Making better decisions – Getting to the heart of the problem
From the personal to the professional, and from the very small to the highly significant, we’re making more decisions, more often. But decision-making is tough. The margins between right and wrong can sometimes be very small. In the second of a four-part series looking at data journey, we start by examining two key areas at the heart of every great decision: strategy and culture.
When we’re weighing up decisions, it’s natural to look for evidence and data to ensure we’re making the best-informed choice we can. There’s now a huge range of systems, methods and tools to support decision making.
Starting point
Organisations, large and small, produce data that can be harnessed to shape their strategy and transform the value they add to customers. But where should they begin?
In the first instance, begin the journey not by looking at the data but by looking at the core business objectives.
Define the problem
Filter out the noise – all the extraneous and peripheral detail – and properly define the problem at hand. Some questions to consider:
- What are your wider business objectives?
- What is the specific business problem you are seeking to address?
- How will solving this problem bring you closer to your business goals?
- What additional value are you seeking to create?
- Who are your end users and what are their pain points?
- How do you want to positively influence their interactions with you?
Culture of collaboration
When working on a new project we’ll kick things off with a one-day workshop to uncover the real issues and scope out the challenges. The session is incredibly valuable in establishing a culture of collaboration and building the trust necessary to unite people around a problem.
In our experience, building a culture of collaboration and information sharing is essential from the get-go. Our ‘PRECISION for Pharmacy’ healthcare product is one example where this principle of defining the issues and developing collaborative processes underpinned the success of the project.
Stakeholder buy-in
Developed for the Western Health and Social Care Trust, PRECISION is a data analytics real-time reporting tool designed to increase productivity and effectiveness of clinical pharmacy teams.
In this case, our solution required a radical redesign of how the team undertook their work. To ensure success, staff across all tiers of the clinical pharmacy team and the ICT were involved in the design of the system. This meant issues and risks were identified early and teams had a real stake in the process.
Precision
Check out this video to see how this digital transformation project improved decision-making and productivity within the Western Trust team.
Bottomline
Kick off your journey not by looking at the data, but by examining your core business objectives and culture.
