Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Decision Making- an indecisive person's nightmare

Decision Making: A process, not an event.

So what is the process? Well, just remember the 6 C's:
Construct: a clear picture of what must be decided
Compile: a list of requirements
Collect: information on alternatives that meet requirements
Compare: alternatives that meet requirements
Consider: what might go wrong
Commit: decide and follow through

Now that you know the process, allow me to walk you through an example in my own life.
One of my leadership positions is as a councilor in the relief society presidency of my ward. A problem we have noticed is our ladies are suffering from a low self-esteem with the difficult change from moving to college this freshman year. So, I needed to decide what to do to help them.
Construct: What to do to best serve the chicas in my ward in order to help them understand their individual, divine worth.
Compile: Needs to help everyone, can be completed in a timely manner, focuses on their divine worth, strengthens their relationship with the Lord, and makes difference :)
Collect: Send secret compliments to the individuals, stop by each door and bond, notice divine attributes of each girl, teach a lesson on divine worth, and plan activities on the principle
Compare: While compliments are always nice, they do not have a lasting impact. They also focus on the physical qualities of the girls, instead of the more important divine gifts we are each blessed with. Thus, noticing and recognizing them for their individual talents and specialties will be more beneficial. By teaching a lesson the lovely ladies may learn something and feel the spirit, but it'll only carry with them for the next week. However, if we also keep reiterating the principle in future activities it may be more impactful.
Consider: One thing that could go wrong is that girls are not recognized equally. This would be detrimental to what I am trying to achieve. Another thing would be that the chicas aren't receptive to my efforts and still feel insecure and out of place.
Commit: I will commit to recognizing each girl's divinely given gifts by secretly giving them notes over time. I will also study the principles of individual worth and divine potential to be able to teach it in a lesson, as well as relate it to each Sunday's lesson. This I will commit to.

Well, then why isn't everyone making decisions so easily?
Problems: people encounter when making decisions is that they play it safe, are afraid of influence, caught up in the thick of thin things, seek approval, begin without enough information, and they don't know what they want.

So what decisions do you need to make?

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