In deciding how much time to make available for the decision-making process, it helps to consider the following:

• How much time is available to spend on this decision?
• Is there a deadline for deciding and what are the consequences of missing this deadline?
• Is there an advantage in making a quick decision?
• How important is it to decide?  How important is it that the decision is right?
• Will spending more time improve the quality of the decision?

Remember that sometimes a quick decision is more important than ‘the right’ decision, and that at other times, the reverse is true.

Responsibility for the Decision

Before deciding, you need to be clear who is going to take responsibility for it.

Remember that it is not always those making the decision who must assume responsibility for it. Is it an individual, a group or an organisation?

This is a key question because the degree to which responsibility for a decision is shared can greatly influence how much risk people are willing to take.

If the decision-making is for work, then it is helpful to consider the structure of the organisation.

• Is the individual responsible for their decisions or does the organisation hold ultimate responsibility?
• Who must carry out the course of action decided?
• Who will it affect if something goes wrong? 
• Are you willing to take responsibility for a mistake?

Finally, you need to know who can make the decision. When helping a friend, colleague, or client to reach a decision, in most circumstances they will take the final decision and responsibility.

Whenever possible, and if it is not obvious, it is better to agree formally who is responsible for a decision.

This idea of responsibility also highlights the need to keep a record of how any decision was made, what information it was based on and who was involved.  Enough information needs to be kept to justify that decision in the future so that, if something does go wrong, it is possible to show that your decision was reasonable in the circumstance and given the knowledge you held at the time.