I Need to Make A Decision

Having a rising high school senior has provided a new opportunity for our family. College tours and decisions. So many great places with different attributes and qualities. We’ve visited two universities so far and have several others on the schedule over the next 30 days. Apples and Oranges. How can she decide?  Having a Six Sigma/Lean Engineering mom brings a new decision making opportunity to this process as well. We’ve taken the C&E Matrix (Cause and Effect Matrix) to a whole new application. I’m not referring to the Ishikawa Diagram (fishbone) even though some disciplines call the Ishikawa Diagram a C&E Matrix. I’m talking about the decision making tool.

The C&E matrix is typically used to help us narrow a long list of suspected X’s (inputs) down to a more manageable one. For example if a process has dozens of inputs, it would be too difficult to start investigating each one – so instead they get prioritized based on the issue at hand which are categorized by Critical to Quality indicators (CTQ’s).

In my opinion, the reason the C&E is so powerful is that it keeps the emotion/gut in check. So we have put together a C&E Matrix for our daughter’s college decision making. The CTQ’s are what we’re calling “Important Factors”.  These are the things that are important to our her for college journey.  The inputs are the colleges and they are being measured against the CTQ’s she has identified.  The goal is to come up with a “top 3-5” list when we’re done with the circuit.  And then, assuming a standout – start the early application process.

Other rogue ways I’ve used this tool and the benefits:

• Employee hiring – helped me hire a widely diverse workforce with stills targeted to the job’s success factors not just someone like the employee previously in the role. 
• Deciding what family vacation to take – balanced all factors, not just cost and helped us think of options that catered to everyone’s preferences.
• Business investment choices – deciding when to invest in equipment, systems, furniture, office space, etc. is really a matter of two things – positive impact to the customer and positive impact to the revenue plan (of course regulatory factors supersede both). The C&E helps get the ego out of the way.

If you have questions on how to use this tool for your business or personal decision making, please let me know. And if you have used it in a unique or innovative way – share that with the New Day Solutions blog readers too.

Lead on!

Lori