Goal Setting, Planning and Decision Making

opportunity to either investigate other options that might be more successful
or to accept that no plan is needed or should be carried out.
U. Plan Evaluation
There are a number of ways in which you can evaluate your plan:
Cost/Benefit Analysis
This is probably one of the simplest ways of evaluating a plan. During the
process above you should have carried out an analysis of the costs
involved with each activity within the plan. Simply add up these costs, and
compare them with expected benefits.
PMI
Once you have carried out a cost/benefit analysis, you may find it useful to
mix its financial information with an assessment of the intangible or nonfinancial
aspects of the decision. An effective way of doing this is with a
PMI analysis. This is an advanced form of ‘weighing the pros and cons’,
and involves listing the positive points in the plan in one column, the
negative points in a second column. Each point can be allocated a
subjective positive or negative score.
1. What is PMI
PMI – Plus/Minus/Interesting
PMI stands for ‘Plus/Minus/Interesting’. It is a valuable development (by
Edward de Bono) of the ‘pros and cons’ technique used for centuries.
PMI is a basic decision making tool. When you are facing a difficult decision,
simply draw up a table headed up ‘Plus’, ‘Minus’, and ‘Interesting’. In the
column underneath the ‘Plus’ heading, write down all the positive points of
taking the action. Underneath the ‘Minus’ heading write down all the negative
effects. In the ‘Interesting’ column write down the extended implications of
taking action, whether positive or negative.
2. Scoring your PMI Table
You may be able to make a decision just from the table you have drawn up. Alternatively,
consider each of the points you have written down and assign a positive or negative score to
each appropriately. The scores you assign can be entirely subjective. Once you have done
this, add up the score. A strongly positive score indicated that an action should be taken, a
strongly negative score that it should be avoided.
An example is shown below:
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