The internet delivers a lot!  Just this week a BLOG-headline grabbed my full attention:                        DIVERSITY  STEMS  FROM  DECISION-MAKERS   (by Scheier+Group)

I´d say:  “Now it´s official!  We need more deciders.”

Scheier+Group discusses the decision topic on the ground of minorities and women – they clearly say in their article that decision making is a great method to empower both groups to become leaders!  The aim is to generate and build more leadership positions for the market and get rid of their current underrepresentation.  They argue with it as a tactic to target bias and generate more diversity.

The disguised FACT Steve Scheier argues with in the interview is that you can´t become a leader unless you´re able to make decisions!  READ  MORE:  Deciders create diversiveness

…………………………………………….

….coming back to criteria!  Attached is a new video-clip:  The relevance of importance

I explain how to handle the relevance of your important criteria.  You DO HAVE some important criteria when choosing from various alternatives because you need to eliminate the alternatives down to 1.  In my video I choose the aim to find a new office and offer some criteria important to you.

Decision Making gets tricky when you have to decide for 1 out of 3 or 4 which are all SIMILAR!  Similarity carries danger and trouble when we need to decide.  Why?  We get into trouble deciding for the ideal alternative with the best outcome –  when they all offer best outcome!

Your elimination criteria won´t change.  So what´s the solution?  Make notes in a coordinate system and use BAR CHARTS …. ranking them from High to Low.

Help yourself analyzing each single criteria while being inside the new potential office by drawing bar charts about which criteria SEEMS TO BE AND FEEL most important for you.  Do it in every office.  Afterwards check which criteria ranked as the highest and lowest for each office.  It wont´be the same for every office!  Then rationally think through what´s most relevant for you.  Which criteria for performing a great job every single day has the highest relevance for you?

Once you answer this question yourself you know which office is best.  Then call & go there again to make sure:  THIS IS IT!

You can do it with other alternatives as well:  choosing the target group!  Once you set the relevant criteria go out and look for a photo of such people you chose to serve or sell a product.  Look at them.   Is this the group you just created?  Are they similar to your creation?  Do they look the way you abstractly thought of them in your mind?  If not, adjust the missing criteria-gap.

The new team!  If you have interviewed two prospects which are very similar it´ll be hard to choose, especially when the gut feeling says YES to both!  Instead of flipping a coin draw a bar chart with your relevant criteria for both personalities.  When interviewing a second time critically look at the bar chart and check whether it is in line with the personality.  Any deviation?

Let me know how this advice did help, please leave a comment –

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Moving!

In my latest Blog-posts I dicussed the “criteria” part of decision making and as 1 example, I mentioned the option to move and find a new office.  Therefore we´ll set criteria to widen our options and find more vacancies than just 2 offices spaces and when it comes to deciding we start eliminating the options.

In the latest INC. Magazine there´s an article on page 54 with the title “Should you Stay or Should You go?”  Mabbly, a fast growing Chicago-based Digital Marketing Agency had to face this challenge!  Their challenge and big QUESTION was: “to move – or not?” ….. this year in February.

Mabbly is a growing company and needs to consider moving the whole team!

Their criteria-list for a potential office in an industrial building included the old rule LOCATION – LOCATION – LOCATION and added the aspect of the new hires by Talent – Talent – Talent.  The next most important criteria to consider was  SPACE – SPACE – SPACE.  The average square footage needed per person in the U.S. is currently around 150-175, according to CoreNet.  This figure dropped from 225 square footage due to working efficiently, connected to the collaboration aspect.

The big challenge here is to keep the future growth in mind.  If you rent a (bigger) office, remember that you sign a contract for some years!  Think of renting some extra space (on a second floor) to sublease in case your biz will grow faster than you can figure out by today, that will allow room for expansion, short-termly.

There are quite a few alternatives to consider when looking at the uncertainties.

Germany demands 8 -10 square meter for a single office and 12-15 qm per person in a large office for a team.  Info by the IG Metall Union, for further info please read more:  Arbeits-PLATZ

Please leave a comment  if you can add another criteria to obey which you were facing yourself when moving the team & office, thanks!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

The market has changed, the rules have changed.

