Evidence Based Decision Making

Are you turning information into relevant insights to guide decision making? Or, are you using the magic 8 ball to drive your business?

Perhaps, it’s time to try some…

Evidence   based    decision     making?

The Steps:

Step 1: (The thinking part…) Clarify the question. Define your objectives and the information you need. Ask yourself: What do you need to know? – Who needs to know? – Why do you need to know? Take a look at your strategy and make the link to your organization’s performance and value chain.

Step 2: (The doing part…) Collect the right data. Determine where the data is (it may already be lurking in your organization) and determine how you’re going to get it. Align your business processes with your information needs to provide a sustainable source of meaningful data in the future… Your information system should provide you the ability to systematically collect the right data.

Step 3: Analyze the right data.

Step 4: Make an evidence based decision.

Most organizations don’t have any trouble executing Step 3 and 4, except they never get there.

The problem: Most organizations fail to collect meaningful data that is aligned to their strategic objectives, and therefore fail to generate relevant insights to make evidence based decisions that drive their business.

…they’re using a magic 8 ball.