Decision Making

A cool decision making principle that was new to me was that because we never make choices outside of our alternatives, we should increase our alternatives by shooting high and broadening horizons. Although it seems obvious, I think a lot of the time close mindedness and a lack of creativity limits my available options and therefore realized outcomes. Having realized/learned this, the next time a weighty decisions arises I am going to make sure to take a couple steps back and think big so I can reduce my self-imposed limitations and find better courses of action.

The biggest problem I have as far as decision making goes involves me properly weighing costs and benefits when I have limited information. Usually when these situations occur, I pick whatever is most familiar, comfortable or easy, when perhaps I should choose some safe "risks" more often. For instance, one of the choices I will be deciding on for this weekend is wether to go to the campus dance, or instead go country dancing with my sister. I know how campus dances are, and they're fun, but I've never gone country dancing, I don't know much about it, and I don't want to miss out on a guaranteed fun dance.

I'll see what I decide, but the fact that something so inconsequential is one of my hard decisions just brought to my attention that for the most part I have already made most of my decisions as far as school and scheduling goes. Like we talked about in lab, I have already chosen to attend every class and get all homework assignments done, so I have reduced the amount of choices I would otherwise have to make on a day to day basis. I guess if it weren't for new decisions--even like which dance to go to--then life would be pretty boring and uneventful. But to answer the question (how I will combat my problem), a good criterion that I've picked up from my leadership book is to always consider your options against your priorities. Thus for my dance situation, since family is one of my lifelong priorities and because it is hard to get enough family time in here at college, I will go to the dance with my sister.

The hierarchy of decision making involvement was quite eye opening to me, and for my leadership role I am definitely going to start thinking of the different choices that need to be made in that light. Lately I have noticed that I've been seeking approval from everyone on the team for just about everything, but by having the hierarchy in mind and by considering the effect that my decisions will have on my teammates, I think I can be more efficient and effective in decision making, and thus a better leader for them.