The Decision Making Process

This is from a reading from Amanda and the GenGroup about decision making.
It suggests that there are three main factors which influence a decision:

• The decision maker - chair of the meeting, coordinator, principal.
  Such leaders can be extroverted (thinks aloud, facilitates group decisions) or introverted (processes information in a controlled fashion, must include much preparation and planning beforehand).
  

• The decision process - fitting in with the decision maker's style, planning and preparation, sharing information, decision making process.
  Involves two processes - information (search, amount, supply and use of data required in the decision) and procedure (steps that a group uses to make a decision).
  Information should be of high quality and have predictive value when making decisions in a short time frame.
  The process of decision making can further be broken down into three stages: Preparation (sourcing, collecting and analysis of data), Facilitation (drawing out persepectives, opinions and options based on their analysis), and a Decision (decision maker considers the options in relation to vision and mission and choses a course of action).
  
• The situation - what are we deciding on, where and when. This needs a group that can trust each other (must consider time pressure, acceptability and group/team factors)

This is a good way to analyse what happens in our school. Maybe the next step is to review the meetings based on this analysis and see what the data shows us.

This prompted me to come up with an analysis grid to help with the process:

Analysing decisions at our school:

Questions to ask:

What was the decision made?
Who was (were) the decision maker(s)?
Was their style extraverted? Some planning done prior to the meeting as information and expectations shared? Thinking out loud? Guides group decisions? Or Introverted? Much planning and preparation done prior to the meeting
What was the process involved in the Search for data Supply of data to meeting participants Use of data during the meeting Analysis of data during the meeting What data was valuable in making the decision?
What was the process involved in the drawing out the Perspectives opinions, and options from group or team members based on their analysis of the data
What was the process involved in making the final decision? Were a range of options considered? What strategic goals were addressed? How was the final course of action decided upon?
What were the time constraints, acceptability?, and group/team factors, which make the decision task more difficult

Might try it at the next meeting!