TORC

Napoleon Bonaparte rated decision-making as key to military success

“Nothing is more difficult & more precious than to be able to decide”
                                                                                                  Napoleon Bonaparte

Decision-making has always been important – and, even more so now, with the explosion in choices available across all walks of life.

It is a subject long of interest to computer programmers, especially to those working in the esoteric fields of robots and artificial intelligence – and, not surprisingly, has now turned up on your iPhone, as well.

Here are 3 handy little apps worth noting:

1. iDecide
Using a slot-machine interface, iDecide shuffles through a list (that you create) to come up with random decisions on the spot. It follows the traditional decision making process you may go through with a pen and piece of paper. 

Inside iDecide one can always go back to results of one’s earlier decisions – as the app considers one’s previous decisions/choices made and the more questions one answers the better the results get.

The tool does exactly what it’s supposed to, and it does it correctly. It prompts you for all the data needed, and gives you a very nice summary of things at any point in the process. You don’t have to go all the way through the method to check the summary, so it’s a bit like a running total of what you’ve done so far. And once you’ve completed a run, you can always go back and tweak your data; the effect of such changes is immediate -  and, the design of the app is clean and simple.

Link:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idecide-pro/id384741269?mt=8#

2. Hunch
Hunch is another decision-making application and is FREE to download. You begin to use it by entering your question, then you answer 10 questions related to your problem and you are presented with a customised recommendation. You can also skip a question if you want to. 

Hunch considers your previous answers collectively to come up with the most appropriate option for you. Hunch is a community based application. Besides analysing your own answers, it also takes into consideration answers / decisions made by the community users that would have a similar personality profile to yours, and suggests them to you! Now…that sounds good, doesn’t?

Hunch is designed in a way that it gets better with every time you use it. The more you put in, the more you get out. Similar to iDecide, yet slightly different.

Your answers are saved for future references if you sign up with Hunch. 

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hunch-local/id391682513?mt=8

3. Citicus MoCA
This final decision-making app is aimed more at assessing risk -  coming hot on the heels of the BP oil spill, the banking collapse and the Japanese sunami.

It focuses on assessing the maximum credible loss you could suffer if an asset were to be compromised. It poses questions from multiple angles to identify the worst-case scenario along with details of the types of harm this would cause and the severity of each type of harm.

It uses your responses to calculate the asset’s overall criticality rating and presents a table showing what’s at stake, if the worst materialises. This is its maximum credible loss.

The benefit of this app is the way it enables one to assess the criticality of an asset simply and quickly, giving one ready access to the thinking processes of security and risk professionals – at your fingertips.

Link: http://www.citicus.com/citicusmoca.asp

If you have other favourite decision-making apps, that you’d like to share – please leave details in the comment  box below. Thank you!

PS.  For related training programmes, please click on the individual link here:
1. Thinking, Judging & Decision-Making
2. Leading with Resilience & Optimism
3. Leading with Innovation & Creativity 

PPS. For related decision-making articles, please click on the individual link here:
1. Decision-making: types, tips & traps
2. Choosing between a rock & a hard place
3. Problem-solving: forensic style
4. Prejudice, emotion & bias