Decision-Making

Online leadership tools that help individuals and team with decision-making. Includes models, techniques, assessments and more.

Scheffert also authors "Making Change" in the Washington Times Communities.

Decision-Making Dimensions

Dream Decide Deliver

How much do we dream as adults? Not enough, either by ourselves, in groups or in communities.
I vividly remember a strategic planning session for a church that I facilitated. The opener asked people to identify a dream that they had held that they had accomplished and how that experience felt to them. The energy was high and laughter frequent as people moved about sharing. One of the memorable responses to the question was “taking a year off after college and traveling the world.” The second question was to name a current dream they held and how they were progressing toward it. The energy quieted and I noticed a few women crying. I checked in with them and they said directly,

“I realized I have no dreams; my goal is to make it through the day.”

What is your default for making decisions? In collective settings, how do you come to a collective, durable decision? How does team decision-making work?

One day I answered the telephone and listened to a sad story of gridlock within a regional government. The leaders had not made joint decisions for a number of years and thus were under a court order to produce a comprehensive plan or risk losing their authority. The story was not just sad because of the lack of leadership; it was sad because they had authority over streams and rivers that had flooded under thier watch damaging millions of dollars worth of homes and businesses. The ethical implications of a decision are an overlooked cost to us and our society.

"Given all the options, it is painful to just choose one of them. Although it is the only way forward...."

Deliver

A dream and a decision must be followed by delivery on the promise. Life has lots of opportunities and pathways. How does one follow through on their commitments?

"Once I have started down a path toward a dream I have a sense of energy and clarity that helps to keep me going forward."

How do you make decisions?

View to Values (VTV) was designed to enhance the success of an organization's existing investment

in its highest level leadership programs and practices. Whether taken invididually, or as part of a leadership group, View to Values delivers insights into the key values that inform individual and group decision making.

Your VTV results will help you better understand the priorities, preferences, and biases you implicitly bring to making decisions. It will illuminate those values you intuitively prioritize as most important when you undertake the most important aspect of any job - making decisions. To make great decisions, you must deal with the basics, declare your values and act on them. The VTV is designed to help you discover the bedrock of your values.

The VTV results will point out your strengths with respect to four fundamental dimensions of decision-making:

inquiry and thinking (inquirer)
team building (unifier)
doing (pragmatist)
innovating (entrepreneur)

For you: Your personal VTV will help you discover specific ways to grow personally and professionally. It will be an aid in learning what is 'natural' for you and what happens when you are under stress and stand in the shadows.

For your organization: Gaining deeper insight into the decision-making processes of your workforce is an essential element in creating and sustaining a high performance organization. Learning more about the differing behavior frameworks employees use to discern and act on critical issues, will deeply enhance the effectiveness of existing employee leadership programs, or provide a good place to start for others.

Products - for individuals or groups