Innovation still gets ahead and forces the fast companies on its market to kill and eat the slow!  The fast companies seem to know what the future will bring because they see trends that create their future while those who sit and wait for reactions will be gone soon.

This is our current present.

Q.:  What can you do when you´re one of the slower companies with a strong will to not give-up?

Answer:  To gain more confidence & speed within your company you need to be and to develop fast decision makers!

What does it mean?

CONFIDENCE:   definition by wikipedia

Confidence is generally described as a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective.

If I relate this to your decision making ability I tend to exchange the words hypothesis and prediction with 2 new words:  information and expectancy.  We make decisions on the lack of uncertainty – best case – which is filled with information, plus we decide to reach a goal or stop a pain by expecting a positive outcome.

If you want to be or become a fast decision maker who may reach rather a positive than a negative outcome, you need ot be informed and experienced, at some point.  To gain decision-experience you have to be more active making decisions.

If you want to fulfill your expectations with the aim to reach a goal you need to know a lot of about the goal and its status.  Remember you can only travel to a destination you already know.  That means “arriving”!  Arriving at a goal means the chosen course of action was at its best.

SPEED:  definition by wikipedia

In everyday use and in kinematics, the SPEED of an object is the magnitude of its velocity (the rate of change of its position!)

Magnitude is the quantity of either the relevant decisions and the course of correction which are also decisions you and the team has to make and to perform.  HINT:  know up-front how many decisions you have to make actively to get to the goal and stop wasting time waiting for something happen for you.  Nobody will come and deliver a result unless you order and pay for it.

Velocity is how fast or quick you are with your decision making, either per day or per week.  That includes to make the change of course and to stay there and perform it with all the consequences.  How fast does your team work on the consequences after you made the decision?  Who is allowed to decide what?  How much feedback do they need in general and how much do they know up-front?

If you plan to become a fast player on the market, with the need of survival, keep an eye on these 2 aspects and start practicing your decision ability!

…. any questions?  Feel free to contact me, call me ……

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

So, you really decide rationally and objectively in all business issues?

Are you positive?

Fact is, we all carry biases which influence the choices we make.  Did you ever reflect critically, noticing you tend to choose those alternatives that perpetuate the status quo?  People tend to copy.  Let me give you 2 examples about 2 different product designs:

More than 110 years ago when the first Automobiles where designed and planned without horses, the carriages looked very much like the buggies they replaced.  Designers weren´t born yet and car mechanics lacked a vision of how they saw people moving on streets without real horse power…. which definitely changed over time!

100 years later when the internet launched first services for their readers the first electronic newspaper looked very much like their print precursors. (info by HBR)  Seems like people find the status quo comfortable and they avoid taking action for change – which might cause a rejection.  Rejection is no path to success!

But this status quo trap also lies deep within our psyches which carries the desire to protect our egos from damage.  Those who risk change take over responsibility by opening themselves to criticism and regret.  Unfortunately many experiments have shown a magnetic attraction of the status quo.

WHAT  CAN  YOU  DO  ABOUT  IT ?

Well, maintaining the status quo may include the best decision but don´t just decide due to simply acting comfortable with each choice.  Here´s what you can do:

• remind yourself of your objectives and examine how they would be served by the status quo.  Do elements of the situation you want to change act as barriers to your goal?
• never think of the status quo as your only alternative!
• ask yourself whether you would choose the status-quo alternative if it weren´t the status quo…..
• remember that the desirability of the status quo will change over time!  Evaluate alternatives in terms of the future + the present

As a leader, permanently making small and big decisions, remember that often change is expected and therefore avoid finding yourself stuck with the status quo.

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

The movie “Runner Runner” starts with the phrase: “everyone gambles”.  Before the short and sharp conversation in the library begins, we get to hear the last introductory phrase:  “if you are risking something, you gamble.”

                      R I S K !

I started wondering what we  REALLY RISK  nowadays when we make decisions.  No matter whether it´s a gambling decision or a decision for change, in life or business, we can´t predict the future.  But we can steer towards it, to create it.  Still, we risk to lose something which we actually plan to invest.

