Evaluate Solutions

Tools to help you weigh your alternatives.

Priorities & Values

Define your priorities and review your values.

Priorities:  Select and rank your priorities.

Values:  Ensure that your thinking serves your values.

Potential Problems

Examine your solutions for potential problems.

Time Framed Consequences:  Observe the consequences from different time frames.

Bullet Proofing:  Recognize the vulnerabilities of your solutions.

Negative Brainstorming:  Examine your solutions for potential failures.

Solutions Effect - Fishbone Diagram:  Diagram the side-effects of your solutions.

Potential Problem Analysis:  Analyze your solutions for potential problems.

Help or Hinder:  Identify what might help or hinder your solutions.

Force Field Analysis:  Understand the forces that drive or restrain your solutions.

Contradiction Analysis:  Analyze the contradictions inherent in your problem.

What If? Analysis:  Assume that future outcomes have already happened and identify their impacts.

High Impact / Low Probability Analysis:  Assume an unlikely outcome has happened and determine its impacts.

Pre-Mortem Analysis:  Assessment of how a plan, judgment, or decision could go spectacularly wrong.

Devil's Advocate:  Present the best possible case against a proposed plan.

Analytical Evaluations

Evaluate your solutions using analytical techniques.

Pros, Cons, and Interesting:  Evaluate the good, bad, and interesting points of your solutions.

Progressive Hurdles:  Create a short list from a large number of possible solutions.

Pareto Analysis:  Identify the most important parts of your problem and determine their severity.

Paired Comparison Analysis:  Rank your alternatives by comparing them in paired sets.

Grid Analysis:  Rank your alternatives.

Hypothesis Testing Matrix:  Create a matrix for testing hypotheses.

Analysis of Competing Hypotheses:  Computer program for analyzing multiple hypotheses.

Two-Sided Issues

Examine two solutions side-by-side.

Parallel Arguments:  Examine each point side-by-side.

Agree, Disagree, and Irrelevant:  Compare areas of agreement, disagreement, and irrelevance.

Personal Gains and Losses

Record your expected personal gains and losses.

Personal Gains and Losses:  Determine expected personal gains and losses for each of your solutions.

Stakeholder Analysis

Examine the stakeholders involved in your solutions.

Stakeholder Analysis:  Examine the stakeholders involvement in each of your solutions.

Commitment Chart:  Determine the minimum stakeholder commitment required to succeed.

Decision-Making Methods

Methods for making choices.

Easy Way Out:  Choose the easiest way out, then justify it.

Spell Out the Reasons:  Choose each alternative, then justify it.

Give Up What?:  Choose each alternative, then knock it.

Ideal Solution:  Rank alternatives by their nearness to the ideal solution.

Best Home:  Examine the best home for each alternative.

When Does It Become Unattractive:  Find out when each alternative becomes unattractive.

Well-Being of the Whole:  Rank alternative by their contribution to the well-being of the whole.

Fear, Greed, and Laziness:  Examine the influences of fear, greed, and laziness on each of your alternatives.

Random:  Choose at random.

Stand Pat:  Consider doing nothing.

Defer Decision:  Examine the reasons for deferring your decision.

Final Decision:  Make your final choice.

Navigation

Navigation - Toolkit:  All the tools listed on one page.