Collin Morikawa won the 2021 Open Tournament, a feat for any golfer. However, Colin is only 24 years old and started his professional tour making 22 consecutive cuts, second to Tiger Woods’ 25. 

At the U.S. Open last year, he says he didn’t play poorly, but made three bad decisions in the opening round that caused him to miss the cut by one stroke.

He reviews all of his games and asks, “Were my mistakes the result of poor execution or bad decisions? You can live with bad swings because that happens in golf, but you’re in total control of decision-making, and it’s such an easy thing to improve.”

We make many decisions every day. A lot of them are small and should be made quickly, however, some are bigger and require more time. How do we improve our decision-making process?

  • Identify the problem that needs to be solved or what is to be achieved as a result of a decision. This means understanding the importance of the decision and how much time and effort should go into making it. Effective decision-makers know how to identify which decisions are of great importance and those that are not.
  • Consider the options. List the various alternatives with their pros and cons. For important decisions, it is useful to have people present both sides to set the stage for discussion.
  • Assess the risk. Eliminate options that aren’t close to achieving the goal or have unacceptable consequences even if they achieve your goal. Narrow the list to those that will achieve the goal or solve the problem with the fewest negative consequences as possible.
  • Make your decision. You have a good understanding of the possibilities, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and the ones which will bring you closest to your goal or solution with the least amount of negative fallout. You’ve carefully considered the situation, so be confident in your decision. Stick to your decision. 

Organizations need to make the right choices and implement them as decided. It is important that organizations be aware of the implementation of decisions and its impact. Monitoring the implementation of the decision and analyzing its results is the main way of assessing the decisive process itself.

Behind every successful person is a history of effective decisions, and less-than-perfect ones as well. What separates them from those not as successful? They made decisions.