I sat down and “looked” back into my past, which was just a short while ago.  I made a lot of decisions in my life.  It was part of a motivational act I truly needed to go on, plus, I admit I had way more gains than losses!  Honestly, I risked quite “a lot” of money and time, and sometimes I let go of people.  Is that all we risk?  Go ahead and watch my short 1 min.- video to get the clear message about:  RISK

My message is called “MINT” and this is what I talk about in the video clip from yesterday.  We only lose MINT:  Money, Ideas/Intellect, Network-partners and Time.

Money equals time!  We do have the chance to get back the loss of money …. over time but TIME, never returns.  If we have to get back money we double the cost of time we have to invest.

I am curious!  Is there something else I forgot?  Is there something else we can lose for good when our decision result doesn´t work out the way we “hoped” for?

BTW:  any time I make a decision I go out with an expectation.  (This is what motivates me!)

Thanks for your comment to start a discussion!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

K.I.S.S.

Keep it short and simple!

That´s my motto today and this is my message for you:

The past, present and future are connected. Our current decisions determine our future experiences.

>>  Your task is to set the rules for what you´d like to experience!  <<

As an expert about decision making I very much like this kind of reframing!  This method allows a new view on our decisions.  What do you think?

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

The Logic Of Failure is another book about decision making,  written by the German author Dietrich Dörner.

On the first pages he writes about something we all seem to experience in life!  It´s the good intention trap we find when checking hidden motives and the intentions after big failures.  He aims at politics in our country and writes that they all have (to have) good intentions.  Good intention needs to be realized by capability.  A good plan for reaching a goal needs the right direction and power.  And that requires some intelligence, so it´s not about good intentions only.

“Why?”

Okay, here´s the trap the author writes about:  people with good intentions (!) lack the bad conscience!  There are two types of connections we face in life:

A:  good intentions + foolishness

B:  bad intentions + intelligence

Mr. Dörner asks his readers indirectly whether it´s A or B which brought more danger and disaster to our lives on earth.  It´s a fact that people with good intentions show little constraints when realizing their goals.  On its way, their disability, which then isn´t hidden anymore, shows up and delivers the danger which causes the emotional cry:  “but I didn´t mean it!” …. in the end.

The abstract wish to lead people to their personal paradise often is the best way to create a tangible hell.  Another…. “Why?”

Here´s the answer:  goods intentions are the motor of the action to reach this good goal.  It´s the motive!  Exclusive of the necessary competence.  Such people really want to show their capacity to act!

What do you think?

Please leave a comment –

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Nick Tasler wrote Why Quitters Win and points to the fact how important it is to be a decider.

In one of his chapter summaries he writes:

• A Decision Pulse is the primary strategic direction of a team or an organization.  It answers the question:  what do we do that our customers value most, and that is also unique to our competitors?
• Like a beating heart is the most essential function of your body, a Decision Pulse defines the one thing that is most critical to your organization´s or team´s existence.
• Your Decision Pulse empowers teams and organizations to decide WHAT to quit  doing.  (Starbucks is “The Coffee Authority”, defined by H. Schultz, allowing him to quit selling breakfast sandwiches)

Peter Drucker added to his book that…. “there is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

In case these few lines turned you curious about your personal Decision Pulse, feel free to do a quick online test and find out:  decision pulse test

It´s a free test for those who read the book and spotted the Link on page 189, and today it´s free to you, my dear reader.

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Are you the one who regrets one or the other decision in life?  What went wrong?  Let me guess – you didn´t take enough time to prepare the decision process!

There are two ways to prepare the next decision with the aim to avoid further regrets:

1. Write a personal risk list
2. Mark your main criteria in a coordinate system

This is how it helps you make better decisions:

1:  We risk “M-I-N-T” = Money, Ideas, Network-partners, Time. 

