Do you struggle with making decisions?
It might help you to know that there’s actually a difference between a good decision and a good outcome.
You might be worrying about making decisions because you want to ensure that you get good outcomes. But there are many external factors beyond our control that can influence the outcomes of our decisions, it’s not all about what you do.
On the other hand, you are the one in control of making good decisions. So it’s important to understand your decision processes to increase the quality of your decisions.
There are six elements of a good decision (according to the Decision Education Foundation.)
These six elements can help you assess the quality of your decision. If there’s a weak chain in these elements, it can weaken your decision quality. The elements include:
- Create Alternatives – What can I do?
- Useful information – What do I need to know?
- Sound Reasoning – Am I thinking straight?
- Commitment to follow through – Will do it?
- Helpful Frame – What am I really deciding?
- Clear Values – What do I want?
These are some questions, related to the six elements of a good decision, that can help you assess your decision process.
- Am I clear on what is the problem that I want to solve with this decision?
- Do I know what my goals are?
- Have I considered other alternatives / perspectives?
- Do I have all the relevant information that I need?
- Have I evaluated the alternatives to find the pathway that will get me to my goals?
- Am I committed to follow through this choice and the consequences?
You can start practicing these skills on smaller decisions (i.e., deciding whether you are going to attend an event) until you become familiar with the process, then you can start approaching bigger decisions (i.e., should I change jobs?) using the same process!
If you loved this idea, and want to learn more about how you can improve your decision-making, or need more specific, guided help with learning to make either big or small decisions, then book an appointment with Ghassani at Sage & Sound. Ghassani’s special interest is decision making, and she’s got a wealth of knowledge to share to help you become a better decision maker.
