be fine with a one-man show, weslides.com will make sure to give you a gratifying outcome with defying results in the end.

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Decision Making PowerPoint Templates

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Decision Making PowerPoint Templates for Presentations:

The Decision Making PowerPoint templates go beyond traditional static slides to make your professional presentations stand out. Given the sleek design and customized features, they can be used as PowerPoint as well as Google Slides templates . Inculcated with visually appealing unique and creative designs, the templates will double your presentation value in front of your audience. You can browse through a vast library of Decision Making Google Slides templates, PowerPoint themes and backgrounds to stand out in your next presentation.

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What is a decision making powerpoint template.

A Decision Making PowerPoint template is a ready-made presentation template that provides a structured framework for creating professional Decision Making presentations. The Decision Making PPT presentation template includes design elements, layouts, and fonts that you can customize to fit your content and brand.

How To Choose The Best Decision Making Presentation Templates?

Keep the following points in mind while choosing a Decision Making Presentation template for PowerPoint (PPT) or Google Slides:

• Understand your presentation goals and objectives.
• Make sure the Decision Making template aligns with your visual needs and appeal.
• Ensure the template is versatile enough to adapt to various types of content.
• Ensure the template is easily customizable.

Are Decision Making PowerPoint Templates Compatible with Google Slides?

Yes, all our Decision Making presentation templates are compatible and can be used as Decision Making Google Slides templates.

What Are the Advantages of Decision Making Presentation Templates?

Decision Making PPT presentation templates can be beneficial because they:

• Add multiple visual and aesthetic layers to your slides.
• Ensure that complex information, insights and data is presented in a simplistic way.
• Enhance the overall visual appeal of the content.
• Save you a lot of time as you don’t have to start editing from scratch.
• Improve the professional outlook of your presentation.

Can I Edit The Elements In Decision Making PowerPoint Templates?

Yes, our Decision Making PowerPoint and Google Slides templates are fully editable. You can easily modify the individual elements including icons, fonts, colors, etc. while making your presentations using professional PowerPoint templates .

How to Download Decision Making PowerPoint Templates for presentations?

To download Decision Making presentation templates, you can follow these steps:

• Select the resolution (16*9 or 4*3).
• Select the format you want to download the Decision Making template in (Google Slides or PowerPoint).
• Make the payment (SlideUpLift has a collection of paid as well as free Decision Making PowerPoint templates).
• You can download the file or open it in Google Slides.

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DECISION MAKING

Jul 11, 2014

2.34k likes | 4.72k Views

DECISION MAKING. MEANING OF DECISION MAKING. In Order to :. According to George R. Terry : “Decision making is the selection based on some criteria from two or more possible alternatives”.

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• true entrepreneurship activities
• duplication creativity
• advance what
• entrepreneurship
• strategic decisions deals
• adequate research

Presentation Transcript

MEANINGOF DECISION MAKING In Order to : According to George R. Terry : “Decision making is the selection based on some criteria from two or more possible alternatives”. According to Earnest Dale : “Entrepreneurial decisions are those decisions, which are always made in the course of one of the true entrepreneurship activities : Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Controlling, Innovation, and Representation”. Through Decision Making Entrepreneurs Resulting in : Achieve goals and objectives • Plan • Organise • Direct • Control Effectiveness and Efficiency

CHARACTERISTICS OF DECISION MAKING Selectionof the best alternative: Decision making is the process of selecting the best alternative among the various alternatives available for the solution of a given problem. Rational Selection: Rational selection means selection that is balanced, objective and unbiased, based on sound judgement and logical analysis, comparison and evaluation. Only, such a course can lead to the choice of the best solution out of a variety of possible solutions. 3. Responsibilities of Entrepreneur: All major decisions are responsibility of the entrepreneur for smooth functioning of enterprise.

4. Decisions are Means: The process of entrepreneurship aims at achieving pre-determined objectives and decisions are an important means of doing so but they are not the end. The end is to achieve the objectives through the process of decision making and not only to decide and sit. 5. Risk and Uncertainty: It is very difficult to forecast the outcome of future activities with complete accuracy. Therefore, decision making involves an element of risk and uncertainty. A wrong decision can lead the whole enterprise unit to losses and even closure. 6. Decision may be positive or negative: A decision can be both positive or negative. What is right or wrong in doing or not doing, depends upon the situations and conditions of the event.

