5 Best Decision-Making Tools for Small Businesses/Teams

My days as an active Army Officer are gone, but the learnings and experiences I acquired still benefit me to this day. It sometimes surprises me when I realize that being an entrepreneur is similar to being in the army — the decisions you make will impact the people around you. This is why I’ve always emphasized the value of excellent decision-making skills, especially in leadership, where one wrong move can spell disaster for an entire organization.

The best decision-making tools for small teams make it easier to make the best choices. Cloverpop, the OODA Loop, and a SWOT analysis, for instance, provide structure so you clearly understand possible outcomes and ramifications of proposed alternatives. The right tool impacts your business’ growth. 

Let’s talk about some of the most reliable decision-making tools that a small team like yours would find most helpful, including Cloverpop, SWOT analysis, Cascade Strategy, OODA Loop, and the 3-Legged Stool Approach. I will also walk you through the biggest mistakes leaders make when utilizing such tools and how to avoid falling into these traps. We’ll also discuss the benefits you’ll enjoy with a handy decision tool up your sleeve.

Are Decision-Making Tools Advantageous for Small Teams?

Decision-making tools are advantageous for small teams since they help structure and streamline the process, making it easier and quicker to make better choices. Whether through decision trees, matrices, graphs, or charts, the right tool can help you lead your team toward success. 

Biggest Mistakes Leaders Make With Decision-Making Tools

Decision-making tools have long been around to guide and support leaders who strive to make the best choices for their businesses. With technology growing by leaps and bounds, these handy business tools refuse to get left behind and are slowly evolving and adapting to the increasing challenges experienced by leaders today.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid:

1. Choosing the Wrong Decision-Making Tool

Decision-making tools have unique purposes, and each of them has its own strengths and limitations. If you choose the wrong type of tool for a specific issue, you might end up with irrelevant alternatives, ill-founded decisions, and costly mistakes. 

The key to making the most of these decision-making tools is choosing the one best suited for a specific problem’s unique needs. Similar to playing golf, you don’t simply grab any club you can get your hands on. You must consider speed, distance, and angles to make the perfect shot. 

2. Disregarding Artificial Intelligence

Some leaders doubt the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) with data analytics. They may take lightly the information gleaned from visualization tools, such as charts, diagrams, or graphs. This prevents them from making quicker conclusions and informed assessments. 

In reality, AI can be depended on to efficiently process data, identify trends, and recognize warning signs faster than humans generally can. You’ll save time and effort in evaluating information and brainstorming with your team if you trust AI enough to partially do the job for you.

3. Fully Trusting Decision-Making Tools

That being said, you should never rely entirely on decision-making tools to do all the work. Your leadership skills — critical-thinking, risk understanding, and strategic planning — should be your best weapons in leading your business toward growth and success. 

You can take part in decision-making and experiential training to train yourself to make better decisions. You can also solicit the help of an excellent decision coach to help you devise strategies to make the best choices for your business. Try to fully immerse yourself in your organization’s decision-making processes since, truth be told, experience is the best teacher. 

Benefits of Using Decision-Making Tools

Let’s discuss some of the most compelling reasons why you should consider investing in decision-making tools for your small business:

• They can help efficiently process data. Analyzing and interpreting data can be both challenging and tricky. It’s easy to miss pertinent details and overlook crucial points. Visualization and decision intelligence tools can help simplify the process for you. 
• They organize your ideas. Brainstorming sessions with your team can get messy with ideas thrown left and right. A decision-making tool can help organize the most essential points based on the prioritization of goals.  
• They help prevent biases and faulty reasoning from influencing your decisions. Decision-making tools effectively eradicate personal biases, predispositions, and self-serving motives by providing objectivity and fact-based reasoning. 

Best Decision Intelligence Tools for Small Businesses/Teams

Here are some of the most reliable decision-making tools for small teams:

1. Cloverpop

Arguably one of the most user-friendly decision intelligence platforms available today, thanks to its drag-and-drop feature, Cloverpop banks on the reliability and efficiency of decision trees in guiding leaders toward making better business decisions. 

Cloverpop clearly frames your alternatives, interconnects relevant data, and empowers you to make faster, more innovative decisions. They also capitalize on the power of artificial intelligence to bridge decisions with outcomes, track decisions, and assess results against the set goals. 

Sancus Leadership can be your partner in optimizing decisions by helping you develop a more streamlined, structured decision-making process for your small business. If you’re interested in how Cloverpop can help you make better decisions, book a demo with us today so we can begin analyzing your decision-making process and formulate innovative strategies together!

2. OODA Loop

OODA is an acronym that stands for:

• Observe
• Orient
• Decide
• Act

This decision-making tool was developed by John Boyd, a US Air Force colonel and military strategist, to help soldiers make better decisions when they find themselves in the middle of conflicts. Today, it’s a practical tool for new businesses since they often find themselves amid abrupt, unforeseen changes. 

Decision-making is pretty straightforward with the OODA Loop:

1. Observe: Begin by spending time closely observing the situation and every relevant factor linked to it. 
2. Orient: Assess your options by aligning with the established goals. 
3. Decide: Make your decision based on your evaluations. 
4. Act: Follow through with purposeful strategies and tactics to ensure you realize your goals through the crucial decision you just made.  

Remember to regularly repeat the entire process — hence the term “loop” — whenever you receive new information. This is a great way to reevaluate your decision, determine if it remains relevant, and make adjustments when necessary. 

3. Three-Legged Stool Approach

Imagine a 3-legged stool as a decision you must make for your business. Its legs represent 3 essential elements that work synergistically to produce the desired outcomes. If one of these legs suddenly goes missing or becomes damaged, the stool’s stability will be compromised. 

Adopting the 3-legged stool approach helps you identify factors that truly matter in a particular situation. Here are some questions you could ask yourself to determine what your decision’s 3 legs should be:

• Leg1: What is my main goal in making this decision?
• Leg 2: Is there a plan B I can count on in case things don’t go as planned?
• Leg 3: Do I have all the information I need to realistically assess risks and opportunities?

4. Cascade Strategy

This decision-making tool utilizes strategy maps’ effectiveness when making crucial business decisions. It helps you better visualize your company objectives and alternative courses of action so you can make well-informed, rational decisions. 

Here are some other key elements of the Cascade Strategy:

• Frameworks are customizable, so they can better suit your unique needs. 
• Allows you to better align your actions with your goals.
• Provides an easier way to track progress and review decisions made. 
• Allows for better collaboration and monitoring within the team. 

5. SWOT Analysis

Perhaps the most basic yet reliable decision-making tool you can utilize, a SWOT analysis can be useful in practically every situation where smart choices must be made. It will help you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) associated with a particular strategy or course of action. 
Knowing these 4 factors can help you better allocate your resources, focus on areas for improvement, explore potential markets, and mitigate potential risks. A SWOT analysis will give you a bird’s eye view of the circumstances your organization is in.