Decision Making: The Fundamentals

Overview/Description
To emphasize the need of a formal decision-making process, C. Wright Mills, an American sociologist and author, once said, 'Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them – and then the opportunity to choose.' It's been estimated that most human beings make thousands of decisions in the course of an average day, many of which are unconscious decisions. It is important for your personal and professional success that you become an effective decision maker. This involves following an established decision-making process and adapting your decision-making style to suit different situations. This course introduces you to the fundamentals of decision making and illustrates techniques to help you become an effective decision maker. The course first walks you through the steps of a widely accepted decision-making process. Then it leads to a description of the factors influencing your decision-making style and shows how to adapt that style to suit a given situation. So you'll have everything you need to start on the road to becoming an effective decision maker. Materials designed to support blended learning activities aligned with this course are available from the Resources Page.

Target Audience
Individuals who want to develop or improve their problem-solving and decision-making skills

Expected Duration (hours)
1.0

Lesson Objectives

Decision Making: The Fundamentals

sequence examples of the steps in the decision-making process

match each example with the decision-making style it best exemplifies

adapt your decision-making style to suit a given situation