There are 43 quintillion decisions a player can make in an attempt to solve a Rubik’s Cube. But, only a fraction of those decisions will yield winning results. The same goes for business.

Executives can make any range of decisions each day. To succeed, they must consider the implication of each move, the subsequent steps they will take, and the impact it will have on the long game.

And those decisions are made more complicated by today’s business environment. Organizations are getting attacked on all sides by nimble digital competitors. Hackers are infiltrating computer systems at greater rates. The C-Suite is grappling with how to adopt intelligent machines. Public policy is in a state of flux. The list goes on.

The decision-making environment is particularly confusing in large companies. Complicated business processes, manual tasks that could be automated, and general inefficiencies are slowing down progress. It’s like trying to solve a very complex puzzle.

Inspire, an advisory organization within of ServiceNow focused on supporting C-suite executives with business strategies and technology that make work easier, has implemented a process for some of the largest companies in the world to improve decision-making. Clients have included GE, Accenture, and EY.

The four-step process includes:

• Discovery: We ask clients about the strategic outcomes their organization is trying to achieve—not the problem they want to solve. We’re not there to solve single problems or symptoms, so we start with an understanding of the outcomes. Like the Rubik’s Cube, solving for the red square that’s in the way could be distracting from the actual goal of organizing all the colors.
• Align: We break down the journey to the desired outcome into manageable pieces. Then, we confirm that the organization agrees on all those pieces and create a comprehensive set of solutions.
• Promote: We help our partners evangelize the plan across the organization. We prototype the solutions and establish metrics to confirm success along the journey. We use the ServiceNow platform to measure the value a company is getting from the solutions in real-time.
• Realize: We assess that the customer is successful on their Inspire journey, against measurable metrics and provide reports in real-time.

Learn more about our process in this Inspire video.

We give clients a digital front door that they want to walk through and will help them do more meaningful work.

Suddenly, those 43 quintillion decisions seem a lot more manageable.