Harvard ManageMentor

Generating and Evaluating Alternatives

Harvard ManageMentor: Generating and Evaluating Alternatives

Discussion Topics
Generating decision alternatives
Evaluating alternatives

Copyright 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

Harvard ManageMentor: Generating and Evaluating Alternatives

Generating Alternative Courses of Action

What are our decision objectives? What do you want to
accomplish with the decision we make?
What are some possible steps or courses of action we
could take to accomplish these objectives?
Suggest as many ideas as possible
Dont judge the merits of any ideas

Copyright 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

Harvard ManageMentor: Generating and Evaluating Alternatives

Evaluating Alternatives
Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

for creating a prioritization matrix:

Prioritize decision objectives
Assign values to each objective
Create a matrix
Rate the alternatives
Calculate the total scores

Copyright 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

Harvard ManageMentor: Generating and Evaluating Alternatives

Next Steps
Consider what our next steps
should be before making a
final decision, such as:
Gather more information
to determine feasibility
of alternatives?
Consult with
stakeholders or decisionmakers?

For future decisions, consider

using the Worksheet for
Evaluating Alternatives.

Copyright 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.