Wisdom and Decision Making

Recently, I’ve found myself studying and reading a lot about wisdom. It hasn’t been an intentional thing, it just dawned on me recently that much of what I’ve been consuming in terms of books and podcasts have had this underlying theme. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. (You can definitely place me in the camp of “all things happen for a reason”, so I generally don’t put a lot of stock in the “it’s just a coincidence” explanation.)

What struck me a few days ago was something new. I will typically journal (for those unfamiliar, yes, that word can be used as a verb) about what I read during my early morning “quiet time.” Often, it will turn into a prayer of sorts, for myself or others. When I did so this morning, I gained a new understanding of the depth and importance of wisdom, as a concept. More on that shortly…

Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I also have a fascination with understanding the process of decision-making. And at @StrategicOversightServices we spend a lot of time analyzing how and why decisions are made the way they are, with the ultimate objective of achieving more productive and successful outcomes. We refer often to, The Research Decision Continuum framework to depict the process of going from beliefs and information that inform the decisions that lead to the outcomes. Rather than just making different decisions, we help our clients go one step further back to rethinking their beliefs (sometimes via gathering new information) so that there is a solid change in approach to the decision-making, which often results in superior outcomes. Better information leads to better decisions leads to better outcomes. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.

Now, back to the wisdom track. When you look up wisdom in the dictionary, you read, “ability to discern inner qualities and relationships.”[i] The synonyms used are the likes of insight, judgement, and knowledge. Of course, this makes perfect sense. You would probably agree with all of that. What I never thought about before though, is this: What good is wisdom, if we stop at just knowing? Mustn’t we actually do something with said knowledge, or wisdom? One of my favorite all-time quotes is from Johann von Goethe, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” What I realized that day was that wisdom really has three parts to it: discernment, courage and action.

Let’s look at a brief illustration. Assume you have a big decision to make… Pretend you’ve been offered a job that would require you to move across the country. Not a decision that can be made lightly. If you’re like me, you’re probably going to do a fair amount of research to understand the pros and cons, etc. (And, also if you’re like me, you’re probably going to pray a lot… Read the original post (linked below) if you want to pursue that angle in more depth.) You are going to do your due diligence and then some to be as informed as you can regarding your options – and what the consequences of different decisions could be. This is all part of the discernment process. Attempting to discern what the best decision would be for you and your situation.

 Now, after all the thinking and processing and discerning has take place, it’s time to make a choice. It’s time for a decision. This is where the courage comes into play – especially if the discernment process has led you to a place that will require you to make a change. It takes courage to decide to make a change. (Not making the decision to change – or to maintain the status quo – is also a decision, although not always a courageous one.) However, there is still one step to go. You’ve made a tough decision – good for you! Don’t stop there, though, you have to act on it!

At this point, we’ll refer again to the Goethe quote: We know (we’ve discerned), we’re willing (we’ve had the courage to make the (possibly) tough decision), now we must… Do. Let’s be honest, this is often the hardest part. This is the part that really requires some faith and trust to walk out the decision that you’ve made. To use the old expression, it really is where the rubber meets the road.  

So, how does this apply practically to our decision-making frameworks? I believe just the understanding, both for the consultant walking alongside and advising a client and for the decision-makers themselves, that it isn’t as “clean” as just doing some research, making some decisions, and seeing how they turn out, can make a difference in the quality of the eventual outcomes. Acknowledging that there are three difficult parts to the process – doing the research (discerning), making the decision (often requiring courage), and then pulling the trigger to actually do what is required – raises the quality bar requiring greater skill for each task. In simpler terms, you’re more apt to take each aspect more seriously. We’ve probably all seen times when various aspects of this process has been treated as a formality or sometimes when the process really isn’t even followed, yet decisions are made and actions taken, resulting in folks wondering why it didn’t work? The good news is, it doesn’t need to be that way.

A quick question for you to reflect on: Which one of these steps is hardest for you? None of them are easy. And the higher the stakes (of the decision to be made or the situation needing clarity), the harder it gets. Is it doing your due diligence? Is it pulling the trigger and making those tough decisions? Or is it acting on it, and walking it out with grace and confidence? Whatever the case may be, I hope this is helpful to you. Maybe thinking of it this way will bring more clarity and understanding to the whole process.

(This article is a modified version of something I posted on my personal/ministry blog several months ago. Please feel free to read the original version at https://unfilteredforgod.blogspot.com/2021/02/wisdom-times-three.html.)

[i] Merriam Webster Dictionary Online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wisdom, accessed February 25, 2021