The act of decision-making is a constant and universal part of our daily lives. From the moment we wake up to when we go to sleep, we are constantly making choices. Our recent poll asked the question “How many decisions do you think, on average, a single person makes in a day?”. Surprisingly, only 20% correctly identified the figure of 35,000 daily decisions. These range from the trivial, such as scratching an itch, to the significant, like an important business move, each contributing to the mental demands we have.
The Decision-Making Burden: Strategies for Success
The sheer volume of decisions made daily highlights the importance of managing productivity and mental well-being, as even small actions can have significant outcomes that can impact our personal and professional lives. Both intentionally and without thought, individuals use various decision-making strategies, such as:
Impulsiveness: This involves making quick choices without extensive thought or consideration. While it can lead to instant gratification, impulsiveness can sometimes result in regrettable actions, such as deciding to purchase an item on sale without evaluating its necessity or checking reviews.
Compliance: This strategy refers to adhering to established rules, regulations, or advice from authority figures. An employee at a corporate office will follow guidelines on workplace behaviour, conflict of interest, and confidentiality. In this example, compliance maintains a professional and ethical work environment to ensure that behaviours align with organisational standards.
Delegation: Transferring decision-making authority to others is common in both personal and professional settings. For example, a marketing manager assigning social media content creation to a junior marketer, allowing the manager to focus on campaign strategy and performance metrics. Delegation can be effective in leveraging specialised knowledge but requires trust and clear communication to ensure successful outcomes.
Avoidance/Deflection: This approach involves postponing or evading duties, often to avoid confrontation or accountability. While this can sometimes reduce immediate stress, avoidance can lead to larger problems down the line, such as missed deadlines or unresolved conflicts.
Balancing: Weighing different options to find a middle ground is a practical approach to decision-making. For example, a student balancing study time with social activities by creating a schedule that allocates specific hours for studying and leisure. Multiple angles are considered, leading to more sustainable outcomes.
Prioritising & Reflecting: Evaluating the importance of various choices to make informed choices is crucial in all contexts. This approach involves focusing attention on tasks that will have the most significant impact and reflecting on past experiences to guide future decision-making.
In a professional setting, business decisions can be more structured yet equally demanding. Professionals across various industries make countless strategic and operational decisions daily. These being timely and accurate is paramount, impacting everything from risk management to customer satisfaction. These are crucial as they directly influence organisational outcomes and efficiency.
The decision-making burden can be overwhelming, and so, process automation become invaluable.
Achieve More with Automated Processes
Automated decision-making is the process of drawing conclusions without human involvement, based on a predetermined set of criteria. A common example is online loan applications, where outcomes are determined by factors such as the applicant's affordability. This approach significantly simplifies decision processes for workers, allowing them to create and adjust decisioning logic on demand.
Automated decisioning offers numerous benefits for organisations. It streamlines processes, enhances overall efficiency, and frees up valuable resources. This allows businesses to innovate and continually improve their services to maintain a competitive edge. It is inherently consistent and data-driven, reducing the likelihood of human error and provides a reliable solution for streamlining business operations.
The Auto Decision Platform (ADP) is LendingMetrics’ solution for credit decisioning. We serve various credit verticals such as banking, mortgages, commercial lending, consumer credit, and car finance. Our application of automated decision-making covers loan approvals in banking, borrower eligibility and credit risk assessments for mortgages, business credit applications, credit card applications, car loan eligibility checks and more.
Each engine's decisioning rules, logic, and datasets are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients, addressing their ongoing challenges effectively. With ADP, clients can enhance customer satisfaction by providing instant, confident decisions. Our intuitive, no-code editor allows authorised personnel to review and configure engines at any time, enabling quick adjustments to decisioning logic without IT support, ensuring they can quickly respond to external factors and fulfil consumer duty requirements. Integrating ADP with your website or CRM allows you to receive data-driven, automated conclusions in seconds based on the information provided during the customer application process.
Automated decisioning is extremely versatile and can be applied to several different sectors such as health, education, law, and employment, each with varying levels of human involvement. By automating routine and repetitive tasks, businesses can focus on strategic, high-impact projects, enhancing overall efficiency and productivity. In an era where time is of the essence and precision is paramount, leveraging decisioning software to manage processes is not just advantageous but essential, how could your business processes benefit from automated decisioning? Do not let routine tasks overwhelm your team - empower them to achieve more with automation.