And no wonder.

The traditional decision-making model many of us have been taught to use is seriously deficient. Why? Because it doesn't take into account the culture and values of the organization and the knowledge and mindset of the individuals involved.

This is especially important for knowledge workers — the largest group of workers in the developed world.

According to Professor Martin Eppler at the University of Lugano, Italy, “Knowledge work can be viewed as the interpretation, representation and coordination of information by an individual or group in order to make decisions, enable sense making or foster knowledge creation.”

Even though the “new” knowledge era has been evolving over the last 20 years or more, today's workers have been not been adequately prepared to be able to make sound decisions under an avalanche of information while at the same time trying to satisfy the demands of stake-holders with ever-increasing time pressures.

At the same time, certain individuals — especially some politicians and company executives — have realized just how easy it is to manipulate information for their own ends. As Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst, says, “Morality has to do with reasoning and behaving according to values that go beyond narrow self-interest.”

Download the FREE white paper, “Great Decisions - Great Results”.

A message for employers and managers:
The Role of Participative Decision-making in Your Employee Retention Strategy. (Click here)

All decision-making activity — whether it be the most simple, routine information-handling task or a highly-complex, ambiguous situation — involves you receiving inputs from the external world and delivering outputs to the external world. In between these inputs and outputs is where your thinking and emotions — part of your ‘mind-set’ — take place in your inner world.

If you rely solely on the traditional decision-making model, the danger is that your mind-set is locked into a restricted view of decision-making.

Principled Decision Making™ builds on the traditional ‘rational’ decision-making model by recognising that our decisions and choices are made by humans — not machines.

Principled Decision Making™ takes a fresh approach by acknowledging the role of your mind-set in the decision-making process. It does this by consdering two domains in parallel: the time domain and the human dimensions domain. In the time domain you discover information from the external world around you. In your inner world you develop this information to give meaning — if possible — to these external world happenings. It is here in your inner world where reaction or pro-action is formulated by you and your work team which you will then deliver to the external world. When you look at the steps involved with this process, it really is no different to the traditional decision-making model.

The human dimensions domain shows us the eight key human dimensions operating together in a holistic manner that are required for effective decision-making. These eight dimensions are the factors that determine whether decisions will succeed or fail.

If you — or any of your colleagues — are lacking in one or more of these dimensions, then there is very real danger your decisions will FAIL!

Exactly how do these eight human factors or dimensions relate to decision-making? Find out by downloading the FREE white paper, “Great Decisions - Great Results: An Introduction to Principled Decision Making™ ”. Click here to download.

Want to learn more?
The Leonardo Institute offers a range of learning programs, seminars and briefings based on this decision-making model. Click here for more information.

The Role of Participative Decision-making in Your Employee Retention Strategy

A Message for Employers and Managers

Staff turnover is costly — especially when you lose your most highly valued employees. And when job satisfaction is low, you can be sure that people will leave as soon as they discover better opportunities.

These days the bulk of workers are knowledge workers — workers who add value to information through their knowledge and skills. Their daily outputs can vary enormously, depending on the job — ranging from voicing ideas and opinions in meetings, to making statements, issuing reports, making presentations, deciding outcomes, and taking some form of action.

So what do knowledge workers look for in terms of job satisfaction? Basically they want to carry out meaningful tasks, play a useful role in the organisation and participate in areas once the preserve of management – information processing, decision-making or problem-solving.

For the highly-talented employees — the ones you MUST keep — research shows that their intention to stay is directly related to the opportunities available to develop and apply their skills and in having challenging job assignments.

Workers need tools and decision-making is one of the fundamental activities in knowledge work. After all, we and our organisations are the result of choices, decisions and actions. Decision-making involves far more than the traditional or rational decision-making model that most have been taught at school and reinforced through the analytical approach of MBA programs.

The human dimensions of decision-making have been ignored for too long. Yet workers are are often hired purely because their adademic record shows an ability to logically analyse situations and come up with answers to problems. However this is of limited value if there is a lack of emotional intelligence in dealing with other people.

Mastering all eight human dimensions of decision-making can take a lifetime. For one thing, technology is changing, and one of the human dimensions is the ability to select and use appropriate technology.

If you were a house builder and you saw one of your carpenters using tools on-site in a totally inappropriate way, you’d no doubt have something to say. Any tradesman worth his salt makes sure his tools are in top condition. Otherwise his workmanship is compromised.

So too with knowledge workers. Why then do managers assume that the most important tool used by a knowledge worker — his or her brain — is used appropriately? One reason is that an outsider can’t see what’s going on inside a person’s head.

Therefore, as business owners and managers, it’s in your own interests as well as in the interests of your staff, to ensure they are well equipped to handle their knowledge work.

How can you do this? Find out by downloading the FREE white paper, “Great Decisions - Great Results: An Introduction to Principled Decision Making™ ”. Click here to download.

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