Decision Making
Tools And Techniques

Decision making tools and techniques are often spoken about together, but here we will make a distinction.

 

Such things as visual aids and other helpful instruments are decision making tools, and techniques are the processes used to arrive at a decision.

As such, decision making tools and techniques are not completely separate but can be used together in various combinations depending on what kind of result you are after.

Initially I will go into some depth on some of the decision making tools, and techniques will be covered later.

A quick mention!

But first let me just mention these decision making tools and techniques. Tossing a coin, cutting a deck of cards, tarot, astrology, runes, numerology and crystals. I know some people use these methods a lot and they are quite happy with them. However, there is also a lot to be said for learning to make your own decisions if you want to live your own life.

Decision making process games, however, can be fantastic tools to create experiences and skills in a safe environment.

Decision strategies may sometimes determine which decision making tools and techniques are best to use.

Computers

With the number of decision making tools and techniques available, it's no surprise that programs have been written to help with the decision making process. These can be considered in three categories, decision making software, decision support software and decision tree software.

Decision Tools

Many of the tools available to help with decision making take the form of charts or diagrams that you fill in with the information available to you. These visual decision tools are mostly used by people who like to have some visual representation of what's happening so they can get a 'clear view' of the situation!

Rules as tools...

Rule-based decision tools allow novices to make decisions like the pros by putting information into a predetermined format.

A simple T Chart

The idea here is to list the pros and cons of a particular decision, each list either side of the stem of a T. At it's simplest, if the list of pros is longer than the cons, go ahead. If the list of cons is longer, don't do it. Another variation would be to give each consequence a number depending on it's importance. The numbers in both columns are added and you go with the highest.

A decision making pros cons table might look like this:

Others...

For details about other such decision making tools and techniques as PMI, decision making matrix, ORM, Kepner Tregoe and decision trees, read here...

A variety of techniques

By far and away the most popular decision making processes nowadays are the rational decision making models. These models use a rational, logical and sensible approach to making decisions. The decision making tools and techniques above are typical of rational decision making models.

The idea is to gather as much information as possible, analyze it, rationalise it and come up with the best solution. The decision making process steps are designed to do just this. And, of course, the more analytical and rational the model, the more the steps!

These decision making tools and techniques are the main focus in our teaching establishments. Most probably because they are the most cognitive, that is, based in thinking and logic. And in Western culture we put a lot of importance on that.

Intuitive

The other major category is the group of intuitive decision making models. The process here involves using intuition or instinct. The exact process will vary depending on how intuition is defined. For some people, it's listening to their heart. For others, it's feeling with their gut, or accepting the visions, and so on.

To some extent, dowsing, tarot, astrology could be considered as intuitive decision making tools and techniques. It's not the opposite of rational, as Carl Jung pointed out, it's outside the realm of reason.

And, of course, there are combinations of both types.

More accurately...

Gary Klein, a psychologist, believes that people make up to 90% of their decisions in a distinctly different way. His recognition primed decision making model suggests that we don't actually do a comparison of options.

Rather we choose an option we think will work and do that. If it doesn't work, we choose another likely option and do that instead. He first described his recognition primed model in relation to critical decisions made by medical staff and firefighters. And he quickly realised that his description of our decision making tools and techniques actually applies to everyday decisions as well.

The Ultimate Model

And last, but definitely not least, is the decision making model I put forward on this website. Humans have survived many thousands of years of evolution. As I mentioned, we place huge a amount of importance on thinking and intelligence. Our most popular decision making tools and techniques are designed to allow us to think it through carefully.

Recent studies in such fields as cognitive neuroscience, learning, biology, psychology are pointing again to something significant. Our minds and our bodies are not separate things. They are not even different aspects of one system.

While we may never understand how they work, we do know that our physical bodies are instrumental in how we think and what we think. Giving more care and attention to our physical systems means we not only think differently, but we actually live differently. This goes some way to explaining the proliferation of body workers and physical therapies recently. Why is this happening? It's happening because people are realising its making a difference in their lives.

Your physical system is the most sophisticated of the decision making tools, and techniques required are the simple relearning of the process of paying attention to what is happening in your system.

Go to Decision Making Tools And Techniques - Part 2...

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