5 Simple Frameworks for Making Better Decisions
👋 Welcome to The Influential Project Manager, a weekly newsletter covering the essentials of successful project leadership.
Today’s Overview:
Five Frameworks: The success of any project is often determined by the quality of decisions made by its leaders. However, making the right decisions can be challenging, especially when psychology can impact judgment. Here are 5 simple frameworks for making better decisions throughout your projects, career, and life.
One Resource: Introducing the AEC AI Tool Hub. This hub is a collection of AI tools within the Architecture, Engineering, & Construction (AEC) industries. Stay ahead of the competition by learning and adopting these game-changing solutions today.
Today’s Newsletter is Brought to You by Teamhood.
The Better Way to Manage Projects and Teamwork.
Teamhood is the new standard for lightweight, fully featured, and flexible tooling. A project and team management solution that merges the visual Kanban approach with the time-tested practices like Gantt, workload, and timeline.
Register for a free Teamhood account today to:
Plan out your projects on a Gantt chart with milestones.
Visualize and track daily progress on a Kanban board with swim lanes.
Monitor the process with workload, timeline, and custom dashboards.
Frameworks:
My Top 5 Decision Making Frameworks
The success of any project is often determined by the quality of decisions made by its leaders. However, making the right decisions can be challenging, especially when psychology can impact judgment.
To enhance solid decision-making, project leaders can utilize frameworks that enable them to make better choices.
Here are my top 5 decision-making frameworks designed to help you make better, more informed decisions.
1. The Bezos Approach
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos emphasizes the importance of tailoring decision-making speed based on the reversibility of the decision.
According to Bezos, easily reversible decisions should be made quickly, while irreversible decisions should be made slowly.
Use this framework to decide how fast you can make your choice.
You can take this a step forward and take other factors into account. Even when a decision is irreversible, if the negative consequences it leads to are manageable, you can still make a quick decision.
2. The Future Self Lens
This framework involves three questions that encourages us to consider our future selves and the long-term implications of our decisions:
What decision would the person I'm trying to become make?
What path is more difficult in the short term but better in the long term?
What would I advise my best friend to do in this situation?
Use this framework when you need to align yourself with long-term goals and values without impacting your personal or professional growth.
3. Cost/Benefit Analysis
A Cost/Benefit Analysis Decision Making Framework is a straightforward method used to help people make informed decisions by comparing the advantages (benefits) and disadvantages (costs) of different choices.
To perform a cost/benefit analysis, follow these 5 simple steps:
Identify the choices: List all the options you are considering.
Determine the benefits: For each option, list the positive outcomes or gains that may result from choosing that option.
Estimate the costs: For each option, list the potential negative outcomes, risks, or drawbacks associated with the choice.
Compare the options: Examine the benefits and costs of each option, and weigh them against each other to determine which option has the best balance of advantages and disadvantages.
Make your decision: Based on the comparison, choose the option with the most favorable balance of benefits and costs.
This framework is particularly helpful when deciding between multiple options or assessing the potential impact of a decision on a project or personal situation.
Remember that it's not always possible to predict the exact outcomes or impacts of each choice, but making educated estimates will help you make a more informed decision.
4. The 10-10-10 Analysis
The 10-10-10 Analysis is a decision-making framework that involves predicting the effects of a decision after 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.
The ideal choice will benefit the project in the short, medium, and long term.
Use this framework to confirm your decisions will have lasting positive effects on the project and minimize potential negative consequences.
5. The Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix is a prioritization framework that helps you categorize tasks based on urgency and importance:
Urgent and important: Do it immediately.
Important but not urgent: Schedule it for later.
Urgent but not important: Delegate it to someone else.
Not urgent and not important: Delete it from your task list.
Using the Eisenhower Matrix enables project leaders to prioritize tasks efficiently and allocate resources effectively.
While discipline and experience are crucial for successful decision-making, frameworks like these can greatly enhance your ability to make informed choices.
The next time you face an important decision, consider utilizing one or more of these frameworks to ensure a successful outcome for your project.
One Resource:
AEC Artificial Intelligence Tool Hub by Stjepan Mikulic
This hub is a collection of AI tools within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries.
Since AI is changing the AEC industry in many ways, the best way to be ready for the upcoming years is to learn, adapt, and be aware of technological possibilities. Big thank you to Stjepan Mikulic for creating the AEC AI Hub.
The online library offers over 200 tools and resources. New tools are added daily, making it an invaluable resource for those in the AEC industry.
If you love the hub, please share with friends and contribute with your knowledge.
AI Presentation
In mid-April, Stjepan Mikulic presented the hub to an association of Norwegian AEC experts, called BIM Verdi.
The presentation is structured into 3 parts:
The Why of the Notion Page
Categorization and Presentation of the Tools
General AI Impact and Implementation in the AEC (Thoughts, Challenges, and The Big Picture)
The presentation is available on YouTube:
Thoughts
I’m not sure what this all means for the future but it’s evident that rapid changes are coming. If you plan to be in the AEC Industry for 5+ years, I recommend starting to think about it.
Where is the construction industry going? What do you think will happen in the near future to design and construction?
Until next week,
Kyle Nitchen
Influential Ideas
—
🔥 Check these newsletters out:
✔ The Superhuman Newsletter: One of the biggest and fastest-growing AI newsletters in the world. You’ll love reading Zain’s newsletter each week, It helps people leverage AI and AI products to boost their productivity and accelerate their careers. Sign up with 1-click here.
✔ The Lighthouse Leadership Newsletter: Lighthouse has been helping managers learn & build the most important skills to succeed as leaders for over 8 years. I highly recommend it to develop your leadership skills. Sign up with 1-click here.
✔ Are you a newsletter operator looking to grow your newsletter? Join the SparkLoop Parnter Network. You can explode your audience growth by partnering with other newsletters and influencers. Their software allows you to track how many new subscribers they send you so you pay only for results.
Thanks for reading! Want to work together?
📣 Want your product or service featured in this newsletter?
Sponsor 'The Influential Project Manager' and directly engage our dedicated community of 2,000+ construction pros. They trust our weekly insights to boost leadership and project success.
☎ 1-on-1 Coaching
Are you interested in diving deeper into a particular topic or strategy? Book time with me for a 1:1 coaching or strategy session.
🎙 Interviews
Occasionally I guest appear on podcast shows to discuss leadership, construction project management, and continuous improvement. If you have a show and interested in interviewing me, feel free to get in touch.
📧 Support this Newsletter
The Influential Project Manager articles will remain free, but if you find this work valuable, I encourage you to become a paid subscriber. As a paid subscriber, you’ll help support this work.