In a manager, a symptom of excessive reliance on details may be the necessity to have
access to all data in raw form and to personally perform all summarization and
exception identification. "Data mining" can be an example of this necessity. Such a
reliance can indicate that the manager does not understand his/her own decision
criteria. Often the decision criteria is not obvious and may even appear contrary to
expected business practices. As a result, successes may not be duplicated in other
situations, the organization can become overly dependent on the manager, who
becomes a choke-point in decision processes and the manager can become pigeon-
holed within the organization.
Managers should be encouraged to and assisted in identifying their successful decision
criteria as of mutual benefit to the manager and the organization. Simulations and
modeling can uncover the specific conditions that drive the decision process. That
process can then be better supported by targeted data and duplicated throughout the
organization.
MCS can assist managers to identify their decision criteria and determine the best ways to
support that criteria.
to return to Challenge Resources.