Effective Decision Making

Self Directed Learning Guide

The workbook to accompany the online course

Name:

Date:
 Effective Decision Making

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

Version Date Reason for update Updated by

OL 1.0 01.08.12 Amended to work with the online version of this course TSA eLearning Team

Copyright statement
Copyright © 2009, The Salvation Army Employment Plus Employment Plus

All rights reserved

Copyright laws and international treaties protect this publication. No part of this publication may be
stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to
photography, magnetic, or other record, other than by an Employee of The Salvation Army
Employment Plus expressly for tasks related to their current employ with The Salvation Army
Employment Plus, without the prior agreement and express written permission of The Salvation
Army Employment Plus.

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 Effective Decision Making

Overview
This guide is designed to assist you make job searching and career decisions that will move you
towards your goals. Everybody makes decisions all day every day, however because we undertake this
activity so often, we regularly fail to evaluate what all our little decisions mean to our life overall.

Purpose
Throughout this module you will explore a number of topics including:

 What are effective decisions?

 The purpose of effective decision making

 Understanding why we make decisions?

 Understanding the need to prioritise and balance completing needs when making decisions?

 Explore habitual and emotional decisions and how these may have a negative influence on the your
life

 Understanding how to make effective decisions by developing and evaluating options

 Evaluate decisions and what to do if you make the wrong decisions.

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What Are Decisions?

The act of making up your mind about something or, a position or opinion or judgement reached after
consideration. Life is full of decisions – we make hundreds of them every day.

Decision making can be hard and almost any decision involves some conflicts or dissatisfaction. The
most difficult part of decision making is to pick one solution where the positive outcome can outweigh
possible losses. Avoiding decisions often seems easier, yet, making your own decisions and accepting
the consequences is the only way to stay in control of your time, your success, and your life!

Effective Decision Making

What is effective decision making? Making decisions that help you create the life you want!

Remember that every decision you make influences the kind of life you have and the type of
environment you seek to live in. The term ‘Effective Decision Making’ simply means the decisions
you make to help you achieve your goals today.

REMEMBER!!
“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is
this: decide what you want.”
Ben Stein

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Different Needs
We all have a large number of different needs:

Health & Fitness, Family & Relationships, Physical Safety, Personal Growth & Fulfilment, Work,
Learning, Achievement & Recognition, Biological Needs, Food, Shelter, Friendships, Leisure, Pursuits
& Hobbies, Community Participation, Security & Safety, Morals, Values & Beliefs…

Prioritising Needs
 Often you will have competing needs – by fulfilling one need another cannot be filled

 Given that we have so many needs it is impossible that every decision we make will fulfil all of
them. In some instances the decisions we make will fulfil one need but actually undermine us
fulfilling other needs

 When you make decisions you are usually prioritising some needs over others (whether you know it
or not!)

 When we make decisions we are either consciously or subconsciously ranking some needs
ahead of others. The way that needs are prioritised will vary from person to person, though some
needs (such as biological needs for food, shelter etc) will have a high priority for everyone

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Workbook Activity – Your Priorities

Rank each of the following needs according to your priorities (1 being the most important). If you have
other needs that are not included there is a space to record them. Remember, there are no right or wrong
answers.

Need Priority

Physical Safety

Health and Fitness

Family and Relationships

Personal Growth and Fulfilment

Financial Status

Achievement and Recognition

Biological Needs (Food, Shelter etc.)

Learning

Friendships

Leisure Pursuits and Hobbies

Community Participation

Work

Security and Stability

Morals, Values and Beliefs

Other (specify):

Other (specify):

Other (specify):

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 Effective Decision Making

Decision Making Processes

There are three types of decision making processes:

 Habitual

 Emotional

 Calculated

Habitual Decisions
Habitual decisions are decisions we make out of routine without really considering other options.
A lot of the time we are not even aware that we are making these decisions. We make hundreds
of habitual decisions every day.

An example of a habitual decision could be that every day we choose to walk when we could hop, skip
or jump.

Just like habits, some habitual decisions will have a positive effect on our lives, others will have a
negative effect. The scary thing about habitual decisions is that they can be harmful to us achieving
our goals but we are largely unaware that we are making these decisions.

To get the life you want you need to identify any negative habitual decisions you are making.

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Workbook Activity – Habitual Decisions

Give three examples of decisions you make out of habit. Identify whether these decisions have a positive
or negative effect on you achieving your goals and why.

