Decision Making: Choosing the right option
Right from morning till night, we may take many decisions every day. They may be about breakfast, choosing a dress, going to a movie anything. These are smaller issues. But when this is about bigger things, it becomes more difficult. This lesson helps us how to make difficult decisions.
Question for Decision Making:
Tomorrow is the last day to pay the university examination fee. Your father has not sent you the money?
What will you do?
Types of Decision:
No Decision: you let others take decision on your behalf when the issues involved are not important.
Snap Decision: you take a quick decision without thinking about the consequences. When time is a constraint these decisions are made.
Responsible decision: you take a decision considering others views not only me and also your future not only now many important decisions that you take in your career are responsible decisions and you have to learn that art of making decisions.
Analysis:
Problem: having no money to pay the university examination fee.
Cause of the problem:
Father has not sent the money for the reasons not known.
Probable Solutions:
- Ask the university authorities to give additional time or postpone the last date. (Not only me). It’s not a possible alternative).
- Sell my mobile and pay the fee. (not only now). I may need my mobile in future.
- Wait for somebody to help without doing anything. (this is equivalent to not decision).
- Borrow money from my friends and repay it once I get from my father.
- Any other solution…
Decision:
Making involves problem solving too. While taking decisions for complex problems, we need to following these steps:
Define the problem:
- That is to identify the problem first.
- Try to know the cause of the problem. This will enable you to find a better solution.
- Look for possible solutions: you can brainstorm for alternatives. Initially accept and list out all the solutions even if they are apparently not feasible.
- Now prioritize them taking into consideration: what is best for your now, consider others (not only me) and consider future (not only now). By thinking beyond yourself and beyond the moment, to the society with benefits in the future.
- Select on from those as solution: explain your decision to the people who got affected.
- Take a viable and acceptable decision.
- Implement it to solve the problem: if it doesn’t work, choose the next one and try again.
Roy Disney Said:
It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.
James manktelow, the CEO of mindtools.com lists out the different steps in decision making.
Important:
we must think before taking a decision.
The famous quote:
Once you have made your decision don’t look back.
The frogs and the well story from Aesop’s fables:
Two frogs lived in a pond. During one summer the pool dried up. The frogs had no option but to leave the pond. They set out in search of a new home. As they went along they came across a deep well with water. The moment they saw it, one of the frogs said to the other “come on let’s dive into it. It will give us shelter and food.
The other frog replied with greater caution. The big ponds have dried up. So, there is a chance that even wells too dry up. So, if the water in well dries up, can we get out of it?
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