The more money we lose the more time we have to invest to get it back, which cuts short our time as another loss and will double the effect.  Be sure you add this knowledge to your list!  Now check with yourself – do you mind losing something else?  Write it down.
And then turn back to M-I-N-T and add the maximum of what you are willing to risk of it.  Set a line to cut your personal regrets:

• M = what´s the maximum amount of money you are willing to lose?
•  I  = what´s the maximum of intellectual value you´re willing to let go of?
• N  = whom are you willing to risk to let go of?
• T  = how much time are you willing to invest? …. which will be gone and time means you´re blocking your progress!

Feel free to watch my short video about “MINT” and risk: we risk MINT

2:  Main criteria shall be marked visually “high”

In one of my videos I explain how you mark the relevant criteria in a coordinate system: setting criteria.
This helps you visualize what you normally just think about.  The better you see what you actually think, the better you get to know yourself.  Reflecting becomes an easy task!
This will help cutting your regrets short when facing another big decision.  Do this any time you make decisions from now on until you are so well trained that you won´t need doing it anymore.  Train yourself cutting short any regrets!

Does it help?  Feel free to leave a comment about your experience!
– thank you –

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Just today for relaxing, again I watched the movie “Promised Land” with Matt Damon.

It´s a story about a young consultant from “Global” who travels into certain small towns where they expect natural gas under their land and who has the goal to buy the land from them, paying them a million or even more.  He sells it to their owners as a great chance to get a better life than what they have “now”, living on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

That´s definitaly a topic and a movie about decision making or, about tough choices!  At the beginning in the sports hall one old and wise owner gets up, he´s an ex-teacher of science students, and tells the audience that “money doesn´t always lead to good decisions”.

Of course money doesn´t guarantee a good decision!  Money is a motivation factor.

What helps us most when we´re facing a decision dilemma?  I´d say, to stay with the script:  it´s the quality of information.  The ex teacher did his homework, he delivered some figures and additional info about “fracking” than the young consultant did, who was standing in front of the audience.  This old man suddenly managed to get a clear vote against the plan of “Global”.

Now what is the original decision problem here?  It´s not coming from the farmers or their city.  “Global” has the challenge or problem – they WANT something and need to offer value in return.  This movie and its decision making isn´t about other alternatives, it´s simply about “stay or leave”.  And to leave their homes is only possible if they get some extra bucks.

But then there is this twist in the script or screenplay:  the moment the company realizes that they have trouble now, after the clear vote against their plans, they came up with another person:  they sent a new character into the play, who would slowly lead them all to make the enticing sales-decision.  “Global” started a new game to get there!

The moment this counterpart or rival showed up, the game moved them all into the direction, with a mixed-up mood, to suddenly be against fracking and selling their land.  From then on, it was all hard work for the consultant….. until the rival got caught as a cheater! Drama –

Long story short – the moment the rival went off the stage (out of town) it looked like all farmers would sell their land now within a minute!  Absolutely convinced and ready for an easy decision!  An emotional decision.  Led by a trap, in the name of free will!

The question today for you is:
how much free will, or how much freedom do you have and use when you make a tough decision?  Does it feel best for you if you make the choice without any other opinion from others?  Sometimes we´re forced to make a decision when it comes to a cross-road.  What´s your experience?  Please tell us about it –

My take away for you is: 
if you´re confronted with a tough choice soon, step back and gather your own information.  Even if it takes a few days or weeks, take that time and at last try to make your own decision.  Give yourself some freedom for a good choice!  Be convinced and not manipulated.
Think of the quality of your choice!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Just last week I wrote about what we really RISK these days when we make decisions: we risk MINT !
The first item we can lose when actually planning an investment, is M = MONEY.

Let´s add the responsibility factor to risking money!

This is a short story about a RISK training which will make you think and which you sure enjoy:

The Trilogy University trains the employees to be risk takers.  They push new hires to take responsibility for a project and to develop creative solutions for it.
In starting his own company, J. Liemandt (CEO and Chairman) learned that to be truly creative and innovative, you must be able to take risks and accept the consequences – positive and negative.  Liemandt goes to extreme lengths to train new hires to take risks as well.

When L. Arbittier, a young graduate of the University of Pennsylvania attended Trilogy University, Liemandt took 300 new hires to Las Vegas and challenged them to bet $ 2,000 of their own money at the roulette table.
If they won, they could keep their winnings, if they lost they had the $ 2,000 deducted from their subsequent paychecks over the next several months.

