The art of critical decision making

Description

The ability to make wise, educated decisions is essential to living a successful and fulfilled life. Whether simple or complex, private or public, decisions are an essential part of life, affecting individual lives for good or ill, as well as friends, families, and communities. Decision-making is a skill--one that can be learned, honed, and perfected. When the necessary components of a smart decision are understood, mistakes can be sidestepped. When the underlying psychological, social, and emotional components that influence decision-making are known--sounder choices that produce better results can be made. This course explores how individuals, groups, and organizations make effective decisions and offers tips and techniques to enhance effective decision-making.  Read more... Abstract: The ability to make wise, educated decisions is essential to living a successful and fulfilled life. Whether simple or complex, private or public, decisions are an essential part of life, affecting individual lives for good or ill, as well as friends, families, and communities. Decision-making is a skill--one that can be learned, honed, and perfected. When the necessary components of a smart decision are understood, mistakes can be sidestepped. When the underlying psychological, social, and emotional components that influence decision-making are known--sounder choices that produce better results can be made. This course explores how individuals, groups, and organizations make effective decisions and offers tips and techniques to enhance effective decision-making Content: Making high-stakes decisions -- Cognitive biases -- Avoiding decision-making traps -- Framing : risk or opportunity? -- Intuition: recognizing patterns -- Reasoning by analogy -- Making sense of ambiguous situations -- The wisdom of crowds? -- Group thinking: thinking or conforming? -- Deciding how to decide -- Stimulating conflict and debate -- Keeping conflict constructive -- Creativity and brainstorming -- The curious inability to decide -- Procedural justice -- Achieving closure through small wins -- Normal accident theory -- Normalizing deviance -- Allison's model: three lenses -- Practical drift -- Ambiguous threats and the recovery window -- Connecting the dots -- Seeking out problems -- Asking the right questions.