Decision making - free course from 4brain, training 30 days, date November 30, 2023.

The question of choice will always be relevant for a person, regardless of his age, gender, nationality, education, etc. Life experience, of course, teaches, and over time, making decisions becomes easier, but it does not give any guarantee that all decisions, without exception, will be correct and effective. Decision making is a skill that requires a lot of effort and knowledge to master.

Here you can go in different ways: either learn everything by trial and error, spending a lot of time and nerves on this, or search the opportunity to obtain the required information in a structured and compact form, thereby saving your mental and time resources. We believe that you are on our website for a reason, and the presented “Decision Making” course was created to help you learn how to make decisions quickly and correctly.

From our course you will not only learn that much of what happens around you is subject to specific rules and patterns, but you will also get acquainted with a variety of practical techniques and techniques, tips and recommendations that significantly facilitate human activity in everyday life, learning and work.

What is decision making and why is it important?

We have to choose a strategy for our behavior in most life situations, and we always choose, even when it seems to us that we are not doing it. But decision-making skill is the ability to consciously choose from a variety of options the one that will affect the situation in the best way. To put it simply, there is a certain objective function that helps evaluate the “utility” of a particular situation. It can concern not only the person making the choice, but also his loved ones, friends, colleagues, or all of humanity in general. And the ability to make decisions is the skill of choosing a scenario with the maximum value of the objective function. It is important to note that the choice is not always objectively correct - it is simply the best in the opinion of a particular person.

There are situations in which making a choice and making a decision is difficult. For example, the above objective function may produce the same values, different options may be equivalent, and both scenarios may be equally valuable to a person. And if he cannot make a decision, he can be described as indecisive.

Another variant of difficulties with decision making is expressed in the fact that the target function has not been established. In other words, a person simply does not know what he wants. This case is much more complicated and requires a more serious determination of the causes of the difficulties.

Based on the above, the ability to make decisions represents a whole set of skills:

• The skill of seeing the maximum number of possible solutions
• The skill of prioritizing (defining the target function) for each specific situation
• The skill of choosing one solution among all their many

It would not be superfluous to note that all these functions are initially performed for a person (while he is in childhood) by adults. But the older he gets, the more choices he has to make himself. And it is generally accepted that upon reaching adulthood, a person is already able to make any decisions that determine his future life.

A person develops further, and is already learning to make decisions that affect not only him, but also other people. Those. he learns to make decisions for others, for example, to correct the behavior of his children at home or to manage employees at work. This skill is also very important, but it is also more difficult, because... the number of choices expands, and the target function includes personal interests and the interests of others.

If a person does not know how to make decisions, he will be torn between options, which leads to inconsistent actions and even letting the situation take its course. And here it is important to note that he does not decide to do nothing, choosing this strategy as the optimal one, but simply does not make any decision at all, remaining a passive observer.

But such passivity is acceptable only in rare cases - when the situation is positive and does not require intervention. When things get worse, whether it concerns a specific person or a group of people, changing it always requires action. Actions are a reasonable act, and behind each of them there is a decision made to perform it. A person who is unable to make a decision turns out to be incapable of taking actions to resolve negative situations.

All this suggests that the ability to make decisions is, first of all, the ability to act, resolve situations, solve problems and improve one’s own life. And how much a person masters this skill can determine both his own life and professional results, and the results of other people. And here is the time to talk about professional solutions.

The importance and significance of management decisions

The conditions of the modern market are very tough, and the competition is very high. In such an environment, where all companies and organizations have similar technologies, a huge role in the success, competitive highly effective, correct and rational decisions play a role in confrontation and achievement of set goals, and at all levels manuals.

Management decisions are defined as methods of targeted influence on management objects, based on the analysis of reliable information characterizing a specific management situation, as well as establishing the goal of influence and ways to achieve this goals.

Decision-making from this position is one of the main, and sometimes even the most important, functions performed by managers or departments of organizations and enterprises. The need to constantly make management decisions permeates literally all areas of activity of leaders and managers. For this reason, everyone who is in any way involved in management must understand the essence of the decision-making process. The effectiveness of the organization as a whole depends on how adequate and timely management decisions are.

If we talk specifically about Russia, then in our country for a very long time there were no attempts to professionally train management personnel to make decisions. This was greatly influenced by the presence of an administrative command apparatus, in which all serious decisions were made at the highest level of various departments and ministries. The lower levels were only concerned with execution.

But with the transition to a market economy, responsibility for making management decisions has seriously increased at all levels. Every decision made began to influence the position of organizations, and there are no higher authorities controlling this anymore.

Today, when the economy is developing very intensively, managers are increasingly faced with the need to look for new ways to solve problems, which is associated with great risks. Management decisions associated with a large number of processes are now characterized by the complexity of their development and a high degree of responsibility.

This determines the particular importance among managers at different levels of the skill of developing, making and implementing highly effective management decisions, taking into account all prospects and risks. Actually, this once again indicates the relevance of the course offered to your attention.

Decision Making Basics

In this short section of the introduction, despite its theoretical and introductory orientation, we still want to offer several useful recommendations, based on which you can now rethink some things and increase efficiency decisions made. The information presented will teach you to make better choices in education, work, business, family and friendships, and in any other area of ​​life.

1. Give up the framework
   When your thinking gives you only two options: “Yes” or “No,” you find yourself trapped in a box. When choosing between them, you get stuck within the boundaries of just one alternative and ignore the rest. Instead, you need to look for a solution in another plane, despite the desire and instinctive desire to make everything simpler and avoid diversity.

