Better Decision Making - A Structured Approach

By Kevin Moriarity

You have an important decision to make. What do you do? Do you spend a large amount of time analyzing the situation, make a decision, and are still not sure you're making the right move? Do you decide in a flash and aren't confident you made the right choice?

Most decision making is done by taking a quick look at a small portion of the relevant alternatives and factors. Oftentimes we rely on emotional gut instinct and make a decision with just a moment's deliberation. For most of our day to day decisions (what should I have for lunch?), this is appropriate. In fact, if we deliberated at length on every decision, life would grind to a halt and we would never get anything done.

Snap decisions were necessary for early humans. Our innate decision making style is based on the fact that we usually had to decide to act instantly lest we become injured or die.

In the modern world, the decisions we face are rarely life or death. Many decisions, especially the momentous or complicated ones, benefit from a slower, structured and thorough process.

Our innate decision making process actually impedes our ability to arrive at an optimal decision when we have to carefully consider many choices, opinions, and factors. This is where a structured approach is indispensable. A structured process allows you to consider many alternatives, perspectives (opinions) and factors and helps put the influence of your emotional side into perspective. This will often confirm your gut feeling and give you more confidence in your decision. It also opens your mind to other alternatives and approaches.

For example, let's pretend that you want to decide which college to attend.

First, state your objective. What is the desired outcome of this decision? Often, stating the objective differently opens up new alternatives and factors. For example, if I change my objective from "go to college" to "obtain education", I now have other alternatives to consider:
trade schools or apprenticeships.

State your alternatives. Most decisions have many alternatives. However, it is easy to get locked into just a couple. Brainstorm your alternatives. Consider alternatives such as your ultimate dream solution, ideas that you may have eliminated due to cost, alternatives that you don't even think you can achieve. Consider adding the best and worst case alternatives, cheapest and most expensive options. Try not to censor yourself at this stage. Allow the process to weed out the poor choices.

If you have more than two alternatives, a valuable technique is to put the alternatives into pairs and choose between two at a time. For example, if you have three alternatives (A,B, C), first choose between A and B, then A and C, then B and C - only two at a time. Score one point for each alternative when you choose it. The alternative with the most points is your preferred solution. This technique gives you a more accurate ranking of your alternatives because people have an easier time choosing between two options at one time. The power of this technique increases with the number of alternatives you have to consider.

If the paired alternatives process did not reveal a clear winner, it's time to list the pros and cons for each alternative.

Who or what will influence your decision?
The "Who" will be called your decision's perspectives. Who will have a say in your decision? Who will have a stake in the outcome of your decision? Each of your perspectives may have a different opinion on which factors are pros and which factors are cons.

The "What" will be called your decision's factors. What criteria will I use to decide? For example, in the college decision relevant factors would be: tuition, school reputation, number of students, distance from home, and many more.

Record, for each alternative, which factors are pros and which factors are cons. For an in-state public college, tuition could be listed as a pro, while for a private college, it could be listed as a con. Simply list the alternative at the top of a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle and list the pros on the left and the cons on the right.

If the pro / con process does not reveal an obvious choice, it's time to do a deeper analysis.
Take the factors that are relevant to your decision and assign a desired value to each of them. It helps if you can think of the factors in simple terms: the factor target as a number, or a Yes / No answer, or as a value on a scale from 1 - 5. This is not completely necessary, but it does allow you to objectively compare the factor's desired value with the alternatives' actual values in a methodical way. For example, you can use a scale to assign a value to something like "college reputation", with 1 being lousy to 5 being best in the country.

Not all factors are equal. Rank each factor as to its importance in the decision. In our college example, the tuition might rank higher in importance than the quality of the sports programs.
Next, record what the actual values are for each factor, for each of the alternatives you are considering. For some factors, each perspective may have a different score for each alternative.

Lastly, look at the factor's desired values and the alternative's actual values and determine the best fit by perspective. This process will tell you which alternative is preferred by perspective. If your decision's perspectives prefer different alternatives, you have a solid basis to discuss the differences and arrive at the appropriate choice. If you're lucky, everyone agrees on the same alternative. If so, congratulations!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Moriarity

The Easy Approach To Training For Aggressive Dogs

By Taron Fox

The Easy Approach To Training for Aggressive Dogs
Puppies are extremely cute. Aggressive behavior from a puppy is often mistaken by the owner as playful behavior, but as a puppy grows into a dog aggressive playful behavior can become very intimidating and they need to learn, training for aggressive dogs techniques before its too late.

