Shocking: Just 19 percent of companies make good decisions. Yes, decision quality is lacking in most companies. According to our 2024 Decision IQ Benchmark Survey, the vast majority of businesses are struggling with their decision-making. And it's costing them big time, holding back growth, killing innovation, and leaving billions in opportunities on the table.
This article explores proven ways to measure and improve decision quality using the Decision IQ Framework. From assessing current capabilities to implementing practical improvements, organizations can build stronger decision-making practices that drive better business outcomes.
Decision quality measures how well organizations make and execute choices that drive success. This includes everything from analyzing options and gathering stakeholder input to implementing decisions and measuring their impact.
Here's the problem: most business leaders think their organizations have good decision quality. But the data tells a different story. Our 2024 survey of 272 global companies revealed that the vast majority of organizations are struggling with poor decision processes that hold them back.
This gap between perception and reality? That's where things get interesting. After all, organizations can't fix their decision quality if they don't know it needs fixing. Before exploring solutions, let's explore why decision quality deserves so much attention.
Cutting to the chase, decision-making is the single most important thing businesses do. A typical Fortune 500 company makes around 10 million decisions every year. And every single one matters—when Bain and Company studied corporate performance, they found a 95% correlation between decision-making effectiveness and financial success.
The impact of good decision quality is staggering. Organizations that follow decision best practices make decisions twice as fast in half as many meetings. They find innovative solutions 75% more often. Their performance improves by 20%. And they outperform companies with average decision quality by 25% or more. With stakes this high, organizations need a reliable way to assess their decision-making capabilities.
To assess decision quality, let's start with the basics—what makes a good decision? This is exactly why we created the Cloverpop Decision IQ (DIQ) framework. It breaks down decision-making into three essential areas that work together to drive success.
But simply knowing these components isn't enough—organizations need to understand where they stand and chart a clear path forward. That's where measurement comes in.
This is where our Decision IQ Maturity Model comes into play. Building on the DIQ framework, this model makes it simple to assess decision-making maturity and map out a clear path forward. By looking at how organizations perform across process, execution, and outcomes, businesses fall into one of four levels.
Finding out where an organization stands on this spectrum opens the door to targeted improvements. Each level comes with its own challenges and opportunities, which we'll explore next.
This isn't just theory—it's a practical roadmap showing how better decision quality leads directly to better business results. Download the Decision IQ White Paper to see how your company's decision-making process compares.
Now that we understand the DIQ framework and maturity levels, let's talk about making real improvements. Every organization has its own path to better decision-making, and the best approach depends on current maturity levels.
Here's what works for each level of the maturity model. Remember—the goal isn't to change everything overnight. Success comes from steady, consistent improvements that build on each other.
Stragglers struggle to get decisions right—both in how they make them and how they execute them. For these companies, the path to better decision-making starts with just one type of recurring decision and one committed leader to champion the change. Maybe it's how project proposals get approved or how vendors get selected.
The key is creating a simple playbook for these decisions. Think of it as a decision template that helps teams nail the basics: asking the right questions, bringing in the right people and data, and following a clear path forward. After using this approach for about 20 decisions, patterns start to emerge—teams can see what's working and what isn't.
Regular feedback sessions with the decision-makers help identify ways to improve the process. Once this approach proves successful, it becomes a compelling story to expand these practices to other types of decisions.
Up-and-comers get acceptable results despite having weak processes. For these companies, the focus shifts to decision-driven processes that span across teams—think innovation pipelines or business planning.
Success at this level means creating a common playbook for decisions that cross organizational boundaries. Whether it's launching a new product or green-lighting a major investment, standard templates keep everyone on the same page.
By tracking and recording about 20 instances of these decisions, companies build a solid foundation of insights. Once they've gathered enough data, teams can share what works across departments, helping successful approaches take root throughout the organization.
Challengers are right on the edge of decision-making excellence. They've got strong processes in place, but to reach that top level, they need to make great decisions consistently and build a true learning culture.
Where to start? Pick your company's two or three biggest business goals and map out all the regular decisions that drive them. Think about processes that cut across different departments—things like innovation planning, business planning, or brand health.
Next comes creating clear decision "recipes" that everyone follows. Each important decision needs its own template: what questions to ask, who needs to be involved, and what analysis is needed. Use these templates religiously and keep track of what happens. After about 20 decisions, you'll start seeing patterns that show what works and what doesn't. Share these insights with everyone involved to drive improvements.
Here's a surprising insight from the research: while having strong alignment and execution is essential, it's not enough on its own. To become a Leader, companies need to take their business strengths and apply that same disciplined approach to how they make decisions. Just like you measure other parts of your business, you need to measure and manage your decision-making—tracking both results and how well the process works.
Decision Intelligence Platforms, like Cloverpop, take a fresh approach to decision-making. Instead of letting decisions fade into memory, they capture each one as a valuable data point that can be used to improve future choices. It's the natural next step for organizations, just like how companies use CRMs for customer relationships and ERPs for operations.
A Decision Intelligence Platform works like a command center for decisions. It gives teams ready-to-use templates to guide their choices. It keeps track of who was involved, what was decided, and how things worked out. Most importantly, it reveals patterns about what leads to successful decisions.
Each decision adds to a growing collection of insights that makes the next decision even better. What used to be scattered meetings and unclear choices becomes a clear, repeatable process that improves over time.
And businesses are catching on fast. Gartner says that by 2026, three out of four global companies will use systems to track and analyze their decisions. Why? Companies are realizing that all their data isn't worth much if it's not helping them make better decisions. And that's exactly what these platforms do—turn better decisions into better results.
Here's what we know: only 19% of companies are good at decision-making. That's a problem, but it's also a chance to get ahead. Getting better at decisions isn't complicated—it starts with looking at how you make decisions today, how you put them into action, and what results you get.
Once you know where you stand, you can follow a clear path forward based on what works for companies at your level. The best companies don't just make good decisions now and then. They have a reliable way to make good decisions every time. And now, with platforms like Cloverpop, every company has access to the tools they need to do the same.
Want to join the top 19% of companies that make great decisions? Let's talk. Schedule a demo of Cloverpop today and see how we can help your team make better decisions, faster.