Decision-making Style in Optometry
The answer to the question: is decision-making style in Optometry analytical or intuitive? is “both”. Success in Optometry practice relies on the entrepreneurial spirit that relies on strategic decision-making. In the beginning, when you have just started your practice, all decisions are strategic and rely on rational, complex yet long-term related decisions. Later you will also need intuition and gut to be able to see, for example, what the competition is up to and where the market is going.
Strategic decision-making is characterized by complexity, uncertainty, rationality, and control. A strategic decision is complex due to the tons of facts and research involved.
You make a market research, you come up with an idea, you start evaluating it, you imagine the concept, develop prototypes, test the prototypes with customers, and consider raising funds. Strategic decision-making at the beginning is needed before the practice launching. You indicate who should be your co-founders, your partners, what marketing strategy, how and where will you practice, what will be spent on building your practice, and what equipment will you lease. All those are strategic decision-making that rely on research, analytics, facts, and rationality.
The element of uncertainty in decision-making makes us anticipate, plan, and forecast but doesn’t make us sure. Cash flow forecast, number of patients, or procedures. Here, you reply on both rational and intuitive decision-making.
The element of rationality puts limits on our goals, objectives, and expansion. What will be the surface of the acquired facility to transform into the practice? What will be performed to achieve the profit formula? What competitive advantage we have as a team that allows us to organize our practice around.
The element of control relies on influence, rationality, own knowledge, gut, and experience in choosing among alternatives sometimes in an autocratic style that speculates mostly on the short-term. What will be the decision related to staff issues or product returns and negative reviews?
