Picture credit - The Judgement of Paris - Gustav Pope
Day 61 - Decision Making Skill
9 June, 2020
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sirurp@gmail.com
My learning for the day
Today I want to summarise two stories from mythology on decision-making skills.
Story 1 - The Judgement of Paris (from Greek Mythology)
Source - Grateful to Greek Legends and Myths
The story
In Greek mythology there was a beauty contest that would lead to war, death and destruction, and the starting point for the ultimate destruction of Troy.
Everyone was invited for the wedding of Peleus except Eris, the Goddess of Discord.
Eris decided to attend the event and brought with her a wedding gift, a Golden Apple upon which it was written - “for the fairest”. Three of the assembled goddesses (Aphrodite, the goddess of Love and Beauty, Athena, the goddess of Wisdom, and Hera, the goddess of Marriage) immediately claimed the Golden Apple for themselves, each believing that they were the most beautiful of all the goddesses.
They went to Zeus (King of Gods) for a decision. Zeus realised that any decision would make the other two angry. To avoid this, he proclaimed that the decision would be left in the hands of Prince Paris of Troy. Paris had a reputation for making fair decisions unswayed by outside influences.
No goddess wanted to lose; each decided to influence the decision by offering bribes to Paris. Paris gave the decision in favour of Aphrodite, the goddess of Love and Beauty, who promised him the hand of the most beautiful woman on earth, Helen. Helen was already married to the Spartan king Menelaus. Helen’s abduction resulted in a war to retrieve her. This war destroyed the city of Troy.
The learning
When taking decisions, we need to be aware of the influences that cloud our capacity to arrive at a proper decision
People with their own personal agenda will try to manipulate the decision makers. The decision maker has to keep them away as the first step to decision making
Story 2 - No decision from Dasharath (from Ramayana)
The story
King Dasharath decides to have his eldest son, Ram, installed as the heir to the throne.
His wife Kaikeyi, favourite among his three wives, feels that her son Bharat should become the king, even though he is younger to Ram (the accepted practice was to make the eldest son the King).
Kaikeyi reminds Dasharath about the two boons he had given her a long time ago and asks the King to fulfil them. Her two wishes are - Make Bharat the king of Ayodhya and send Ram into exile for fourteen years.
This is a tough decision making moment for Dasharath. If he makes Ram the king, he breaks his promise given to his wife and if he fulfils the promise to Kaikeyi, he will do injustice to Ram, the rightful owner to the throne. He can not make a decision. He is mentally paralysed by his wife’s unreasonable demand.
When Ram hears about the event, he comes forward and takes the decision on behalf of his father and relinquishes his throne and walks away into exile. He gives importance to the word his father gave his wife rather than his rightful claim to the throne. He wants to demonstrate that the values should drive our actions.
The learning
When you are a decision maker, you must remember that a lot of pressures will come in the way to sway the decisions in their favour. You must have a clear thought on why you took a particular decision. Every decision is right for some but wrong by some. You must be in a position to say why you took a particular decision to demonstrate the objectivity exercised by you.
My learning so far on this topic
Day 1 post - How to Make Decisions
Day 11 post - Decision Tree Examples
Day 21 post - Edward De Bono’s Thinking tools - A.P.C. (Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices) and CAF (Consider All Factors) and a few examples of bad decision from history
Day 31 post - Two TED talks - 3 ways to make better decisions — by thinking like a computer, How to make hard choices (hard choices are precious opportunities)
Day 41 post - Two books - Predictably Irrational & The Decision Book
Day 51 post - Two movies - 12 Angry men & Sully
What is decision making?
Decision-Making is the ability to use a decision making process/ technique to arrive at a decision.
How to improve this skill?
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.
Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of decision making
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 with respect to decision making
Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
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.
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