Arbittier was always careful with her money and definitely not a gambler, surprised herself when she was one of 36 new hires to meet the challenge and bet $ 2,000.  Although she lost the bet, she won the respect of her colleagues,  Liemandt´s recognition, and is a member of the “L2K” (lost $2,000) club at Trilogy.

C r a z y ? ?
Yes, I think it´s a pretty crazy official RISK training, but it offers real experience!  It´s priceless.

Trilogy seems to hire only the best and then trains new employees to stretch their limits, take risks, and come up with creative solutions to business challenges.  New hires attend Trilogy University during their first few months on the job.  Trainees are grouped into teams in which they have complete responsibility for a real project such as improving an existing product, creating a new one, or designing a recruitment strategy for new hires.

The strategy is that active learning is stressed while new hires build teamwork skills and develop creative solutions to business problems.  In terms of decision making, Liemandt made a tough and wise decision about HOW TO TEACH RISK TAKING.  He found a way none of his attendees ever will forget.

When I was reading lately about this project in one of my educational books I thought I have to share it with you!

What do you think – would you support this kind of risk training?  Leave a comment!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

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“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”
― Michelle Obama

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“Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful….”
― José N. Harris, MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love

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“If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another.

The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience.

If this sounds too mystical, refer again to the body. Every significant vital sign- body temperature, heart rate, oxygen consumption, hormone level, brain activity, and so on- alters the moment you decide to do anything… decisions are signals telling your body, mind, and environment to move in a certain direction.”
― Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

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“Trust your instincts, and make judgements on what your heart tells you. The heart will not betray you.”
― David Gemmell, Fall of Kings

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“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
― Peter F. Drucker

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“On an important decision one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision no matter how much one spends or how long one waits. And, if one waits too long, he has a different problem and has to start all over. This is the terrible dilemma of the hesitant decision maker.”
― Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant As Leader

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“…go in the direction your head is pointed in.”
― Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

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“When kids made a decision for themselves they have a vested interest in showing they were right. Lee wanted to prove to me that he had made the right choice so he worked hard and did well. If we’d forced him to go to college somewhere else all the incentives would’ve been different. Then he would have had a motive to prove that we were wrong.”
― Cokie Roberts, From This Day Forward

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Why do some reach their goals with a good decision process while others seem to fail? 

On one of the feedback-notes (of a seminar) this year I received the request for “how to make sound decisions”.
I smiled when reading a request for a proven decision path, as if someone hopes for a guaranteed decision process.  The overall secret of how to make sound decisions, with no losses but only gains.

I wish there would be such a proven decision making process but I am sorry, there is nothing close I can sell to you.  Of course there is a structure you are able to follow but the filling, the sustainability you are looking for, is the mix of your own in-put and (re)actions.

The seed we start from, the basics we rely to are our core values.  Every person acts upon values.  And every company which has a core mission or mission statement, will decide following this mission statement.  It´s all about the rules we set-up on our own as orientation.  We start at a certain point, set a goal and orient during our long approach on the values we believe in.

The true secret is that THIS IS the proven decision process which we shall follow!
Unfortunately, everyone should be aware of their values, which is the individual orientation everyone will follow until reaching the goal.  Nobody, no coach and no consultant, is able to tell and sell you those individual values!  So there´s some work to do before you start.

And this secret carries a second secret inside like a Trojan:  the core values we tend to follow are the motor, the motivation why we keep going!

Let me give you some examples:

A]  Individuals
Core Value = Freedom
People who long for freedom, like financial freedom, will put every effort in their daily life to get there.  They find several ways to work themsleves onto the level from which they can start working on getting away from employment.  It starts with education, talent, networking, adding work-life-experience, etc.  The structure to educate and learn to get ahead is what they have to find out individually but DOING it all, one after the other, is the decision process.  Every decision seperates them from their past just to lead themselves into the future.  It means permanent change.  We change things in life by deciding to go ahead.  The magnet is their set goal.

