Six Step Decision Making Process with Critical Thinking
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Identify and describe the problem or opportunity
- Identify the problem or opportunity.
- Describe the problem accurately and comprehensively.
- Contemplate alternative ways to describe the problem.
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Focus on the situation and gather reliable information
- Focus on the situation and the need to make a decision and desire to make a good one.
- Get into an open frame of mind that wants to be well informed, willing to change, and considerate of other points of view.
- Focus on a process that will care for the dignity and worth of others during the process by listening to discover their views and explanations so as to avoid confusion or intimidation while assisting understanding and directing a decision making process to seek choices, solutions, and implementations that benefit the welfare of others and the Earth.
- Be aware of beliefs and biases that might result in unreliable information and decisions.
- Identify any feelings, values, ideas or actions which might possibly influence the information gathered.
- Decide what information is relevant and not relevant for the situation.
- Identify useful resources that are available: facts, people, ideas, processes, other...
- Identify who can assist or influence the decision making process and determine if their help or influence would lead to accurate information.
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Identify choices, solutions, and implementations
- Desire to be honest, clear, and determined to seek and identify choices, solutions, and implementations that are appropriate, reliable, and comprehensive.
- Identify and list possible options or choices, solutions, and implementations.
- Brainstorm using brainstorming rules, be creative and positive, ask what if questions, don't hesitate to imagine best possible scenarios.
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Analyze consequences and values for all solutions
- Desire to be honest, clear, and determined to analyze and offer explanations that are appropriate, reliable, and comprehensive.
- Generate and list consequences and values for all options or choices. In other words: what opportunities or problems might each solution create?
- Determine different interpretations of the information that can bias the selection of an option or choices and result in a poor decision and negative consequences.
- Be aware of beliefs and biases that might encourage less appropriate decisions.
- Identify stated and unstated relationships.
- Check relationship of the situation to the options as causal, logical and valid.
See more information: Structure for Analyzing and Presenting Arguments, Logical reasoning and reasoning errors. and Reasoning and proof explanations and examples, and experimental designs if necessary. - Check the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the consequences for each choice or option and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and desirability of each.
- Summarize all possible options or choices with positive and negative consequences for each.
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Decide on an option and process for implementation
- Judge the credibility of the expertise of people used as sources, or any conflict of interest, if there is agreement or corroboration among sources, and if there is a bias effect based on their reputations.
- Check the accuracy of the procedures used to analyze information and derive choices, solutions, and the consequences and values fo the solutions.
- Check the quality of reasoning, logic, and explanations used to decide options and consequences. See reasoning and proof explanations and example.
- Determine the risks of making or not making this decision and the probability of success.
- Determine what criteria should be used to judge and evaluate each option to make a decision. Could create a matrix and assign a value for each criteria to summarize and review.
- Communicate the main idea and consequences of each option with examples. Check for accurate communication of all facts, definitions, relationships, counter examples, values, and other necessary descriptive information. Consider the use of an organized structure to communicate the information and conclusions in a powerful way:
- Structure for Analyzing and Presenting Arguments,
- Position Analysis: with a claim, data, warrants, qualifier, and conclusion,
- Issues Analysis. & sample issues analysed for democratic education for all
- Decide which alternative might best achieve your goals.
- Decide on how to implement the decision.
- Allocated resources to implement.
- Gain acceptance and support of all stake holders and colleagues.
- Decide how to periodically check to see if everyone is still committed to making the decision work.
- Implement the plan.
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Evaluate implementation
- Review and decide to continue with the implementation, alter it, or stop it and try again.
Related resources:
- Change process
- Five Step Strategy to Encourage Change or a Strategy for a Conversation with someone with Illogical or Irrational Ideas
- Outline of Goals & Outcomes for a Critical Thinking Curriculum & Specifications for Assessment
- Logical reasoning, proof explanations, development of reasoning, & reasoning errors