What is decision-making?
Decisions can be made in more than one way. Emotion, reason or something in between. The most common way to make decisions is through unconscious ways, such as emotions and reactions. Habits and traditions are also part of this group, and we use them to make decisions all the time.
It is estimated that humans make between 20 and 30 thousand decisions every day, not a number we would immediately think of or even be able to estimate. That number sounds big, and it is. It gets bigger when you add in all the unconscious decisions you don't even realise you're making. Every movement, even the smallest one, you make with your body or any part of it is a decision, and these are everything from breathing to blinking your eyes.
The human being has an autonomous system inside that takes many decisions for us, of course we can hold our breath if we want to, but only for a moment. We can't hold it for a long time because we don't want to die, our bodies won't allow it.
Only a very small proportion of our daily decisions are conscious, deliberate, and the rest are autonomic or reactions of the body that are very difficult for us to control. Often we don't even have time to become aware of the decision, because the decision has already been made by our subconscious.
Informed or deliberate decisions are influenced by many factors, including those we are not even aware of. Making a pure or completely neutral decision is practically impossible, and in most cases not even necessary. A good personal decision is best made when it is based on personal circumstances, and is then truly subjective, not neutral or objective.
So what are the things that make decision-making difficult? Excessive bias can distort the perception of a good decision or life. Even if bias is present, it must be controlled and not limit the possibilities too much. Another challenge is information overload, the human brain can only process a limited amount of information, too much is shut out and ignored.
To make a good decision you need enough information, but not too much. Herein lies the challenge of gathering the right amount of information for a decision. And the important thing is to gather the essential and relevant, the rest is sand in the wheels.
How to collect such an abstract and appropriate amount? The appropriate amount is not a precise concept, what is more relevant is the importance of the information and its relation to the issue to be decided. Relevant information is gathered by following a scientifically researched process to go through the elements necessary for a decision. This process not only gathers sufficient information to support the decision, but also eliminates irrelevant information, thereby facilitating the decision.
About the decision-making process
The decision-making process works by asking the person concerned questions to gather information on various topics related to his or her personality, background and situation. People are often somewhat blind to themselves and do not always notice all the things that may be relevant to the decision. This is why it is often useful to have someone else and an outsider to observe from a different angle; a person can only properly observe from one angle, his or her own internal angle.
The method I use has been adapted from the many variations that exist in scientific research.
A decision-making consultant's knowledge and expertise in decision making is the result of thousands of pages of scientific articles and books, including the psychology of decision making, anthropology and human behavioral sciences in general.
Humans naturally seek validation for their actions and decisions, so the approval of one's own decisions by another person strengthens one's own confidence and belief in the rightness of the decision.
Decisions, when pondered through with another person, doubles the brain capacity to process it. Then new and interesting ideas and perspectives may open up, with the bonus of support and caring. Let's not forget that everyone has a different background and experience base, this can be crucial when making decisions, because when two different backgrounds are combined, one person may have exactly what the other needs, but doesn't have it herself.
You can read more about decision-making in my blog.
Decision-making steps
STEP 1 IDENTIFICATION
Identify the issue to be decided. What is actually being decided? Why this thing? What is the underlying issue that is causing the dilemma? The chain should be walked as far back as possible to get to the root cause.
STEP 2 ANALYSIS OF CONSEQUENCES
What are the consequences of the dilemma. What are the positive effects, what are the negative consequences of the root cause? Identify the chain of consequences and how are they related? Identify the persons concerned by the decision. What do you want to change? Understand your situation.
STEP 3 GOALS AND DREAMS
What are your dreams? What do you aspire to do and have in your life? How does the desired everyday life look like? Are the goals realistic?
STEP 4 VALUES AND PRIORITIES
What is important to you? How do you view the world and your life? What do you value most? What gives you energy and peace? What do you enjoy doing that you cannot do without? Is nature important, or fun, maybe something else? What do you have to have in life? What is nice to have, but not necessary?
STEP 5 OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS
You do not have unlimited possibilities, many things such as your skills, experience and personality will influence your choices. You can get more opportunities through education and training. You probably have more options than you realise, you just have to dig deeper.
STEP 6 SCORING
In this step, the options are ranked. For each option, the pros and cons are considered, e.g. in the form of a list. For example, a SWOT-analysis gives a more comprehensive picture.
STEP 7 COMPARISON
Finally, a comparison is made between the options. First comparison to the current situation is made, then compare the options with each other. The option with the highest score is not automatically the best, as practicality and what is actually possible have to be taken into account. Compromises have to be made. The important thing is to keep in mind what you want to get out of the decision and what life will look like once the solution is implemented. Does it feel good?