Core value = Family
People who long for a family, with kids and friends, will put every effort in their daily or weekly life to reach this goal.  Since it involves other people, like a potential spouse, they have less control how long it takes to get there.  They will permanently meet with groups, start dating, read books or interview their friends, relatives or a mentor, consult a coach – whatever it takes to become a lovable and understanding person to reach the necessary sustainability.  Still, there is no guarantee that it´ll last forever but if they learn the “right” thing and do it, chances are good it does.

B]  Companies
Core value = Growth and Stability
Companies who concentrate on growth will do everything to keep it going:  they need to educate their employees or make sure they do it on their own.  They need to offer a good work environment to offer a comfortable work place, the need employeese who have ideas for innovation or buy it from agencies, and they need to make sure that the growth is under control, to keep a certain stability.  There will be times to stop growth and reach stability.  No easy task!  It means a lot of decision making will be involved and everyone has to follow this direction.  Employees should have and share the same core values:  go for growth and offer stability.

Therefore no book on earth can give you the written script for your life, with all right decisions to take!  Remember that you only learn by making mistakes.
The so-called mistakes will collide with your core values, and help you figuring out what your true values are.  This is also the reason why you can´t copy what others do or decide in life.  Every “wrong” decision will immediately collide with your core values.

Now go ahead and prove yourself!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

Enhance the organizational performance in your company!

The authors P. Rogers and M. Blenko give strict advice of how to clarify decision roles in the organizations.  Therefore, they say: “assign clear roles for the decisions that most affect your companies performance.”

Start with these 3 questions to answer:

1.  Who decides which markets to enter?
2.  Who decides where to allocate capital?
3.  Who decides how to drive product innovation?
   Think it through and fill in the names

Your next thoughts, which go into detail, shall include the questions:

• Who should recommend a course of action on a key decision?
• Who must agree to a recommendation before it can move forward?
• Who will perform the actions needed to implement the decisions?
• Whose input is needed to determine the proposals´s feasibility?
• Who decides – brings the decision to closure and commits the organization to implement it?

This is an important part of new decision-roles which have to be choosen by personality and competence and connected to the job-descriptions.  After clarifying these decision roles, you make the right choices – effectively and competent.

In a second step you have to figure out who´s the ideal proxy of those decision-people.

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

In my last blog-post I wrote about how to clarify decision roles in your department and company.  But giving decision roles to certain people includes pitfalls.  Let me give you some examples (from the 2 authors I mentioned in the last blog-post) of how to avoid it:

1)  Make sure by discussing and choosing the final best personality that it´s only 1 person who gets the D-role.  One has to be in charge but think of a proxy during emergency situations.  Avoid a tug of war.

2)  Keep the key account structure lean and avoid too many “A´s” in your company or business field to cut short the quantity of all who need to agree to the decision.

3)  Give finite roles to people who deliver the information and input.  Keep the quantity of the “I´s” short.  It has to be meaningful contributions which reach the person with the D-role.

What did you learn ?
Good decision making depends on assigning clear and specific roles to all involved people, either in the team or the company.
TIP:  use the open communication tactic (tactic = short-termly) to make sure the new strategy (strategy = long-termly) is noticed by everyone.
IDEA:  cut the accountability of people who feel responsible for decisions.

Of course you can copy this D-role idea and implement it in your family!
Why not test for a while how your family members make decisions? The D-roles are limited and their tasks will be clear:

1)  One of your kids could take over writing the grocery list for the next month and be responsible for what will be bought and eaten for breakfast and lunch!  Set rules what to obey (healthy food: how much fresh veggies and fruit to buy, etc.)  and then give them a free hand for the particular choices.

2)  The other kid may be responsible to the next weekend trip and vacation.

Give new D-roles within your family and look how things change and grow.  You could relieve yourself from taking too many decisions and neglecting some importance.  You will avoid disappointments!  If this is part of what happens in your daily life.  People learn good decision making by making many decisions from an early point in life on.

Help developing decision makers!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

In my Blog-post “Decisions and Freedom (feel free to read it HERE)  I mentioned our free will, our potential  free will during a decision process.  The post from July 16th is about the option of being affected by the environment when making decisions, without even knowing.  The Q. was:  how limited is our free will – really?

