Saturday, April 21, 2012

Decisions, decisions

For those who have been following me from the beginning, this blog is part advice to people wanting/needing to change jobs & part a story of my own transition as my office is closing so my job is disappearing.  Yesterday, I got the dreaded call that, although I performed well on my recent interview, they had decided to go with another candidate.  There was some disappointment and some relief. 

With some time to reflect and research, it seems that what I was facing is called Bounded Rationality.  This is where:

a. the minimum criteria for the decision is clear. Check - I need a new job since my current lack of wealth forces me to earn an income.

b.  You don't have or are unwilling to invest much effort into making the decision. Ahhh - this could of happened if in week 2 of my current state I were to be offered a great job.

c. you are not trying to maximize the outcome. Bingo! That is why I am relieved to not get the job. I see this as one of finest opportunities ever afford to me to make the next years better than the first 40.
Among many decision making techniques, I self-identify most with the creative style **the author would like to ensure readers understand that many of his personal decisions have not been great or lead to immense wealth and happiness.  So, the author will take no blame for decisions you make with this technique***

This also led me discovering other decision making styles.  I really identified with Creative Decision Making.  The claim is that this style is effective when the solutions to the problem is not clear, when new solutions need to be generated, and when you have some time to immerse yourself in the issues (http://www.athivia.com/college/r-decisionmaking.htm).

The steps to making a decision creatively are:

1.  Problem recognition.  Like, hmmm, my job has been eliminated and I have a time limit to choose what I want to do. Check.

2.  Immersion.  Jump right in a live in the problem.  Check

3.  Incubation.  During incubation, you are supposed to set aside the problem and not think about it.  Sorry, the daily blogging, meetings, peer support is not a sign of incubation. 

4.  Illumination. This is when subconsciously you arrive at the answer.  Hasn't happened yet

5.  Verification & Decision.  This is when the "illuminated" decision is checked against the facts & the opinions of others.

Shirts with "I'm not procrastinating, I'm incubating"  will be for sale shortly. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  I will post other decision making styles, pitfalls, worksheets, et cetera, to help myself and my friends.  Friends, thanks for the over 500 hits on my blog.  The rewards are immeasurable.

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