Day 21 - Decision making skill

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Day 21 - Decision-Making Skill

30 April 2020

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What is Decision-Making Skill?

Decision-Making Skill is the ability to use a decision making process/ technique to arrive at a decision.

My learning for the day

A major part of decision-making involves the generating alternatives and then ranking of these alternatives in terms of impacts. Only after that can we take a decision objectively.

Edward De Bono, father of Lateral Thinking, came up with a set of thinking tools called DATT (Direct Attention Thinking Tools).

This is what I learnt a long time ago from Peter De Bono (dedicating this post to Peter).

When looking for alternatives, most of us fail in the following areas - 

• We fail to look for something
• We see only part of the solution
• We leave things out
• We fail to take into account the consequences of our decisions or to ask people about their views

A.P.C. (Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices)

One of the thinking tools I learnt is called A.P.C.

This tool is used when we try to understand something or to make a prediction or to identify actions

It has two steps -

• List down available traditional alternatives
• Use creativity to generate further alternatives

CAF (Consider All Factors)

The other tool I learnt is called CAF (Consider All Factors)

The factors-list will help us when we validate the alternatives. Some sample factors and validation questions are as below - 

• Purpose factor - Does the alternative meet the purpose?
• Feasibility factor - Is it affordable? Can we actually implement the alternative?
• Fit factor - e.g. Is the alternative environment friendly?
• Acceptance factor - What factors will aid acceptance by all stakeholders?
• Impact factor - What are the benefits and what are the dangers?

 A few interesting examples of impacts of decisions that did not validate key factors

- Don Sahong hydropower project, Cambodia - When taking the decision to take up the project, the government may have missed a factor (fit factor) that the project could impact lives of Mekong dolphins and take them to extinction

- Four Pests Campaign - This project was introduced by China in 1958 as part of the Great Leap Forward initiative to multiply grain yield. One of the programmes was to eliminate sparrows that were eating large quantities of grains. When taking the decision, the government may not have taken into account the impact of this decision, that sparrows eat a large number of insects also. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and causing immense damage to farms

- The Hindenburg mishap - Zeppelin company’s disastrous decision to fill its airships with highly flammable hydrogen, instead of less combustible alternatives, led to a disaster. On May 6th, 1937 the Hindenburg airship tried to dock after its trans-Atlantic flight, when it suddenly erupted in flames and was destroyed completely in37 seconds. This shattered public confidence in that mode of transport, and brought the airship era to an end. 

- Berlin Conference 1884 - The purpose of this conference was to finalize the claims on African territories by the colonial powers. This was to end the constant battles among them to own the African natural resources. When agreeing the ownership map, they forgot the heritage and ethnicity factor of the people living there. This decision resulted in continuous civil wars happening in the continent for the past so many decades 

How to improve your decision making skills?

Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of decision-making. 

Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of decision-making. 

1. Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of decision-making 
2. Apply - 
• Identify a model suitable to you
• Create a template to document the flow of the process
• Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
• Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did to with respect to decision-making
• Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
3. Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
4. Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts

Purpose of this document

I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day. 

My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself. 

This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends. 

I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.

What are Life Skills?

UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three  broad categories of skills

• cognitive skills for analyzing and using information, 
• personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself, 
• inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.

Which LifeSkills are covered?

The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures: 

1. Decision-making
2. Problem-solving
3. Creative thinking
4. Critical thinking
5. Communication
6. Interpersonal skills
7. Self-awareness
8. Empathy
9. Coping with emotions
10. Coping with stress.

Some trivia

‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.

Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives

• Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
• Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
• United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
• USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
• South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.