Today I put another limitation on the table:  this post is about our BELIEF system and its blocking mechanism.  Let´s start with two statements:

• Our beliefs are our strongest chain
• Simultaneously, our beliefs are the gate to implementation

When the belief-chain is in action we tend to think that we are not ready yet…..
… for change
… for the new organisation
… for the new product  OR
… for the new job

Thinking with a certain belief that chains us causes consequences of DELAY, we run into TROUBLE and we face sudden OBSTACLES.  It´s like activating a negative helix.  We block ourselves.
Have you been there?  OR:  are you still there?

OPPOSITE

With our beliefs we express our expectations towards our achievement.  If we belief we can get “there” we won´t turn away from the path and direction.  We will focus!  We will work on making it happen!  We will walk towards our belief and show that it´s reality.  One day.

We take action towards change.  We start planning the new organisation.  We discuss a new product and the planning phase, and we will probably think about taking over a new job position.  And then we´ll start planning it!  This helix shows a positive loop.  We open the gate to the new and possible, just with our belief.  In implementation.

Decisions are decisions.  But with the direction of our thought process of beliefs we give salt and pepper to it.

This is your take-away, once more:   with our beliefs we express our expectations towards our achievement.  Fact.  Now, <ou may think it over….

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

People have different methods and modus´ when taking decisions.
We don´t just deal actively as decision makers in life – we also have to passively deal with deciders.  And that´s the typical situation when we can´t tell which decider-type we just deal with!

Handling decision situations with others is dealing with quite an uncertainty factor.  It´s not about persuasion!  It´s about finding out how the other one ticks.
We face questions like:  “Which decider-type is standing or sitting in front of me?”  Or:  “Is this going to be a conflict-situation? Will we be able to talk or discuss the issue?”

There are 5 decider types, if we listen to Maya Storch.  She calles them:

• “Slow Breeder”
• “Disembodied”
• “Fast Decider”
• “Uncertain”
• “Feedback Decider”

The Slow Breeder is a thinker! 

She or he is not trained with ad hoc decision situations and is not uncertain.  Actually, like a chess player they start thinking all possible situations through and through to abstractly reach step 3, considering the consequences and thinking about dealing with them longtermly.  It´ll affect their future.  So they try to find out how the future will look like when taking “this” decision or answer……

The person dealing with a slow breeder looks into a poker face who doesn´t decide!  Who might not speak!  The potential decider looks decision weak.  The person is not afraid of a conflict but is a (slow) thinker.  She or he loves to plan, to talk things through and make a list.  Even potential reactions will be planned or considered!

The slow breeder is a planner who acts forward-looking!  It´s their special element.  A quick decision situation makes them feel horrible due to the sudden pressure.  They belong to those people who are slow talking to strangers so they avoid it or watch the fast ones being first.

To avoid conflict in decision situations, try to find out with “whom” you are dealing!  Which decider-type is standing in front of you?
….find out more in my  upcoming blog-posts, stay tuned!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

“Disembodied”
….. describes the lack of ability to judge what´s good for you, due to past experience.

That´s the short version!
Let me give you some more information with 2 examples:

if you have trouble making decisions when being in a restaurant, not able to choose from the menu, you lack the direct connection to your body.
If you have trouble making decisions which job to choose for the apprenticeship (rather working as a clerk in a hotel or become a tailor?), you lack the direct connection to your body.

What´s missing inside?

When you have trouble making the ideal decision with a result that matches best to you, you lack the  perception of your somatic markers in your body.
It´s the own authority to get access to your life experiences which normally help evaluating what was good and what was bad for you.

Actually, if you belong to this group you have a big deficit which is vital for your life!  You have to train it, which is the good news because:  it´s trainable!  Right now, it could be your current deficient ability or skill.

It´s a problem of perception and unfortunately it also belongs to the trouble of an eating disorder.  It also belongs to the problem of all people who work in the wrong job and wrong environment.
At the beginning of their life they made a bad (or un-informed) decision because they couldn´t decide very well at all.
Check it out:  if you sleep bad or if you suffer permanent light health issues, this could also be a cause…..

