Decision Making... The Process

Monday I posted David’s Dilemma, which is not unlike many …

What Should I do?

When life throws you multiple opportunities it also throws the dilemma of making a decision. What if you make the wrong decision? Your career and future happiness depends upon doing the right thing.

Life is definitely easier when our options are limited—the decision is easy. But when there are more than one way to go... how do you decide?

There are many tools available to help rationalize which route to take when trying to make a decision. I recently purchased the book How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer. I’ve yet to read it, but looking forward to discovering how our minds work in the fascinating process we call decision-making. I'll keep you posted.

Decision Making

There are many analytical tools available. One is the Grid Analysis, where you list all your choices down one column and rate each factor with a number with the highest most important—then add up the scores. Another is a SWOT analysis that companies use to determine their Strengths and Weaknesses in alignment with the Opportunities and Threats of the environment. This tool actually enables businesses to identify their strengths and to look outside their walls to the environment. I’ve come up with a combination of these two analysis methods to assist in decision making process. I hope this helps.

We'll use David's Dilemma for the example.

Here’s how it works:

List all your options down the left side. Write the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats for each option across the top. Once you get them on paper you’ll have a clearer picture of the right thing to do. I’ve started the evaluation list for David. Now it’s up to David to figure the rest out by filling in all the squares below.

Options	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threat
Stay at Gulfstream	Stable. Senior Good pay Enjoy the flying Experience	Bad Reputation No glass time	Check-airman	Accident Un-Stable?
Change Companies
Fly for Commuter
Fly for US Department

So with all this said, you can make the best decision with the information available and you still may not make the correct decision.

1996 I had an invitation with NWA for an interview. But I was flying the 747 with Tower and was looking at a Captain in 6 months. I loved what I was doing, but didn't know what to do. I asked so many pilots and some said "stay," others said, "go." Everyone had an opinion. Bottom line...I decided I loved what I was doing and decided to stay at Tower. I was tired of changing airlines.

The day I had made that decision was the same day I learned I was on the list to be furloughed from Tower. I took the interview with NWA, and was hired. The story gets better…

This furlough notice went out in October, and in November (the same day I was offered the job at NWA) I was called back to work at Tower. They’d told me they'd decided to not furlough this year. Historically, the owner of Tower would furlough for a month before the big Haj contract started so he wouldn’t have to keep all the pilots on payroll.

What had happened was the Chief Pilot was on his way to New York to tell the owner of Tower to not furlough that particular year because all the airlines were hiring and Tower wouldn’t have anyone to fly the Haj. But on his way to the airport the Chief Pilot got hit by a car and missed his flight so he didn't talk to the owner and the furlough letter went out. (Later to be retracted) Because of those events... my life changed.

I stayed at NWA and Tower eventually went out of business. But the moral of this story is… sometimes we make the wrong decisions, and the universe changes our options. Or we might make the right decision, and the choice is taken away. All I can say is… make the best choice you can, and hope for the best. Use all the resources you have, follow your instincts, your gut... that little voice... and do the best you can. You won't know if made the right decision until the end of the game.

Enjoy the Journey!

XOX Karlene