I am not a scholar by any means, but sometimes such topics as this give me pause to do a little research and I want to share with you, who are for all intents and purposes among the brightest decision makers in the business world, some insights I gleaned while searching the internet.
From none other than a Harvard Business School blog, dated December 2, 2010, authored by Jim Heskett, entitled, “Making the Right Choices: Art or Science,” I gleaned the following nuggets of thought.
What these nuggets suggest about decision making
These latter two bullet points are particularly germane to our tag line of, “Right information. Right decisions. Right now.” Why? Because the fresher and more immediate the information, the more likely will be the brightness of the decision you make. (Yes, the use of “brightness” is an intended play on words.) Decision makers need current relevant information in order to deal with the realities that exist right now. With current information refreshed several times during the day, the science of evaluation more effectively stimulates the art of creating choices.
In another posting, dated March 27, 2013, on the “Awesome Mind Secrets!” site, I found the blog, Decision Making: Is It An Art Or Science? In summary it states, and I quote,
The Decision Making Process
There are several scientists, psychologists and management gurus who have created outlines of decision making processes. One of the best ways to describe a decision making process was outlined by Dr. Pam Brown. According to him, decision making involves the following steps:
Business Intelligence tools, especially those, like PCT’s primeVIEW designed for LTC decision makers, contribute significantly to “right decisions” by enabling them to “collect information” and to “evaluate the effectiveness of the decision” with regularly refreshed actionable information.
Bottom line, what matters is that you have the right information (the science) so that you can employ the skill of decision making (the art) right now to make the right decisions, decisions that can have an immediate impact on the quality of the services you and your team deliver and subsequently on the bottom line.