Decision One: Positive or Negative Effect and Why?

Decision Two: Positive or Negative Effect and Why?

Decision Three: Positive or Negative Effect and Why?

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Emotional Decisions
Emotions have such a powerful impact on us they can also influence our decision making.
Sometimes we allow our emotions to make a decision for us, but in general people try to minimise
purely emotional responses. Emotional responses do not always help to create the life or
environment that we want. They are an on-the-spot reaction to a situation.

Remember that it is important to balance an emotional response to a situation with other factors.

Keep In Mind
“You cannot always control what happens to you in your life, but what you
do have total control over is how you choose to react to what has just
happened”.

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 Effective Decision Making

Workbook Activity – Emotional Decisions

Think about some of the emotional responses you have difficulty controlling. Answer the questions below.
You do not need to share your answers with others so be honest!

Describe the last time

you made a decision
based on your
emotions:

What were you

feeling at the time
(e.g. happy, angry,
sad etc)?

Did this have a

positive effect on you
achieving the life you
want? Why or why
not?

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Calculated Decisions
Calculated decisions are the best way of achieving your goals because it means that you have
rationally considered your options and evaluated how these will help you achieve the life you want.

A calculated decision involves:

 Understanding your perception

 Exploring your options

 Evaluating your decisions

Understanding Your Perception

How we perceive a situation will limit the options we have available to us when making a
decision. Your perception will depend on your beliefs, values and attitude. There is always more than
one way of perceiving a situation.

There is a reason why some people are always ‘lucky’. It is because they
choose a perception that will improve their ability to make decisions that
will positively influence their lives.

IT’S NOT LUCK, IT’S ATTITUDE!!

Perception – Exploring Your Options

One of the reasons people make poor decisions is because they don’t believe they have any
other options – i.e. they don’t believe they have a choice. The best way of making a good decision is to
think of all the options available to you.

There are usually at least 3 options available

 Understanding your options and the positives and negatives of each of the options will ensure you
make an informed decision

 Write down all the positive and negative factors for and against taking a course of action

 When evaluating options you will need to take into account your goals. Do your homework and get
all the facts before you make the decision.

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Evaluating Your Decisions

Take time to regularly review your decisions. Ask yourself:

 Has this decision helped me to achieve my goals?

 Are there other options that would better help me to achieve my goals?

 Are my priorities still the same?

Evaluating your decisions allows you to identify areas for improvement and, as a result, will help you
achieve your goals.

If You’ve Made the Wrong Decision

Remember that every person makes mistakes therefore mistakes are a normal natural part of the
learning process.

Not all decisions will have the outcome you anticipate, therefore it is important that you:

 Take responsibility (but don’t blame yourself)

 Stay positive – remember the effect your perception can have

 Identify what you learnt from the decision and the outcome

 Identify what you would do differently

 Explore and evaluate your options

 Make new decisions

 Look to the future – the past is already gone!

It is important that you identify each of your “mistakes” as they can be an opportunity to learn which
will help you progress towards your goal. It is never too late to make new decisions.

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Tips For Making Effective Decisions

 Have confidence in your ability to make good decisions

 Be honest with yourself about your priorities, emotions and perceptions

 A positive attitude to life helps makes major decisions far easier and less stressful

 Making a good decision requires patience, calm, and rational thought

 Don’t fear making a mistake – it is better to make a mistake than to not make a decision at all

 Remember to follow through on your decisions to the best of your ability

 There are no absolute right or wrong choices

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Additional Workbook Activity – Evaluating Your Decisions

Record five decisions you have made in the last 24 hours. For each decision record the type of decision
(habitual, emotional or calculated), whether the decision had a positive or negative effect on you achieving
your goals and what other options could have been pursued.

Decision 1:

Type(circle): Habitual / Emotional / Calculated

Effect on Your Goals

Other Options:

Decision 2:

Type(circle): Habitual / Emotional / Calculated

Effect on Your Goals

Other Options:

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Decision 3:

Type(circle): Habitual / Emotional / Calculated

Effect on Your Goals

Other Options:

Decision 4:

Type(circle): Habitual / Emotional / Calculated

Effect on Your Goals

Other Options:

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Decision 5:

Type(circle): Habitual / Emotional / Calculated

Effect on Your Goals

Other Options:

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