As a supervisor you have to make decisions every day – some with minor consequences and others with far-reaching effects. A lot can be at stake: personal success, the future of your employees, company development. Generally, the further reaching the decision is, the harder it is to make a decision. While in many cases you can draw on your wealth of experience to find a solution to a recurring problem, new situations require strategic and innovative solutions.
 
Try this practical test and use the following 7 decision-making aids the next time you have to resolve a problem:

• 1. Do you make decisions intuitively or rationally?
  Every day you make many decisions intuitively. These solutions based on a gut feeling have a decisive advantage: they are made quickly. But one disadvantage can be: they are subjective. They are shaped by your previous knowledge and your personal experience. Therefore, make intuitive decisions only when you know enough about the background.
  
  
• 2. Making decisions based on proper analysis
  Every time an important decision is to be made, it is important that the situation is analyzed thoroughly. Albert Einstein once said: "Recognizing a problem is more important than resolving it; describing the problem accurately leads almost automatically to the right solution." What do you want or have to decide? Express your problem as a question – preferably in writing. This also works when the facts are very complex. Give it a try.
  
  Example: You want to increase the reliability of a part of your plant. If you now ask the question, "How can reliability be increased?" you come to the right conclusion: "It can't". Actively, you can only reduce the number of faults and, as a result of this, you increase reliability.
  
  In the next step, consider what objectives you want to achieve. Weigh up the problem on the basis of required objectives that must be reached, target objectives that should be reached and possible objectives that, if reached, would be an advantage but are not too important.
  
  
• 3. Before making a decision, gather information
  Every good decision needs to be based on sound information. Take advantage of the expert knowledge among your co-workers. Someone who stands the whole day long in front of a machine often has a completely different view of the production process. Examine this source of information. Also use informal sources, such as tips from acquaintances. These days, the most fruitful source is the Internet, but always remember: the information that you obtain in forums or online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia are often not 100 percent accurate or verified.

On the next page, read about practicability and who you can learn from.