7. Involves commitment: A decision reflects the commitment of a person who takes the decision. The person taking the decision is committed to implement it and to prepare the whole network of plans according to the decision making. 8. Time and Psychological Factors: Time is an important dimension of decision making. The psychological factors like intelligence, experience, habits, temperament, etc. have also impact on the decisions taken by entrepreneur. 9. Future course of Action: Decisions are made for future course of action based on the basis of past experience and present conditions.

10. Continuous Process: Decision-making is a continuous and regular process because an entrepreneur is required to take decisions continuously for different activities. 11. Communication: The process of decision- making is completed only when the decision are properly communicated in time to all those who are affected by the decision or who are to implement them. 12. Flexible: Decision making process is flexible, changeable and dynamic in nature. The techniques used for making decisions vary with the types of problems involved. Thus, it changes with the change of situation.

STAGES OF CREATIVE THOUGHT

TYPES OF CREATIVITY INNOVATION-Creativity to think totally new ideas. SYNTHESIS- Creativity to absorb, combine and use ideas from different sources and making it new. EXTENSION-Creativity to use old or new ideas. DUPLICATION- Creativity to use other’s successful ideas.

IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM ANALYSING THE PROBLEM DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS DECISION MAKING PROCESS PROCESS OF DECISION MAKING PROCESS MONITOR THE SOLUTION (1) (2) (3) (7) (6) (5) (4) EVALUATE THE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS MAKE DECISIONS IMPLEMENT THE SOLUTION

All human beings are faced with certain situations in their everyday life, where they need to take important decisions. However, decisions that are made without any planning have a risk of leading to failure. To avoid such problems, it is necessary to take decisions in an organized way, which can be done by following the 6 steps to decision making process... Defining the Problem: The first step towards a decision making process is to define the problem. Obviously, there would be no need to make a decision without having a problem. So, the first thing one has to do is to state the underlying problem that has to be solved. You also have to clearly state the outcome or goal that you desire after you have made the decision. This is a good way to start, because stating your goals would help you in clarifying your thoughts.

Problem analysis: The most important aspect of this step is to find the limiting factor or the critical factor. This limiting factor has to be changed or removed so that the decision or problem solving can be taken and the desired goal is accomplished. The ability of manager to locate this limiting factor in the problem is crucial to his success in finding optimum solution to the problem. For eg : if sales of a business are reduced ,the sales manager has to find the limiting factor which could be ineffective advertisement, faulty distribution,price,after sales services. Develop Alternatives:The situation of making a decision arises because there are many alternatives available for it. Hence, the next step after defining the main problem would be to state out the alternatives available for that particular situation. Here, you do not have to restrict yourself to think about the very obvious options, rather you can use your creative skills and come out with alternatives that may look a little irrelevant. This is important because sometimes solutions can come out from these out-of-the-box ideas. You would also have to do adequate research to come up with the necessary facts that would aid in solving the problem.

Evaluate the Alternatives:This can be said to be the one of the most important stages of the decision making process. This is the stage where you have to analyze each alternative you have come up with. You have to find out the advantages and disadvantages of each option. This can be done as per the research you have done on that particular alternative. At this stage, you can also filter out the options that you think are impossible or do not serve your purpose. Rating each option with a numerical digit would also help in the filtration process. Make the Decision:This is the stage where the hard work you have put in analyzing would lead to. The evaluation process would help you in looking at the available options clearly and you have to pick which you think is the most applicable. You can also club some of the alternatives to come out with a better solution instead of just picking out any one of them.

Implement the Solution:The next obvious step after choosing an option would be implementing the solution. Just making the decision would not give the result one wants. Rather, you have to carry out on the decision you have made. This is a very crucial step because all the people involved in the implementation of a solution should know about the implications of making the decision. This is very essential for the decision to give successful results. Monitor your Solution: Just making the decision and implementing it is not the end of the decision making process, it is very important to monitor your decision regularly. At this stage, you have to keep a close eye on the progress of the solution taken and also whether it has led to the results you expected.

IMPORTANCE OF DECISION MAKING Heart of Entrepreneurship: All goals, strategies, policies and programmes are determined through decisions. Therefore, the central pole of entrepreneur is to make decisions which determine the future of enterprise. Pervasive Activity: Decision making is a pervasive activity. It exists in every part and at every level of enterprise. Universal Mark of an Entrepreneur: An entrepreneur is viewed as a specialist in the art of decision making. He is responsible for making decisions rather than doing the work personally. An entrepreneur is a man who decides.

