The Decision Cycle by Fresh FP&A

The decision cycle will help you and your association make knowledgeable decisions that drive exceptional results. I myself use this very process when making important forecasting and planning decisions. Today, I am going to share my insights with you and your team so that you can witness the profound impacts of implementing these five simple steps.

PROCESSES (Data Foundation)

The most significant element and the framework of all sound decision are processes. Processes are vital to any associations as they identify the core steps that need to be completed to reveal data.

Strong documentation, process mapping, and engaged process owners are the foundation of sound business decisions. For example, by incorporating process templates to department managers they will have a clear understanding of how to document their main processes, and it will much easier to collect the data necessary to complete the second stage of the decision cycle. Additionally, clearly establishing roles and responsibilities among your staff, as well as actively sharing information throughout the organization, are beneficial in building a high-performance team.

Do you currently utilize process templates? Do your staff members know their roles within the organization? Are your association’s strategic goals communicated and understood by all members of your team? Ask yourself these questions, and make sure that you are implementing the processes necessary to optimize the results you receive from executing the decision cycle

DATA (Data Mining)

The raw output of processes is data. Data are the tangible pieces of information derived from processes, and in reality, define the first step in the actual decision making.

When evaluating and analyzing data, you have to ensure the figures you’re looking at are accurate. You will build comfort and confidence in accuracy by having well thought out processes and consistency in execution.

Once collected, you can begin to turn your data into information, thus laying the strategic groundwork that you and your team need to make educated business decisions.

INFORMATION (Data Analysis)

As soon as data is collected, you can proceed to the Information stage. During this stage, data will be consolidated so as to begin the most important element in the decision cycle: analysis.

Analysis, analysis, and yes, more analysis is vital because this is where high value-added activities are established (i.e. the particular point in time where variance, trending, segment, and drill down analyses are performed). Anyone can gather data, but turning that data into manageable information is paramount to successful decision making.

There an infinite amount of ways to analyze data. For example, by analyzing trends of membership or event data, you could explore answers to the following questions:

• Is one particular membership group yielding more revenue than another?
• Does the month of an event drive higher engagement than other months in the year?

During the Information stage, you should take a deeper dive into answering these types of questions.

KNOWLEDGE (Learning & Collaboration)

Once data has been collected and successfully transformed into information, you are now equipped to turn that information into knowledge. This knowledge can and should be, shared with colleagues, managers, and association executives.

This stage is specifically where organizations realize the true value of the cycle - empowering future decisions, which are based on concrete information derived from data executed by process owners.

Knowledge is power and is central to associations as it creates an environment where people are empowered with the information and intent that they need to execute upon all aspects within the association.

DECISION (Business Execution)

The last step is making the decision.

If all of the subsequent steps have been successfully executed, anyone is capable of making and/or contributing to the final decision - not just the executive team. It is important to understand that as a result of the prior steps in the cycle, both comfort and confidence are built to help ensure that a sound final decision is made. Therefore, in reality, the execution is a comprehensive effort by all staff members because of the many touchpoints that the information has throughout the cycle.

Now that you know the steps of the decision cycle, let’s actually put it into action!