Whether your company is running like a well-oiled machine or running into trouble, it’s a good idea to introduce the simple and effective process of applying what I call - Logical Thought Process.

You may be wondering what Logical Thought Process is or perhaps you are thinking, doesn’t everyone do this already? In a nutshell, it’s about applying logic to optimize almost any decision. You would be shocked at how poorly some companies are at doing this. On any given day, decisions get made at companies that create short or long-term negative impacts. Even on an average workday, it’s easy for even the most experienced of us to make a decision that could have been better thought out. I’ve worked with a lot of smart people but in my experience people with PhD’s are just as guilty as anyone at making decisions which were poorly thought out.

How does decision making happen, and how can you improve your decision making process?

Let me start by telling you how I explain logical thought process to others. In any leadership role I have always told managers and executives that as long as he/she applies logic before making a decision, then I would have his/her back no matter what the final outcome. I’ve spent most of my career at rapid growth companies and this advice has virtually always worked well, especially for those assuming more responsibility such as new managers. It has also given people and teams I worked with a boost of confidence, as I always stood by them as promised. To explain how this works I usually go on to give examples of flawed decisions, but to save time here I’m sure you can think of a few poor decisions that you have witnessed or even made.

After the introduction and an example or two I simply tell people “no matter how much pressure you are under, just follow these four steps before moving forward when it comes to the time to make your decision.”

First, you must Envision the possible outcomes of your decision. Are there potential negative outcomes which may result from this decision? If so, are they minor or could it be a disaster?
Next you need to Evaluate to ensure the decision is devoid of personal interest and emotions so that it will achieve the best outcome for the company.
The next step is to Explain to yourself (as if you were presenting your reasoning to others), why you think your decision is the best one.
The final step is to Execute your decision. You should only do this after the prior steps have been completed and you are confident that your final decision makes sense from a logical perspective.

While the above steps are easy to follow, let’s talk about “logical perspective” a bit further. The definitions of the word Logical has a couple of key points which relate to this process. The first definition refers to a person “capable of clear, sound reasoning” and the second definition refers to if a decision is “natural or sensible given the circumstances.” By joining and incorporating these two definitions I can now simplify this further to make the application of logical thought into the 4-step process of:
1, Envision 2, Evaluate 3, Explain and 4, Execute with “sound reasoning that makes sense.”

It’s usually about now when I’m presenting this to a management team when someone asks, “Doesn’t all this take a long time?” or “What if I’m in front of a customer, or on the phone?” It's surprising how fast a human brain can compute the 4 steps, especially with a little practice so that even in complex situations it should only take a matter of a few seconds. So give it a try, and sometime later take a moment to consider the outcome and if the application of Logical Thought Process made a difference for you.

Article written by Mark Valentine, Unitrak Group