How to build your decision making skills using storytelling
I was once asked by a law firm to come up with an activity they could conduct during an upcoming staff retreat. They were keen for their junior staff to learn the importance of understanding the dynamics of a dispute, not just its procedural aspects, and they were interested in doing this through the use of storytelling. They had an hour allocated for this activity.
Build reliable patterns and mental models
Several years earlier, Anecdote was asked to help an organisation’s new employees quickly get up-to-speed with the various complex issues they would inevitably face in their jobs.
On that occasion, we used a technique called Decision Games, which is outlined by Gary Klein in his book Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do. With some adaptation, I felt this approach would also serve the law firm well in the conference/retreat setting.
Meaningful experiences improve your intuition and capabilities by helping you to build reliable patterns and mental models.
Now, real-life experience is the ideal, but sometimes there simply isn’t the opportunity to get it. And even if you can, it can be risky – we can’t always afford to learn from our mistakes.
Use decision games to improve decision making skills
That’s where decision games come in. Told within small groups, these are personalised stories that build to a dilemma that triggers the decision-making process, allowing participants to talk about it and share their knowledge and views.
Lacking the pressure of real-life decision making but based on lived experiences, these games can help employees learn how to effectively tackle complex issues by:
- Identifying and understanding the decision-making requirements of their jobs
- Practising how to make difficult decisions in the appropriate contexts
- Reviewing their decision-making experiences
Another beauty of decision games is that this story-based technique can be modified for use in just about any time frame, which means it’s suitable for almost any situation: from workshops and seminars to lunch breaks.
Business Development
6 年Very valuable, thanks for sharing Mark
MBA, Published HBR, & Best Selling Author. Challenge the status quo to help customers discover unrecognized value
7 年An example would be great. Love gary klein's stuff
Mentor to Consultants - developing purposeful consulting enterprises, since 2001 | Mentor to Early-Stage Start-Ups - shaping prosperous futures, since 2006 | Mentor to SMEs - growing distinctive enterprises, since 2012
7 年Good one Mark Schenk