   In addition, people often try to find an option between two extremes, despite the possibility of finding a compromise or pursuing both options simultaneously without having to make a choice. Situations in which several options for action are simultaneously available, although not often, do occur.

2. Look wider
   You should never rush into making a decision. It is much more correct to try to see the maximum number of options. This will allow you to better navigate and protect yourself from the influence of emotions, which is not always useful.

   There is no need to become overly attached to the goal that thinking initially sets for itself. As a result, the ability to make decisions becomes inert, and we see only what will confirm the decision, and what contradicts it will go unnoticed.

   The obvious choice is not always the best, and better decisions may be hidden behind it. It is dangerous to get attached to one decision, and to expand the choice, a comparative analysis of other paths should be carried out.

3. Collect information
   Before making any decision, you need to collect as much information as possible on the current problem. It can be obtained from other people, from the Internet or books, from some other third-party sources.

   A large amount of information will expand your vision of the problem, illuminate initially invisible details and subtleties of the issue, and make your understanding of the situation more objective. Operating with a sufficient amount of information, it will be possible to evaluate all the pros and cons of the available options, and therefore make a choice in favor of the most suitable one.

4. Don't get emotional
   As we said, emotions, especially momentary ones, often create serious obstacles in decision-making.

   To get rid of emotions, you can use different methods: you can just breathe calmly for a few minutes, get distracted, look at situation from the outside, wait a while until passions subside, etc. By the way, we also recommend reading our article on managing negative emotions.

5. Set your priorities
   For decisions to be correct, you must always know your true goals and desires. Many difficulties are caused by the fact that a person makes decisions (or tries to do so) based on values ​​that do not correspond to basic priorities.

   Think about it: why are you making a choice at all? How well do the available options suit your needs? Will you be comfortable once the decision is made? Only through understanding what you really need can you come to the right decision.

   Among other things, decisions that go against priorities often become the cause of internal contradictions and conflicts with oneself, and mental health largely depends on this. Remember that by making the right decisions, in addition to everything else, you also take care of your health. Priorities are always higher for those decisions that contribute to achieving your main goals.

6. Consider simple solutions
   We said earlier that instead of just one alternative, you need to look for several, but there are some limitations here. For example, a wide selection of similar options does not simplify decision making. If the number of such options increases, the number of variables that serve as the basis for choice will also increase. And the more variables, the more difficult the choice.

   In this case, you can use the advice from poker literature that you need to create space for simple decisions. You need to try to avoid having to make difficult decisions. To do this, it is necessary to determine basic priorities already in the early stages in order to understand what is really important and what you can turn a blind eye to.

   By doing this, firstly, you will save the lion’s share of time on thinking and analyzing all options, and, secondly, simplify the task of choosing, because Only the most optimal ones will be at your disposal alternatives.

7. Try it
   You can think about all the pros and cons ad infinitum. But it’s much more productive to just start taking action. Of course, this option is more suitable for cases where it is possible to run a “test” version of the solution. This will help you find out what prospects await you after making a decision.

   Keep in mind that even employees are hired for a trial period to understand how they will work, and only then a decision is made about hiring. This is the same test version. If there is no possibility for a test, then collect as much information as possible to make the most accurate predictions.

8. Set conditions
   To make effective decisions, you can use a trick - set certain conditions (preferably unfavorable ones) under which specific actions will be performed.

   When making a decision, you can fall into the trap of overconfidence, believing that everything will be fine. But when faced with problems, you will no longer be able to take a step back, being strongly attached to your decision.

   The conditions we are talking about will make it possible to avoid this. This means that you must set several variables under which your decision may be overturned. For example, you decided to invest money in an investment project, but at the same time you promised yourself that if in a year the investments do not start making a profit, you will leave the project - this is your condition.

   This method helps to avoid difficult situations, allows you to see hidden risks and prepare for them, identify escape routes and look at things more realistically. In addition, you will be less attached to your decision and get rid of excessive overconfidence.

9. Take criticism
   Sometimes outside criticism helps you make the right decision. But it is important to understand that you need to be able to draw the right conclusions from criticism, because it is not always constructive, especially when it is a projection of the fears and expectations of other people onto its object. The psychological background is very important in criticism.

   But still, the criticizing person should be perceived as an ally, helping you get rid of self-confidence and pointing out the weaknesses of the decision you are making. Criticism helps you look at the situation from a different angle and incorporate this view into your point of view in order to get a more objective picture of what is happening.

10. Don't do any of the above
    No matter how strange it may sound, there are situations when you don’t need to follow any of the above tips. They help make decisions when options are driven by advantages and disadvantages. But there may not be any shortcomings, right.

    If you understand that by choosing one of the options you will not lose anything, throw everything said above aside, make a decision and just watch what happens. One simple rule applies here: if the choice costs nothing, you don’t need to think long - just act.

As you can see, learning to make the right decisions is not as difficult as it might seem. Naturally, the advice given is extremely limited in order to fully master this skill, but this is why our “Decision Making” training was created, which will discuss other equally important things.

How to take classes

The “Decision Making” training aims to introduce you to the theoretical and practical foundations of decision making. Therefore, your task will be to approach the study of theory as carefully as possible and project knowledge onto the plane of practical application as quickly as possible.

To study each lesson, 1-2 days will be enough for you, after which you can devote 1-2 days to actions in real conditions and studying auxiliary materials. Actually, practice should be present in your life constantly, because it will determine how quickly you master a new skill and what results you can achieve.