Decision Making

How many times have you looked back at a decision you made, and ask yourself, “What was I thinking?”

Most of us do not take decision making seriously. We just “decide,” we go with our gut, our intuition. Our intuition is indeed very powerful and often steers us in the best direction. But we are always in such a hurry, we tend to feel the need to decide fast and move on. If we want to make optimal decisions, expecially regarding important life issues, we should slow down and a put a bit of time and effort into our decisions. Simply put, effective decision making makes us happier people.

And I am going to show you how to do it.

During my masters program I learned about a great decision making tool called the MAU (Multi-Attribute Utility) Model. That was 1994, and I have been using this tool for all major decisions since then. Let us first discern between “major decisions” and “day-to-day decisions.”

Basic decisions such as what to eat, what to wear, what to do that evening, etc., do not seriously affect our lives (usually). But strangely, we often treat serious, long-term, life decisions almost the same way. We decide on things like our university degree, our life partner, or where to live, very quickly, without devoting the necessary time and effort. It is not clear whether this is caused by fear, laziness, or perhaps something else. But it is clear that this is making our lives less happy.

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How To Use The MAU Model To Make More Effective Decisions:

First, you need to know your values. I talk a lot about the importance of values. We can gain an understanding of our values by looking at the things we are proud of, or impressed by. For example, if you look back at promises you kept with pride, then one of your values is keeping your word, trustworthiness. Conversely, we can look at the things that really annoy us, or bother us. The opposite of these things are also our values. So, if you are annoyed by lazy people, one of your values is hard work. What do you love? What do you hate? These are your values.

Once your values are clear and established, you are ready to build your MAU Model. This is best done with Excel. You start by listing your options. These could be regarding a career move, a life partner, a geographical location, anything at all. Let us use the example of a career change. Obviously, before you do anything, you will need to have a career objective, a plan. If this is unclear, I can help. E-mail me for an appointment.

Back to our options. Option one would be to stay where you are (if you are employed). If you were headhunted, option two can be that opportunity. Option three could be to wait and actively apply for other opportunites. A fourth option, depending on your values and plan, could be to go back to school, or quit your job and start a family, or join a cult, etc. List them all. Same approach for any decision. List ALL options. Think outside the box, remove all barriers and constraints, and list every possibility.

Next, you need to list your decision criteria along the top. These come from your values. Some examples: money, development, work-life balance, travel opportunities, flexibility, etc.?You need to choose these carefully, these are the primary drivers of your decision -- this is your foundation.

?Along the bottom row, below the options, write in the weights of your decision criteria. These should be a number between 1 and 100. Your weights show how important each criterion is to you.?For example, the weight for money could be 80, meaning that you care quite a bit about money.?Perhaps your criteria won't even include money, but after you do choose your criteria you have to weight each one. Normally a weight will not be below 50, otherwise such a criterion would not even be listed.

Finally, you insert your scores for each option/criterion. In the boxes above the weights, below the criteria, score each option according to each criterion as follows: Under each criterion, for example money, you will first choose the career option that is BEST and the one that is WORST.?The BEST one gets a score of "1" and the worst one gets a score of "0".?Then for the other options, you give a score between 0 and 1 that shows where that option lies between the best and worst.?

Returning to our example, you may rate the firm that you were headhunted for as having the best earning potential, so it would get a score of "1".?You may then rate your current job as the lowest income provider, for example, so you can give that one a score of "0".?Then you look at the other option(s), and give them all a score between .1 and .9.?

?It would look something like this:

????????????Money ??Location ??Development ?? Etc.? Etc.

Job 1????? 1???????????????0???????????????????.7???????????????.5? ??? ?0

Job 2????? 0???????????????.3??????????????????0????????????????1??? ??? .4

Job 3????? .7??????????????1???????????????????1????????????????0???? ?? ?1

Weight?? 70????????????60???????????????100????????????80???? ? 90

You should put a formula in your Excel sheet that multiplies each score times each weight, then adds them all up for your final “rating” of each option. So for Job 1 in our above example it would be as follows:

(1 x 70) + (0 x 60) + (.7 x 100) + (.5 x 80) + (0 x 90) = 180

The highest rating, or final score, is pretty much ALWAYS your best decision – as long as your criteria (i.e., values) were accurately established.

I hope this was helpful. I do not exaggerate when I say this changed my life – for the better.

If you want a MAU template with formulas tabulated, or if you just wish to discuss this further, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].