Decision Defined

If you haven't already done so, read my March 18 post entitled "Decision Awareness" and complete the corresponding assignment. The purpose of that assignment is to raise your level of awareness of decisions. Having observed and listed decisions you and others face, you may be surprised at just how prevalent decisions are in your life, and how you make many decisions without much conscious thought ("on autopilot" so-to-speak).

One of the primary purposes of this blog is to explore how to make better decisions. Before taking up that objective, let us ask and answer a basic question and that is, "what is a decision?" For our purposes, a decision is a choice among two or more alternative courses of action that can be taken. This definition encompasses two important ideas. First, decisions involve choice; no choice means no decision. Second, decisions lead to actions.

Perhaps the most common type of decision involves exactly two alternatives. These alternatives might be labeled "yes or no," "go or no go," "stay or go," or "to be or not to be." On the other end of the spectrum are decisions involving a very large number of alternatives. Consider the problem of deciding how to assign 10 workers to 10 tasks. One can assign the first worker to any of the 10 tasks, the second worker to any of the remaining 9 tasks, the third worker to the any of the remaining 8 tasks, etc. The total number of possible ways to decide is 10 x 9 x 8 x ... x 1 = 3,628,800.

Your assignment for this week is to answer the following two questions for each decision you listed in your previous assignment.
1. How many alternatives are possible for this decision?
2. What actions would you take to implement each decision alternative?
I encourage you to write down your responses, but whether or not you choose to do so is your decision.

Decision Awareness

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I--I took the road less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." (Robert Frost, The Road not Taken)

The results we achieve depend on the actions we take. Our actions, in turn, depend on the decisions we make. The purpose of "Decision U" is to highlight the importance of effective decision-making and to explore how to make better decisions (and hence achieve better results).

The term decision-maker conjures up images of political leaders or corporate executives, their foreheads creased with concern as they agonize over which way to proceed. Such individuals make weighty decisions with far-reaching impacts. And yet, these people are not the only ones that make decisions. As a matter of fact, everyone, including you, is a decision-maker. Each day, you decide when to wake up, when, where and what to eat, and what to wear. These decisions may seem to be minor and inconsequential, but they are decisions nonetheless.

If you are to benefit from this blog, you will need to take an active role. The purpose of the first homework assignment is to raise your awareness as to how prevalent decisions are in your life. Yogi Berra once said, "you can observe a lot just by watching." For the next several days, observe carefully and identify examples of decisions that you or others in your life face. Then, make a list of five of these decisions that you find most interesting or challenging. As you complete this exercise, keep in mind that Yogi Berra also said "when you come to a fork in the road, take it."