Better quality decisions - a strategic planner's role

Better quality decisions - a strategic planner's role in institutional decision-making

Having facilitated a session about Managing Strategic Risk and Making Decisions in an Uncertain Environment at HESPA’s 2018 annual conference, entitled 'Strategy in a changing world', it continues to be manifestly clear that those in roles of strategic planning can only be of maximum value to their institutions if they have the right access to senior decision makers.

However, access to key people does not guarantee that the insights and analysis we provide will be taken up. Although the extent to which strategic planners and analysts make recommendations rather than simply present data is varied across the UK HEI sector, one thing is for certain - if we have the right access, there is an enormous potential value we can bring with the toolkit we own.

It is strategic planning functions that generate insights for key institutional decision-making, yet our contribution to the underpinning concepts of quality decisions is largely unexplored.

The risk of poor decisions in uncertain environments is increasing.

Given the steady pace of change, HEIs must become increasingly agile and responsive - gone are the days of predictability. And as such, the nature of work for strategic planners and analysts is changing, with a critical role in helping manage uncertainty by strengthening institutional capability and skills. Those working in strategic planning functions are therefore well placed to improve institutional decision-making quality - an effective strategy to cope with increasing sector uncertainty.

So, what is a quality decision?

A quality decision is a process.

The Stanford University Decisions and Ethics Centre represent Decision Quality as a series of links in a chain, each step preceding the next and the quality of a decision no better than 'its weakest link'. Perhaps unexpectedly, this is not rocket science.

• Helpful Frame. Define what it is we are deciding and not deciding. Purpose and Scope.
• Clear Values. What do we really care about? Have we considered the impacts of this decision?
• Creative Alternatives. Doable, discrete, attractive.
• Useful Information. What do we need to know? Who would know?
• Sound Reasoning. Watching out for biases and pre-conceptions, can I justify and explain the rationale behind an alternative?
• Follow through. What will it take? Are we ready to act or what needs to be done to make it so?

Strategic planning functions are actively involved in reviewing business cases or opportunities for investment, so why not also ensure that the decision-making activity is one that follows key tenets of quality?

Through engaging with governance mechanisms and creating process and toolkits, strategic planning functions can embed quality decision-making criteria that can only stand in good stead in a turbulent environment. The question is not whether this should be done - but how soon.

Ivana Vasic Chalmers is Strategic Planning and Risk Analyst at the Royal Veterinary College and an active member of HESPA's Risk interest group. Her LinkedIn profile contains other posts which may be of interest.