4. Core of Planning: Decision making is the sole of planning. Planning is deciding in advance what to do. 5. Basis of effective control: Control is crucial to an enterprise's success. Through decision making, entrepreneurs constantly monitor process, compare actual process with standards and take corrective action in case of any deviations. 6. To face challenges: Entrepreneurs can face challenges of modern time through good decisions. In the environment of turbulence, entrepreneurs are forced to make more and more decisions at a faster and faster pace.

TYPES OF DECISIONS

STRATEGIC DECISION : WHAT ? Strategic decisions deals with the big picture of the business. The focus of strategic decisions is typically external to the business and usually future oriented. Strategic decision-making creates the forward thrust in the business. It includes decisions about: What business are you in? What is your vision for the business? What's your business' identity? What do you stand for? Which direction is the business headed? How will the business compete?

TACTICAL DECISIONS - ‘HOW?' Tactical decisions involve the establishment of key initiatives to achieve the overall strategy. For example, if you have decided to be the Number 1 provider in your market (a strategic decision) then you will develop tactics (e.g. implement a marketing system, increase number of therapists) to achieve that outcome. In a small business you may have 4 or 5 key tactics that you are going to use to achieve your overall strategy. Again this layer of decision-making can sometimes be overlooked yet it is the glue that creates a strong connection between your long-term vision and your day-to-day activities. Tactical decision-making is the domain of 'mission' statements. Think in terms of the battlefields from which the term has emerged. The overall strategy, that is, what the army is there to do, is to win the war. Then you have a number of 'missions' you send troops on, preferably diplomatic ones, the cumulative effect of which is intended to win the war.

OPERATIONAL DECISIONS -'HOW WILL WE DEPLOY RESOURCES ?' Operational decisions determine how activities actually get done. They are the 'grass roots' decisions about who is going to do what and when. It includes: How will we spend your money this month? How will we service that client? What is our procedure for delivering an order? Who will be doing quality control?

OPERATIONAL V/S STRATEGIC DECISIONS

NON-QUANTITIVE/ DESCRIPTIVE METHOD Experience: Past experience is a good method for decision making. The knowledge gained by past experience is a helpful guide for future course of action. But, it may be dangerous to rely upon the past experience blindly. Hunch & Intuition: Intuition is related to inner feeling. It is a feel for the situation. An intuitive decision maker is an activist, moves fast, questions quickly about situations and finds unique solutions to difficult problems. 3. Judgement: It is the result of the interaction of knowledge, ideas and opinions. Judgement is based on past experience. Therefore a judgement decision may be a fast and inexpensive to make, but it cannot cope with new and complex situations.

4. Heuristics: Heuristics means to find or discover by using procedures that lead to systematically work through issues in an established manner. 5. Principle of Management: These principles may help to shape the environment in which the decisions are made. 6. Behavioural Techniques: Behavioural models such as brain storming, nominal groups and dalphi methods all these help the entrepreneur to search for optimal solutions in situations where few models apply.

7. Institutional Documents and Procedures: Certain documents such as policies, rules or procedures are also used for making decisions. In most of the enterprises, programmed decisions are handled through rules, standard operating procedures and policies. These bring uniformity in decisions and avoids biasness. 8. Groups: An interactive group can make more effective decisions than individuals. Several people can gather more information, can provide a variety of prospective on the problem, and are more likely to be committed than a single person.

QUANTITATIVE METHODS Facts: Facts give the decision maker confidence and courage to proceed further. Facts also help assume consistency and logicalness. They reduce the unknown area of decisions and show the progress of work towards decisions. Experimentation: Through test decisions hypothesis or choice for alternative can be confirmed or supported, or proved to be sound. Experimentation provides an objective, rational and methodological approach to decision making.

3. System and Mathematical Models: A mathematical model is generally constructed to represent the system being studied. This allows testing of problem without much cost. 4. Economic & Financial Techniques:Some economic theories like marginal analysis, cost effective analysis, opportunity cost analysis, utility theory etc. have proved of greater use of decision making. Similarly financial techniques such as ratio and profit and loss analysis, pay back analysis etc. also help in decision making process. They serve as a means of evaluation and selection of analysis.

