What is Decision Analysis?

Most people feel pretty good about the decisions they make, and yet they frequently leave more than half the value on the table when making a decision.  This is especially true when the decision is unique, and when the outcomes are uncertain.  That’s something we face in business every day.

 

The profession of Decision Analysis consists of the art, the science, and the practice of getting the most of what we really want in the real world.  To make better choices, we have to accept our human nature.  And behavioral decision scientists have clearly shown that we are just not wired to make high quality decisions intuitively.

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• We have to face uncertainty.  

• We have to accept that many factors drive the consequences of our decisions.  

• We have to deal with information overload.  

• We have to deal with differences in beliefs and conflicting motivations.  

• And usually we are not even clear about what we ourselves truly want, and what tradeoffs we are willing to make.  

 

The principles of Decision Analysis are built on normative decision sciences, the science of rational decision-making, which has been developed over the last 300 years.  In the last 50 years, thought leaders have developed the practice that is necessary for tackling important, complex decision opportunities in the real world.   Today, leading corporations apply Decision Analysis to achieve superior performance.