EXPLAIN:

While everyone has to make decisions, it's amazing how little is known about making good ones. Most decisions happen without any idea of the decision-making principles that you've covered over recent weeks. So it's no surprise that estimates suggest about half of all the decisions made turn out to be incorrect. With better decision-making skills, the percentage of correct ones would undoubtedly rise. So we're going to look at the essential elements of making good decisions:

1. Decision-making, not problem-solving

2. Characteristics of good decision-makers

3. Principles of good decision making

Let’s watch a short animation to explain them.

SHOW: Good decisions explainer (currently Slide 3 / explainer video to be available 2023)

EXPLAINER SCRIPT:

There are three critical elements to making good decisions:

1. Decision making, not problem-solving

Problem-solving and decision-making are two entirely separate things. Problem-solving is the result of being forced to make a decision because of conditions beyond your control. On the other hand, decision-making means choosing a particular option because you wish for something to happen that is not already happening right now. Decision-making occurs because you want something to happen, while problem-solving occurs when a problem arises. In Ella's Story, we saw that Ella often reacted to events that were happening, rather than deciding the outcome she wanted, then making her decisions accordingly. In the story, however, we had the advantage of knowing the entire timeline of events. In real life, it's never that simple, so we have to develop the characteristics of a good decision-maker.

2. Characteristics of good decision makers

The best decision-makers are people who can combine logic, problem analysis, and intuition to come up with a favourable outcome, so good decision-makers often have specific characteristics in common:

• Being a good listener. Good decision-makers must be able to hear and take into account other people's opinions when making decisions. Did Ella truly listen to what Samira was saying to her?

• Having a clear set of priorities. Decision-makers must know their priorities or values to choose a good or "correct" path. Did Ella determine what happened to her? Or did she get swept up by the promises of a better life?

• Having an open mind. Good decision-makers are open to other people's views and ways of thinking rather than being stuck in one way of doing things. Did Ella consider all of the available opinions, or did she close herself down to some of the views that she perhaps wasn't so keen to hear?

• Being flexible and willing to change. A good decision-maker is open to new or alternative ways of doing things that may work out better in the long run. It helps to have a network of people we trust that can offer different approaches, but we also have to be willing to hear what those trusted people say. Was Ella flexible to change?

• Being realistic. Good decision-makers understand the reality of where different paths might lead, and they consider this before making their choices. Was it realistic for Ella to believe that Leah was always acting in her best interests?

3. Principles for good decision making

The three most essential criteria for sound decision making are:

• Values: As we saw in Session Seven, what we value determines our behaviour. Xx Link value to beliefs, Beliefs build attitudes; attitudes produce feelings; feelings lead to behaviour. So we have to consider the values that are important to us carefully.

• Experience: We all learn to make decisions through experience. Time will tell if a decision is good or bad, but by thinking carefully about the decisions we make and why we are making them, we can, over time, get better at it.

• Common sense: Common sense (in this case, the knowledge and experience most people have or would apply) is a crucial component in choosing one path versus another. Use what you know to help you make the best decision rather than allowing others outside your circle of trust to influence you.

EXPLAIN:

As we've learned over the last few months, many things are needed to make good choices consistently. These include being aware of how choices are influenced, being mindful of the consequence, and being conscious of our own psychological needs—all of this drives what we think and what we do, our behaviours and actions. Checking in on these is an excellent way to understand how effective we are at making choices and what we might do to become better.

We're going to use a tool to help us do precisely that. It works by asking a set of questions about your current approach to making choices. Your answers will help you spot any weaknesses in that approach and help you to build a plan to address these.

Assign students to groups of 3.

SHOW: Diagnostic visual (Slide 4)

EXPLAIN:

As we've learned over the last few months, many things are needed to make good choices consistently. These include being aware of how choices are influenced, being mindful of the consequence, and being conscious of our own psychological needs—all of this drives what we think and what we do, our behaviours and actions. Checking in on these is an excellent way to understand how effective we are at making choices and what we might do to become better.

We're going to use a tool to help us do precisely that. It works by asking a set of questions about your current approach to making choices. Your answers will help you spot any weaknesses in that approach and help you to build a plan to address these.

Assign students to groups of 3.

EXPLAIN:

Now that we've had a go at plotting Ella's scores, you can each do the same for yourselves.

Working on your own, read back through each statement, thinking about how well it describes you and your reality. Once again,

• If the statement feels like it doesn’t describe you or your situation, give it a score of zero.

• If you feel like the statement describes you or your situation completely, give it a score of five.

Try to answer instinctively, i.e. what’s your initial reaction to the statements.

Use Worksheet 11b to record and plot your scores.

Next, draw a line to connect the scores of neighbouring statements. You will end up with a shape that reflects your approach's relative strengths and weaknesses. Look at the areas you've given the lowest scores, and then spend some time discussing with your group how you might be able to improve in those areas.

Note: You might want to assign students a homework task of having further discussions with those who sit in their circles of trust. If they have identified that they don't have a robust network, they might want to start thinking about changing that. The next session around setting goals will provide some valuable guidance to this process.

Students should be encouraged to revisit this and the subsequent goal-setting process in 6 months to track their progress and re-baseline their situations.

EXPLAIN:

We've understood the importance of choices, how we make them and what influences them. We've identified the people that can help us or that we need to identify those people. Today we've also started to understand any areas where we might need to improve upon any of this. In the next session, the final one in the programme, we'll use all of this to set clear future goals.

SHOW: Slide 5

Let's add a few notes to our Reflection Journals, remembering the 5Fs.

Thinking specifically about today's session, note whatever you think or feel about what you discovered from your own diagnostic and how these findings impact the decisions you make.

Prompt with the following questions:

Facts — What happened? What did I experience?

Feelings — What impacted me, and how did I feel?

Findings — What truths/assumptions did I have about the session/myself/the process? What can I learn?

Future — How would I like to apply my insights in the future?

Friends — Share reflections, learnings and actions with others

Allow students five minutes to think about and write down their reflections from today's session. Then, in groups of 3, encourage students to spend five minutes sharing their reflections.

Note: encourage students to take responsibility for what they share. Some things they will likely want to keep to themselves as 'personal reflection'.