5. Statistical Methods:Statistical methods such as theory of probability, sampling techniques, analytical tables etc. are important tools of decision making. 6. Operation Research or Specialised Decision Models: Operations research is an important tool of decision making. Probability Theory: It tells us that certain things are likely to happen in accordance with a predictable manner. Game Theory: It is used to make decisions in competitive situations. It brings into picture the actions of the competitor. It provides an optimum solution in which an individual in certain situations can develop a strategy which will maximise gains with small losses, regardless of what the competitor does.

c) Quening Theory: This theory attempts to balance the cost of waiting lines versus the cost preventing waiting lines by increased service and facilities. It is based on the premise that sometimes it is more costly to eliminate all delay than to keep some of the delay. d) Linear Programming: It determines the optimum allocation or use of limited resources to achieve some desired objective. e) Other Tools: There are many other tools of decision making such as Pert, Symbolic Logic etc.

MODERN TECHNIQUES Risk Analysis: It is important to know the size and nature of risk in choosing the course of action. Risk analysis theory develops for every critical variable in a decision problem a probability distribution curve. Decision Trees: The tree shows in what direction the chance events are and what their values in terms of profits and losses are for each alternative. Therefore, decision trees replace broad judgementswith a focus on the important elements in a decision, bring out into the open premises that are hidden, and disclose the reasoning process by which decisions are made under uncertainity.

3. Preference Theory: This theory is based upon premise that individual attitudes towards risk analysis vary. Hence, decisions should be made only after assessing a person’s willingness to take risks in a variety of situations and by developing an individual’s preference curve for that person. 4. Expected Value and Pay-off Matrix: Entrepreneur also makes use of the expected value concepts and pay-off matrix in arriving at objective and rational decisions.

GROUP DECISION MAKING There are several instances in professional as well as personal life when decision-making requires opinions and inputs from more than one or two people. This is where group decisions come into the picture. Group decision-making is a complex process, which can be achieved by several methods. Group decision making basically means when decisions are made in groups. Groups can be in the form of committees, review panels, board of directors, task force or similar groups. Groups consists of experts who are best qualified to take decisions that effect them. Experts from different fields can take better decisions than an individual taking decisions independently and single-handedly.

TECHNIQUES OF GROUP DECISION MAKING Authoritarian Style The authoritarian style is like a dictatorship, in which the decision ultimately rests in the hands of one person. This style of decision-making is applicable in the presence of a powerful person who dictates the entire process of decision-making and has the final authority on the outcome. This style, although in use at various places, tends to have more disadvantages than advantages because the people whose opinions are disregarded might have negative feelings about the entire process. A variation of this method is the minority control method wherein the group discusses the issues but the power of decision-making rests not in the hands of one but a small group of people within the group.

Brainstorming This group decision-making method is best when the decision-making has to be started from scratch, which means creating the various options and then weighing them. This is an excellent method for group decisions, which is very popular owing to the complete creative freedom it offers to all the participants. There can be a facilitator to facilitate the entire discussion just to ensure that the people don’t digress. The facilitator can merely help to start off the conversation, provide subtle hints and nudges when the participants get stuck and thus help to make effective and creative group decisions. The positive aspect of this method is that it values the opinion of every individual member and the final decision is reached by consensus.

Voting Based Method This is a group decision-making process, which is convenient to use when the group has certain set of defined options before it and needs to pick out the optimum solution. A voting system allows every participant to cast his/her vote for the option that he/she thinks is the best. The option that gathers the maximum number of votes is selected. This method however does not value the individual opinion of each and every participant in the group. A variation of this method is the majority method wherein a majority of people within the group has the power to pass the final decision.

ADVANTAGES OF GROUP DECISION MAKING • Advantages of Group Decisions : • Group decisions help to combine individual strengths of the group members and hence has a set of varied skill sets applied in the decision making process. • Individual opinions can be biased or affected with pre-conceives notions are restricted perspectives, group decision help to get a broader perspective owing to differences of perception between individual in the group.

A group decision always means enhanced collective understanding of the course of action to be taken after the decision is taken. • A group decision gains greater group commitment since everyone has his/her share in the decision making. • Group decisions imbibe a strong sense of team spirit amongst the group members and helps the group to think together in terms of success as well as failure.