I have to stop this blog-post right here but I wanted to include this issue to my decision topic, because decision making has a lot of influence to our life!
And I am sure many people don´t realize it.  If you´re interested whether you belong to this group of deciders or not, feel free to contact me!  I´d be honored to send you the test with the 5 different results.  As a maximum.

In my next post I step over to the next decision type – the “Fast Decider” !!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

This month I discuss and explain the 5 various decider-types via Maja Storch.  Today I´d like to introduce the quick or prompt decider!

We all run via certain programs in our minds and the most conflicts arise when different decider-types have to go all together into the same direction, following the same rules at a certain speed.  And then you meet the prompt decider!

That´s the type who inflames real fast by her or his own ideas, the world is full of wonders which offer a lot of opportunities.  The quick decider goes from one topic real fast over to the next, being fascinated by the next theme and changes the path during the conversation again and again ….  just to let go of the red line (as we call it in Germany: “der rote Faden”) or of the central theme, as you might know it.  Their natural enthusiasm appears real quick!

And the dangerous burn-out just might wait around the corner –

Prompt deciders live in a home-made chaos!  They receive an inner evaluation of an overall impression from new potential projects and ideas but they have trouble making a clear plan:  what budget do we need?  How much time shall we consider realistically for this project?

Unfortunately they get a bad mood when someone enters this enthusiastic inner circle of opportunities and asks logic questions!  Plus, their somatic marker, which quickly releases a “GO!” isn´t supporting when others don´t add their GO to their quick decision.  Again, a bad mood is pre-programmed.  They want to start right away, be active and handle it, without planning.  It feels to them as if they have to fully BRAKE when actually being inflamed with inner speed, already shifting gears in their mind!
Is that you?

A prompt decider like you has to use the inner brake to lower the enthusiam.  That´s hard to do!  And this is how you can handle yourself in each of such situation:  if this inner volcano is about to burst, step back and wait 5 minutes.  Think it over!  A prompt decider needs to come to a stop.  Wait for a result.

Of course, a prompt decider like you will still make a lot of decisions over the year, but these decisions will be of a better quality than before, when you started running ahead without thinking about the details and some relevant consequences….
Don´t change being a decider, just try to change the QUICK way you tend to approach each decision!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –

This month I introduce the 5 decider types and today it´s about Mr. and Mrs. Insecure!

Insecure deciders are the people who afterwards REGRET what they decided for.
They might feel that they were persuaded by a friend or that someone else talked them into something, because they were INSECURE about a decision situation.  Of course, insecure people ask for more information or a personal opinion and talk to other people about a decision trouble.  It´s part of our experience.

Insecure people feel their somatic markers very well and have trouble finding the strategy to accord their mind with their somatic markers (the gut feeling).  They suffer a kind of dis-connection.  The conflict between various motives when making a decision is what troubles them most:
“Shall I help and do it althoug I don´t feel competent to take over the task of my colleague?  But he asked so kind.”
“Shall I agree to be the proxy for a half day at work this week although I myself still have lots to do?” …..

No easy decision situation!  Did the colleague talk you into it?  And now you regret it?
Then read on:

Use a wise self-communication and tell yourself: “one moment!”  Then step-back for a while.  Think it over.  Take time to make a wise decision.  Take all the time you need!  Decisions need to be in line with your needs!  Best case, always.

If you don´t concentrate on your needs you will end up living the life of other people.  That leads to regret!  This is a circuit which automatically sets you back to “start”.

You might tend to excuse the small wrong decisions because there is worse in life but –  BUT!  The small wrong decisions will add up in life.  Your personal well-being shall be the 1st and only rule in your life when it comes to decision making.  We make a lot of decisions and our decisions lead us through life.  Of course there are days that you agree to help a co-worker SHORT TERMLY or be the AD HOC proxy for tomorrow.

In the end you may ask yourself:  “did I live MY life?”  “Did I follow MY dreams?”  Make sure you know which answer you truly want to hear from you….

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BE OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –