Decision Matrix
Making group decisions gets a whole lot easier when your team agrees upon a decision making process.
The Impact Effort Matrix provides a visually graphic depiction of the trade-offs between the impact that an alternative will probably have toward resolving the problem, and the effort required.
This Decision Matrix template was popularized as a tool for Six Sigma quality improvement, but is an excellent decision making tool for any type of business decision making.
How to use your Decision Matrix template
Your team first agrees upon your objectives, their importance, and your alternatives.
Like all Systems2win templates, any green-bordered text box can be edited for your own user-defined Impact Rating Scale - or you can use the popular 9-4-1 scale or 9-3-1 scale.
Notice that when you enter a number into the Impact Rating grid, the background color and border automatically highlight any cell containing a number.
If you enter a period (.) - that means that your team has agreed that the value
is zero - and the cell remains white.
If a cell is blank - that means that your team has not yet agreed upon an Impact
Rating value.
This Excel editing tips video
also includes training
for this template 
Your team then enters your ratings for Effort.
When you click the Apply Chart Data Labels
button, the PICK Matrix chart is populated with data points and labels.
(Try doing THAT in regular Excel)
The PICK Matrix makes it easy to visually see where each alternative falls in the quadrants to Proceed, Investigate, Consider, or Kill.
And then after some pleasant genteel discussion, (or a scratch & claw cat
fight, depending on the nature of your team)...
your team enters values for Our Priority Ranking.
(which may or may not correspond exactly with "the numbers", because your team
might take some additional factors into consideration in making your final
decisions)
As with all Systems2win templates, you can use Systems2win
Link Icons
to easily insert intuitive shapes containing hyperlinks to related
documents - |
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Use your decision making template to reduce conflict
Having an agreed-upon decision making tool can be particularly useful to counterbalance the personality differences common to almost every group of 2 or more people - where some people tend to be a little outspoken while others keep their (often better) ideas to themselves.
And an impact effort matrix decision making tool can be especially useful in those uncomfortable moments when you find yourself in the position of being the designated facilitator in a group that happens to include your boss. Or your boss's boss.
Whether its your career on the line, or just a mild desire to
avoid any possibility of unnecessary conflict...
wouldn't it be nice to introduce your team to a decision
tool as easy to use and as field proven as this Decision
Matrix?
Suggested Reading and Resources
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This Decision Matrix comes bundled with
with steep quantity discounts |