DISADVANTAGES OF GROUP DECISION MAKING • Disadvantages of Group Decisions: • One of the major disadvantages of group decision making is that it is more time consuming than the process of individual decision making. • Group decisions take longer to be finalized since there are many opinions to be considered and valued. • In case of authoritarian or minority group decision making, the people whose opinions are not considered tend to be left out from the decision making process and hence the team spirit ceases to grow. • The responsibility and accountability of the decisions are not equally shared in some cases which leads to a split in the group and hence hamper the overall efficiency of the group.

TIPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS Set Goals and Find the Facts Sense of Timing Involvement of Subordinates Communicates Effectively Be Flexible Follow Through

PROBLEMS IN DECISION MAKING 1. Lack of information: Decision makers may not have the full information about the decision situation. Information means the total number of alternative courses of action. Decisions taken in the absence of complete information are likely to be wrong. 2. Caliber of person: All the information available is required to be analysed and processed in order to have a comparison of alternatives. But the accuracy of analysis, processing and comparison depends upon the caliber of the persons who have been assigned this duty. 3.Personal interest of decision making: The third main problem in the process of group decision making is that the decisions are taken keeping in view the personal interest of the majority because every person throws his weight in favour of those alternatives serve his own interests.

4.Decision environment: The entrepreneurial physical, social and psychological environment prevailing in the enterprise also has a great impact on the thinking of the entrepreneur. 5.Changing entrepreneurial conditions : A decision taken today by an entrepreneur may become obsolete tomorrow because of speed of innovations, technology, financial patterns, global marketing, and government policies. These decisions require diversity in decision making, as is difficult even for groups to achieve. 6.Participation in decision making: It is required that all those who are concerned may be made to participate in the decision making process but such participation invites problems also because all of them do not have the required level of education, knowledge, information, skill and intelligence. 7.Communication barriers: Communication gap is also another major problem. Either most of the decisions are not communicated in time to those whose are directly concerned or who are to take part in its implementation or the same are communicated in such a language as distorts its very sense and intent.

AIDS FOR DECISION MAKING • Intution: Intuition includes guess work and common sense views based on a keen and quick insight. Previous experiences and training also contribute a lot in this regard. Entrepreneurs having a strong power of intuition can generally take prompt and appropriate decisions. • Experience: Personal experience, or experience of others is the most important and valued basis utilised for making rapid decision. The experience gives the entrepreneur the requisite vision that trains him to apply knowledge he has acquired to the best of its uses. It enables him to recognise the crucial factors influencing the decisions. • Considered opinion: The democratic management relies upon the considered opinion based on group decisions., as they provide maturity and rationalisation in the decision making process.

4. Facts: Relevant adequate and up-to-date facts and figures provide solid basis for decision making . In fact, decisions become wrong only when adequate facts are not available on the particular issue or problem. 5. Quantitative decision making tools: The modern entrepreneurship has been dependent upon certain refined mathematical and statistical aids like operations research, simulation, linear programming, game theory, break-even analysis and so on. These quantitative decision making tools have been very effective , offering a great help in decision making .

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas How to Incorporate Decision Trees into Your Presentations

How to Incorporate Decision Trees into Your Presentations

Decision Trees Are Powerful Assets for your Presentations

Even if you’ve never heard of a decision tree, you’ve probably seen them at some point in your life. You might have even made one without realizing it. That’s because decision trees are simple ways to break apart a difficult decision into different components and factors to analyze them. 

What Is a Decision Tree?

Decision trees are basically flowing charts for decision-making . It’s a way to visualize all of the factors you need to consider to make your decision. One of the great things about decision tree templates is that they are flexible. You can map out the factors involved in a decision, as we said above, or map out possible courses of action or even possible outcomes based on each component of the decision you’re trying to make.

In fact, decision trees are so flexible that you can use the decision tree template to make all sorts of other charts, even if they’re not specifically concerning a specific decision. 

Take a look at this decision tree, for example: 

Look familiar? You can probably imagine the possibilities with one of these graphs.

How Do Decision Trees Improve Decision Making

Not all decisions are as easy as deciding between soup and salad. You might be trying to decide between two or more exciting college majors. Or perhaps you’re deciding between two different businesses to work for. On the harder side of decision-making, you may be helping your company decide between launching a new product or not or deciding where to invest a large amount of money. 

