Decision-making is simple when you understand that the "non-decision" is a real decision.
Decisions are binary. On one side is NO or the "non-decision" [maybe even procrastination]. On the other side is every other possibility. In many respects decision-making is a round about without rules [see photo]. Once you enter this process you must trust yourself, or your tribe, if you are to proceed. But. Decision-making is much more complex than proceeding through a round-about. This complexity comes, in no small measure, from the emotional elements in play [see photo] during any decision-making session.
The practice of decision-making comes in at least two flavours. One is the individual. The other is the tribe. Let me walk you through both with examples from my life.
First. While lecturing to in an undergraduate course on decision-making I thought it clever [here my ego outran my competence] to use the words of a popular song to make a point. The song describes the thoughts of a family man driving home from work. As usual he comes off the bridge over the bay and has a decision to make. Will he proceed as usual along the freeway that will carry him home or will he choose to take the off ramp and head into a new life? He makes the "non-decision" to continue on home as he has done time and again over many years. But. He does think about all the other decisions that will flow for him if he takes the off ramp. I thought that this riff would illustrate the importance of the "non-decision" in any process of decision-making. The students got the message and I was pleased with the questions they directed to me. However. One student reported me to the Dean. She told him that her husband took the off ramp on the way home from work one day. He demanded that I apologise to her. Apologise for what? Apologise for a decision made by her husband? I refused to do that. Subsequently the student made a decision to leave my class. I was sad to see her go and I did agonised [for the rest of the Semester] over my choice [decision] to use the words of that song to make a simple point. Clearly all decisions and non-decisions can impact lives both positively and negatively.
Second. I was commissioned by a Canadian Mining Company to assist an Aboriginal Tribe in the Northern Territory of Australia to determine whether to proceed with a mining project on their land. I adopted the role of "a participant observer" in a tribal decision-making process that considered the importance of sacred sites, the future of education and health for their youth, the management of new wealth assets, and the cohesion of a tribe whose history reaches back thousands of years. I sat in the dust with these people as they proceeded with care and due diligence to openly discuss their past traditions and the future opportunities. Their love for the land can not be described by outsiders [like me] but it can be felt. Their consensual decision-making process was a complete surprise to me [not the theory of it but the practice of it]. As I sat there sweltering, warding off flies, bugs, and rich red coloured dust particles my thoughts drifted to an old joke. "I can see how this works in practice but how does it workout in theory?" I concluded that I could barely describe this consensual decision-making process let alone curate a theory for it. After months and months and months of discussion, heated debates, laughter, and wisdom from the tribal elders some clearly binding decisions were made. The decisions were drafted in legalise by the Company and signed by both parties. Meanwhile the tribe carved all their decisions onto a "message stick".
The decision-making process you engage in daily is partly rational, partly emotional, and partly based on the belief sets of your tribe.
Richard
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