Decision Making Strategies
“The ACTION or PROCESS of arriving at a conclusion of accepting an important option by WEIGHING the other alternative possibilities.”
In our latest You Grow Girl Workshop, we learned about decision-making, strategies and tools to make effective decisions that help us arrive at our goals. Did you know that we can make up to 35,000 decisions a day? Or that we can make up to 265 decisions alone on food? Yes, we are constantly making decisions from the minute we wake up to the minute we go to bed. While some decisions are easy to make (do you want mushrooms on your pizza?) some are more difficult, like what University or College to go to, what career path to follow and more.
BUILDING A DECISION-MAKING FOUNDATION
Contributes to raised CONFIDENCE levels
Increases the development of SELF ADVOCACY skills
Enhances our MENTAL HEALTH + WELLBEING
You can start making that foundation by identifying your values.
What are your values and why are they important?
STRATEGIES
Journaling
“To ensure the decisions we make come from a place of trust, not fear, it can help to put pen to paper. Journaling is a great tool to get to the bottom of our own thought processes, allowing your true feelings to surface.”
Stop, think and decide
Stop! Calm down and think before you act.
Caution. Feel. Communicate. Think. Say the problem and how you feel.
Now, set a positive goal.
Think of lots of solutions.
Think ahead to the consequences.
Go! Try out your best plan.
(Information from: https://confidentparentsconfidentkids.org/2017/07/06/stop-think-go-practicing-problem-solving/)
Decision-making wheel
For more information on this strategy, visit: https://fys-forums.eu/en/fys-toolkit/leadership-skill-training-modules/118-decision-making-skills
The 10 / 10 / 10 Rule
How will you feel in 10 minutes?
How will you feel in 10 months?
How will you feel in 10 years?
Excerpted from Rightattitudes.com:
In “10-10-10”, Suzy Welch offers a simple, straightforward thought process for decision-making.
The fundamental premise of Welch’s “10-10-10 Rule” is that our decisions define us. Each of our choices has consequences, both now and in the future.
Welch advocates making decisions thoughtfully by considering the potential positive and negative consequences in the immediate present, the near term, and the distant future: or in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.
… there is nothing literal about each ten in 10-10-10. The first 10 basically stands for “right now” as in, one minute, one hour, or one week. The second 10 represents that point in the foreseeable future when the initial reaction to your decision has passed but its consequences continue to play out in ways you can reasonably predict. And the third 10 stands for a time in a future that is so far off that its particulars are entirely vague. So, really, 10-10-10 could just as well be referring to nine days, fifteen months, and twenty years, or two hours, six months, and eight years. The name of the process is just a totem meant to directionally suggest time frames along the lines of: in the heat of the moment, somewhat later, and when all is said and done.
Welch reiterates that decision-making should involve a clear understanding of all the attributes and the long-term implications of your dilemma, crisis, problem, or question.
10-10-10 does have a way of galvanizing people into forward-thinking action and out of a fixation on the present. … The third 10 in 10-10-10 has a powerful way of mitigating that tendency. It helps us decide whether (or not) it’s worth it to endure short-term flame-outs in the service of our larger, more deeply held goals in life.
Additional Resources & Activities:
There is a wealth of information online on how to make more effective decisions and problem solving strategies. Below is one activity you can try on your own.
Decision-making activity
https://positivechoices.org.au/documents/huw8sv6VzK/worksheet-decisionmakingproblemsolving/
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