Decision trees do more than pro/con lists to help you decide. They let you look at every possible component of the issues at stake in your decision.

Since they’re so flexible, you can easily organize things like what might happen down the road based on what you decide, including subsequent related decisions you might have to make. Or you can visualize each detail at stake depending on which way you go. Perhaps there are many different smaller decisions or factors you need to consider before reaching your end goal. Decision trees can help you sort out all of those. 

When Can You Add Decision Trees to Your Presentation?

The possibilities of integrating decision trees into your presentations are nearly endless. However, let’s look at some decision tree examples that will give you a good idea of how these charts can spice up your presentations and communication.

Explaining your Decision-Making Process

Perhaps you or your team had to make an important decision at work, and you need to defend your choice to a manager. Instead of just explaining how you made your decision in a dense paragraph in an email or a potentially confusing meeting, you can use a decision tree to map everything out easily.

Presenting Research to Help Someone Else Make a Decision

Does your manager or some director need to make an important decision? Research for those kinds of decisions is often delegated to employees who then have to present their findings. This is the perfect opportunity to organize your research into a decision tree to make sure it is clear and easy to understand. It’s also a great way to impress your boss! 

Showing the Different Processes for Different Scenarios

Often there are different processes for different scenarios, clients, responses, triggers, etc. Whether you’re teaching new employees or presenting proposed changes to the process, decision tree templates make great options for demonstrating each process and what triggers it. 

How Do You Make a Decision Tree?

Decision trees are fundamentally easy to make, though decision tree templates for PowerPoint or Google Slides might be harder to get right. We’ll explain how to make a decision tree at its most basic level, though you can check out the Harvard Business Review for more business-decision details on these charts. 

Start with your main issue, problem, or decision to make. This often goes on the left side of your page or in the very center.

Boxes with factors, options, outcomes, etc., connect to your main issue with lines or arrows, indicating if this is someone that might lead to your final decision or if it is a result of that decision. 

Expand each factor with their own boxes and factors, depending on what’s appropriate for your specific issue.

Decision Trees Are Useful for a Whole Host of Cases

Whether you’re illustrating decisions for the business, school, or just for yourself, decision trees can be modified to work, no matter the case. Not only are decision trees incredibly adaptive, straightforward, and organized, they’re powerful tools to add to any presentation that will impress your bosses, coworkers, and hopefully yourself! 

1. Decision Tree Diagram for PowerPoint

Use the Decision Tree Diagram for PowerPoint Template when adding decision-making graphics to your presentations. 

Use This Template

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The Data Analysis Lifecycle: From Dataset to Presentation

• data analysis
• data analyst

Table of Contents

Part 1: Data Collection

Part 2: data cleaning, part 3: data analysis, part 4: data interpretation, part 5: data presentation, how will you use the data analysis lifecycle.

In today's fast-paced decision-making climate, data is an invaluable resource . Raw data is like a rough diamond: it has great potential, but it must be processed to reveal its true brilliance. Achieving this brilliance is where the data analysis lifecycle comes in.

The data analysis lifecycle maps out a structured journey of five steps:

• Interpretation
• Presentation

Mastering the right tools for each step is key, and that's where SQL proves indispensable.

In this article, we'll explore each stage of the data analysis lifecycle and how SQL integrates seamlessly into each one.

If SQL is new to you, consider checking out our SQL for Data Analysis course. It's designed to get you up to speed and ready to tackle your own data projects. Through hands-on examples, we'll show how SQL empowers businesses, researchers, and policymakers to make well-informed decisions.

The essential step of data collecting comes first in the data analysis lifecycle. The emphasis here is not only on getting data but also on obtaining high-quality, relevant data, which is essential for making educated decisions. In today's data-driven world, information is abundant. However, it is frequently distributed across various sources – making the ability to quickly extract relevant data crucial.

SQL lets you communicate with databases and collect the data required for your analysis. Whether dealing with millions of rows or sophisticated relational structures, SQL queries enable analysts to quickly filter through data, focusing on the exact information they require.

Let’s imagine you have been tasked with gathering sales data for analysis for a retail chain across different stores. You use SQL to query the company database containing this sales information. You decide to join information from the sales table with information from the product information table for richer insights. Your query might look something like this:

In this query, the tables sales_data and product_table are merged using the common field product_id . SQL enables you to quickly extract specific sales data from a given time period, which can then be utilized to get deeper insights into store performance and consumer behavior.

