Making a good decision is complicated. While gut feelings – based on professional experience— are often good, using objective data analysis to support your decisions is better.
The world of business is increasingly data driven. Universities are developing business curricula in an effort to cultivate graduates with data-driven decision-making mindsets. And higher quality data is available to assist your communications decisions.
As you lead initiatives and implement business strategies, you likely ask yourself: How can I make better, data-driven decisions?
One approach is to systematize the decision-making process to minimize risk. Here are the six key steps:
- Identify and define the business issue or challenge. Whether you’re experiencing declining employee engagement, lackluster readership, or employees simply not understanding their role in your business strategy, the first step is to clarify the problem and objective.
- Acquire and analyze data. Smarter business decisions are informed by objective data. This data-driven decision management (DDDM) approach that values data-backed decisions.
- Generate several viable solutions. Analyze the data and brainstorm practical solutions. You can often combine analytics data and relevant survey data to shape your proposed solutions.
- Select the most appropriate solution and evaluate your plan. Use proven techniques like predictive modeling or tools like a SWOT Analysis to justify your decision.
- Communicate your plan and implement your decision. As a communications professional, this is your time to shine. Inform all stakeholders of your plan and take action.
- Measure the impact of your decision. Evaluate the effects of your decision and adjust as necessary.
By basing your decisions on data and analytics—in combination with your intuition and professional experience—you can stand firmly behind your decisions and consistently move the business forward.
As a provider of internal communications tools, PoliteMail enables corporate communicators to create, send, measure and improve the results of their internal communications. Learn more.