Not all-training methods suit aggression in dogs, some of these methods can make it worse. Obtaining the correct knowledge in dog training for aggressive behavior can turn an intimidating dog into a life long friend.

Training for aggressive dogs needs a professional approach, plus professional techniques. A good place to start is at veterinarians to determine the behavior is not medical or environmental.
Once these factors are dismissed knowledgeable proven techniques on how to treat aggressive dog behavior is the next step.

As an aggressive dog owner, always take into account the responsibilities and dangers while training for aggressive dogs. Be especially aware of the public and strangers that are unfamiliar to your dog and act responsibly by not putting others in danger, or by putting your dog into stressful or anxious situations. Socializing your dog with other dogs and humans can help tremendously, but precautions must be taken for example muzzles and strong leads that reduce the risk of injury to others.

A time-tested advice given by vets in training for aggressive dog behavior is to get your dog spayed or neutered, this can take a lot of the natural aggression away.

A lot of dog owners turn to punishment or confinement as a first reaction to aggressive dog behavior. Punishment only causes more fear and anxiety, leading to more aggression. An already aggressive dog further punished could attack.

Many owners ask how to help an aggressive dog. Aggression is usually learned and encouraged as a puppy, in games such as tug of war, when a dog can gain the upper hand over his owner. Its important to determine you are in charge right from the start.

A dog trained to act on command will often be more loyal and happier in his environment and is less likely to challenge his owner for dominance. Many owners see their dogs as equals this often gives messages to the dog to challenge for dominance, taking control of the owner if given a chance.

A really good way that is a great help in training aggressive dogs, is plenty of praise and compliments when he behaves correctly. Dogs love praise and take pleasure in pleasing their owners and following their commands when properly rewarded.

Training aggressive dogs is not an overnight task and can take time and patience. Persistence will turn an aggressive dog into a happy, well-trained loyal companion, which will make it worthwhile for both of you in the end.

Never give up on an aggressive dog. Click here to discover the easy approach to training for aggressive dogs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Taron_Fox

Looking For An Immense Approach To Get The Love Of Your Life? Try Online Dating

By Alan Lim

Online dating progressively being used more and more and it is comparatively and reasonably priced. You loose nothing in terms of finance. Instead, you stand to make up memorable time with someone, maybe for life.

Are you on familiar terms with the fact there are people wanting and willing to take a date with you?

This information can never be true to you till you get along with online dating. It becomes difficult today to easily seek for company, especially due to the ever busy schedule of every individual, coupled with the lack of trust most people have over online dealings. You might have been looking for someone with the peculiarities that you want and a big shot may equally be looking for you. Online dating may be one and only forum where your profiles can easily be matched. Keep in mind that most people face a lot of impenetrability with the traditional dating method of meeting face to face with others. With online dating, it is very feasible you might have already developed a lot of interest in that person through his or her profile before confronting each other.

Why is online dating such a popular thing today?

The response is straightforward. Most sites involved in online dating are aware of the fact that there is someone out there for every person, and most online daters integrate themselves into this fact. For that reason, every individual must develop some interest in online dating whether your intention is simply for a date of for a life match. It is of no substance what your countenance may be or what type of occupation you are in to. Be courageous, there are people out there just wanting to meet others endowed with the qualities that you possess.

Is online dating a convenient method of dating?

This is a very well-situated method of engagement because the affiliation building is by no means done in haste. This is also suitable especially if you find it ill at ease to meet a company of the opposite gender, and above all if you are not at ease in habitual meeting points such as parks or clubs. This is also true of those individuals who have had sour incidents with this type of dating and who look to online dating as the last option. An added advantage is that this is not a blind date. You are given the prospect of discerning the other's persona such as age, race, occupation, academic standing, whether they are or previously been married with or with no children and so many other traits. You can even view a portrait of your would-be friend or mate before accepting to meet with that person.

Do you want to let others know you are in search of them? Heave off that chilling ideas of being on your own and get a hold on the exact person for you by clicking on Online Dating You will not only be looking for fun, but for a life partner.