As we delve deeper into the data analysis lifecycle, we hit the crucial phase of data cleaning. In the data world, the saying "garbage in, garbage out" really holds true. Data cleaning is all about sifting through your datasets to find and fix errors, inconsistencies, and oddities – ensuring the data’s integrity and reliability.

SQL allows analysts to perform a wide range of data cleaning procedures directly within the database, speeding the process and reducing the possibility of errors. SQL queries enable analysts to find and correct anomalies, remove duplicate entries, and handle missing values seamlessly. By conducting operations directly on the database, there is no need to export data to external tools or platforms for cleaning; this lowers the risk of data loss or corruption.

Let's consider a healthcare scenario in which accurate data is crucial for patient care. Imagine you are analyzing patient data to detect trends in treatment outcomes. Analysts can use SQL to search for and repair errors in the patient database, such as duplicate entries or missing values. The following query ..

… updates any missing entries in the diagnosis column of the patient_records table. Setting these missing values to 'Unknown' ensures that the data is complete and reliable for analysis.

This demonstrates how SQL may be used to address missing data, keeping the data valid and ready for analysis.

Now that the data has been cleaned, we can go on to the next stage: data analysis. This is the process of exploring cleaned datasets to gain useful insights. Analysts employ a variety of methods to find key patterns, trends, and linkages in data that can be used to inform decision-making and drive business outcomes.

SQL analysts can extract specific subsets of data, do computations, and get new insights by utilizing aggregation functions such as SUM() , AVG() , and COUNT() . After writing SQL queries to extract insights, analysts can combine the data with tools like Power BI , which converts the data into dynamic visualizations and interactive reports. This connection allows stakeholders to visually explore findings, improve their understanding of clusters, and make more educated decisions.

Imagine you want to conduct marketing analysis to better understand your clients' purchase behavior. You could use the following query …

… to collect customer data from the orders table and return each customer’s average order value and purchase frequency. This enables us to group customers and apply targeted marketing approaches.

You can then take this further by combining SQL with Power BI, which allows you to visualize insights; this makes them easier for decision-makers to understand. Check out these SQL queries to help you in your analyses.

As we progress through the data analysis lifecycle, we arrive at the next vital point: data interpretation. At this point, the focus shifts from mere analysis to drawing out precise insights that can guide decisions and spur actions. Amidst the sea of data, the ability to spot key patterns and draw sound conclusions is essential.

Understanding the context and implications of SQL query results ensures that the findings are meaningful and actionable. Data analysis can be based on specific factors, but it is also important to consider external influences. Neglecting these influences may result in inadequate or misleading patterns, which could lead to poor strategic decisions.

Imagine you are a financial analyst tracking revenue trends for a multinational firm. Here’s a query you might well use:

This query filters sales data to concentrate on Europe's electronics sales in 2023. The query combines total revenue by area, product type, and year.

We’ve reached the final stage of the data analysis lifecycle: data presentation. The findings gleaned from extensive investigation are transformed into stories that engage stakeholders and motivate informed decision-making. While presentation software and visualization tools are useful in this process, SQL should also be considered when preparing and displaying data.

Whether it's a boardroom presentation, a research report, or a policy brief, the ability to effectively communicate ideas is critical to achieving significant results. While presentation software and visualization tools are excellent at creating visually appealing tales, the accuracy and dependability of the underlying data are critical. SQL assists with this by helping you prepare and arrange data to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Consider when a marketing team presents quarterly sales results to corporate stakeholders. Analysts can use SQL to extract sales data from databases, aggregate key indicators (like revenue and market share), and arrange the information for presentation. The following query …

… collects quarterly sales data from the sales_data table and calculates total revenue and average market share for each quarter. Leveraging SQL's capabilities allows analysts to create dynamic dashboards or generate custom reports. In turn, this data allows executives to make confident decisions.

By utilizing SQL's data preparation and formatting features, analysts may ensure that the insights provided are not only visually appealing, but also accurate, timely, and actionable.

Data is the bedrock of well-informed choices. However, truly leveraging the power of data means mastering the complexities of the data analysis lifecycle. From the initial collection of raw data to the final presentation of actionable insights, each step is vital.

