We are living in a fast-pace changing market environment! A critical competence for leaders is to make fast decision and sometimes for a leader it is better to make a wrong decision rather than no decision… Question : Did you experience to witness an action or to listen to a speech and straight away you jumped on a conclusion… that revealed afterwards to be at 180 degree from the truth… Well it happened to me and sometimes it made me uncomfortable !

During my EMBA at HEC Lausanne, I discovered a simple tool to help to make better decision. Through our AAA lunches (leadership development lunches) we studied the Ladder of Inference « LOI ». Basically this tool can help you to reach out a better decision making by using 5 simple steps ! The LOI has been created by Chris Argyris, organizational psychologist ! It is useful either if you are on the speaker side or listener side !

As you can see on my above sketch, the ladder of Inference (I call it the Mountain of Inference) features 5 stages : #1 Gather all facts and reality, #2 Focus on the most important one, #3 Draw assumptions on this important element #4 Get a conclusion #5 Take action. To be sure you arrive at the top and get a better decision try to respect all steps. If you start by a conclusion then you can go down to the Mountain and figure out first facts and reality… Same thing when you need to take a quick action after you saw or listen to something… Well work quickly backward to the stage #1 then go to each stage to reach the top, it can help you to make a better decision.

Very simple and useful tool ! Try it, it can boost tremendously your confidence and when you feel good… it shows outside ! You are radiant 🙂 !

Alexandre R.Rio