Course Snippet

The text on this page is taken from Unit 12 of the Certificate in Interpersonal Skills for Volunteers by distance learning course.

Decision Making

Introduction

People often find it hard to make decisions. Some put off making decisions by endlessly searching for more information or getting other people to offer their recommendations. Others resort to decision making by taking a vote, sticking a pin in a list or tossing a coin, etc.

Regardless of the effort that is put into making a decision, it has to be accepted that some decisions will not be the best possible choice. This Unit will look at one technique that can be used in decision making, which should help you to make effective decisions in the future. Although the following technique is designed for an organisational or group structure, it can be adapted to an individual level.

Objectives

At the end of this Unit students should be able to:

List stages of decision making.
Describe structured decision making.
Differentiate between intuitive and reasoned decision making.

What is Decision Making?

In its simplest sense, decision making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action. However, it must always be remembered that there may not always be a 'correct' decision among the available choices. There may have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time. Because of this, it is important to keep a record of all decisions and the reasons why decisions were made, so that improvements can be made in the future. This also provides justification for any decision taken when something goes wrong. Hindsight might not be able to correct past mistakes, but it will aid improved decision making in the future.

Effective Decision Making

Although decisions can be made using either intuition (e.g. following 'gut feelings') or reasoning, a combination of both approaches is often used. Whatever approach is used, it is usually helpful to structure decision making in order to:

Reduce more complicated decisions down to simpler steps.
See how any decisions are arrived at.
Plan decision making to meet deadlines.

Course Snippet

The text on this page is taken from Unit 12 of the Certificate in Interpersonal Skills for Volunteers by distance learning course.