At the center of this process stands SQL, an essential tool that unlocks the potential of data. Our exploration of the data analysis lifecycle highlights SQL's flexibility in handling various stages—gathering, cleaning, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data.

If you feel ready to begin your data analysis adventure, why not enroll in our SQL for Data Analysis course. It’s designed to help you learn the essential skills required for this career.

Whether you're a new analyst or an experienced expert, SQL competence opens up a world of possibilities in data-driven decision-making. If you want to learn more about how to start a career as a data analyst, you can check out our Roadmap to Becoming a Data Analyst and our article on Building a Data Analyst Portfolio .

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Chargers News: How Football World Feels About First Jim Harbaugh-Era Draft

Alex kirschenbaum | may 7, 2024.

• Los Angeles Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers have added nine new rookie pieces to their roster via the 2024 NFL Draft, their first such event with Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz in charge. But how did they do, according to national pundits?

Our colleague Matt Verderame of Sports Illustrated awarded the group with an A.

"The Chargers have been going about their business wisely," Verderame wrote. "Alt was the best player available in the first round and gives them a nasty tackle combo with Rashawn Slater on the other side. Then, trading up in the second round netted McConkey, who is already Los Angeles' most talented receiver. This is a foundational class for new coach Jim Harbaugh, who is trying to build both culture and a winner."

Danny Kelly of The Ringer , too, awarded the Chargers with an A for their work.

"I'm actually fine with that choice—Alt brings rare size and athleticism to the tackle position, and paired with former first-round pick Rashawn Slater, gives the team the potential to field one of the best tackle tandems in football," Kelly noted. "It helped too that the team didn't completely abandon the thought of having Justin Herbert throw the football, by trading up in the second round to nab an electric pass-catcher in Ladd McConkey. The former Georgia star is a nuanced route runner with great hands and elite acceleration, and could be Herbert's new go-to-guy in high leverage situations. I loved that Los Angeles was able to land linebacker Junior Colston in the third round, as well. Colston reunites with his college coach in Harbaugh (as well as defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who followed Harbaugh from Michigan), and has the potential to be a day one starter on the team's new-look defense. Sixth-round running back Kimani Vidal and seventh-round receiver Brenden Rice both have a chance to emerge as role players for this team early on, too."

Vinnie Iyler of The Sporting News has also revealed himself to be a massive appreciator of this initial draft during the Harbaugh era:

*Who has it better than coach Jim Harbaugh?" Iyler asked. "Only a few teams. He helped new GM Joe Hortiz nail this critical draft, getting an elite pass protector and top new versatile target for Justin Herbert. Colson was the right Michigan man to add, flipping a weakness into a strength. Still and Hart bring key depth, and Vidal is a good all-around contingency for former Ravens Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins. Rice and Johnson provide some big-play options to help replace Mike Williams and provide contingency for Quentin Johnston."

Kris Knox of Bleacher Report "only" awarded the Chargers' draft with an A-, and he explained his thinking:

"The Los Angeles Chargers might have been tempted to move down in a trade with a QB-needy team. Instead, they stood pat and took Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt with the No. 5 overall pick," Knox noted. "It's an unsurprising pairing given new head coach Jim Harbaugh's history of building his teams from the interior out. It was also a valuable pick. Alt was the top-ranked tackle and the fifth-ranked overall prospect on the B/R board..."

"The Chargers entered the draft as a team that had a franchise quarterback and a lot of question marks beyond that," Knox said. "They might not be ready to contend right away, but they took a big step toward developing a new identity with this year's draft."

Even on the more negative side of the spectrum, Kyle Dvorchak of NBC Sports still gave Los Angeles a fairly positive B- grade, with the team's top two picks getting the most scrutiny.

"They went with Joe Alt, an outstanding left tackle who will move to the right side in LA, and Ladd McConkey, a speedy and versatile receiver with great efficiency numbers but no breakout season on his resume..." Dvorchak reflected.

"The Chargers were one of the few teams who could justify a Day Two pick on a running back," Dvorchak continued. "They entered the weekend with Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins, castoffs from Baltimore, as their top options. First-year GM Joe Hortiz was patient and landed small-school dominator Kimani Vidal in the sixth. Vidal compiled 1,661 yards on 297 carries as a senior. He led the nation in attempts and missed tackles forced."

More Chargers: New LA Offensive Weapon Reviews Justin Herbert Connection

ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

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