A632.9.3.RB - Role of Emotion in Decision-Making

Throughout my entire life, having a lot of confidence in my decisions has been something I have always struggled with.  I feel confident in myself when I really believe in the problem or answer, but when it’s a topic that I am unfamiliar with or feel like I lack enough authority or information to back up my decisions, I lose a lot of confidence.  Gaining self-confidence in both my actions and myself is an area I have been working on improving for a while.  Every experience I have, however, has been helpful in my improvement.

Professor Baba Shiv discussed the differences in low confidence and high confidence when it comes to decision-making in a way that really made sense to me.  Shiv discussed how low confidence equals higher maintenance for both you and your client.  Not only are you putting more time and effort into someone who isn’t confident, but also you are not getting anything in return from the situation.  Shiv then goes on to discuss the characteristics that develop high confidence.  He notes passion because it is extremely persuasive, confidence because it is contagious, and most importantly extraction of utility from the experience.   When I do have confidence in my decisions, I see myself more as  a quietly confident person.  In some instances, however, I do get very excited and passionate about a topic, but when it’s a situational decision that involves others, I struggle. 

This is a problem I am currently dealing with as I am in a new management position, overseeing individuals who have more knowledge and experience at the company that I do.  Going into this position, I knew that there was a lot of tenure at the company who were not in management positions.  Most of them are older than me and have more direct experience with how the company operates.  This is one of my first management positions, however, I do believe I am a strong leader, but management within a work environment is much different than other areas where I have been a leader.  That, along with the current experience of the employees, makes it difficult for me to feel confident in some of my decisions when it comes to managing the group. 

With all of that said, a situation where I felt a lot of confidence was several years ago when I was working on a project that I felt would greatly benefit the area of focus.  It was a recycling project that I was trying to establish in an organization.  What led me to feel confident in the project started with my direct passion for the subject.  My passion did lead to persuasion, which in turn led to me being confident in the project.  People got excited and began to come up with their own ideas to add on to my idea.  I felt empowered, accomplished, and happy overall to know that my interest and passion in something wore off on other people and led them to participate outside of the project. 

An area where I lacked confidence happened during an interview I had in college.  It was my first interview with a big company and I was really excited and nervous.  I was a junior and college and the interview was for an internship position at Kohls to be a textile print designer.  My best friend at the time was also applying and we would get so excited about the idea of us interning and then potentially worker there.  It was exciting, but also incredibly intimidating.  With no prior interview experience involving a portfolio review, I subsequently went into the interview and pointed out every flaw and every aspect of my life I needed to work on.  Thinking back on it, I feel embarrassed, but I learned a lot from that interview.  There was even a point during the interview where I skipped over a section in my portfolio because I said it needed more work.  While that experience is one I do not like to look back on, I realize that without that experience I wouldn’t know what not to do and how to grow from that area.  Since then, I feel I have gotten significantly better at interviews and pointing out my good points.  That experience made me feel embarrassed, deflated, and insignificant.  I did not sell myself to the interviewer.  I realize now that situations like that these people know nothing about you, which is an excellent opportunity to highlight all of your great points, not your weakest.

A632.8.3.RB - Reflections on the Cynefin Framework

The Cynefin Framework can benefit my decision-making in a lot of various ways. It is a representation of how human interactions can be strongly influenced by our own experiences through direct influence, as well as personal experiences.  The framework is broken into 4 different areas, complex, chaotic, complicated, and obvious.  This framework can help leaders determine prevailing operative context so that they can make appropriate choices.  Some of the ways this framework can benefit my decision-making can be see when thinking about the complex and complicated areas. 

In my current position, there is no right or wrong answer to a lot of problems, making it difficult at times to understand and analyze the situation to make the best choices.  In complicated situations, cause and effect relationships are discoverable, but not immediately apparent to everyone.  There is also usually more than one right answer.  A good response to complicated situations involves encouraging external and internal stakeholders to challenge expert opinion and to use experiments and games to force people to think outside the familiar.  I feel like I attempt to do this in a lot of positions.  I feel, at times, that I think and act differently from the other managers I work with and I feel that a lot of that is because I utilize ideas like the one discussed here.  I am open to all sorts of ideas and am happy to hear outsider’s opinions on situations.  Sometimes this can be difficult and cause issues as people may see me as a lackadaisical manager, but that isn’t the case.  I just choose to let my subordinates think and share opinions more freely within the workplace. 

In complex situations, there are also no right answers.  The unknowns are unknown and there are many competing ideas.  This is very true for my current work environment.  There is a lot of light competition between management, causing competing ideas on how things should be run.  I usually approach situations like this in a patient manner, which allows time for reflection.  I realize I may not have all the answers and I feel that allowing yourself time to reflect upon ways to improve the situation. 

Overall, I think it is important to study and understand this framework as it offers valuable insight into ways to approach different types of situations within the workplace, as well as in your own personal life.

A632.7.4.RB - Collaborative Decision-Making

Our decisions, whether small or big, have a huge affect on our environment and the people who live and work around us.  When we make decisions, it’s important to consider and ask yourself questions about everyone involved in the situation.  This was a common problem at my old job.  The communication was very poor, so whenever we had collaborative projects, information was always skewed or distorted, making the process a lot more difficult.  In general, we are faced with decisions on a daily basis that affect the way our lives play out.

One conflict/decision I have been recently faced with involves leaving my old job with no real back up plan in the hopes to find something better suited for my family and I.  I quit my job back in June and moved across the country with no real plan.  My fiancé and I had savings to last us for a year; however, it was a scary decision we were faced with.  Neither of us were happy where we were living and could not see ourselves living there forever.  There were no opportunities for him, and nothing beyond the one job I had there.  The decision seemed easy when faced with the facts of our stories, but before we voiced our feelings and opinions openly, we struggled with the decision.  I found that the aspect of resolution that involves listening and telling your story to be a really impactful step for me when faced with conflict.  The conflict I was faced with was more of an internal/personal conflict, as opposed to a team conflict, but it affected my coworkers, my family, my friends, and my relationships.  Making sure to speak with everyone who is involved both immediate and from a distance is important, as it helps you see a bigger, clearer picture overall.

This learning experience has really strengthened my ability to make decisions.  Prior to this experience, I struggled with conflict and often tried my best to avoid it.  But like diving off a diving board for a first time, it can be scary, but once you do it get’s a lot easier.  3 ways the experience can help me in the future include listening to my inner voice, listening to the full stories of others and being able to share my own story, and asking/sharing questions with others to get a clearer picture.

A632.6.3.RB - The High Cost of Conflict

My final year of my undergraduate studies, my department was schedule to study abroad in Lacoste, France. The college I was at worked on a quarter schedule, so my department was scheduled to go in the spring quarter, which was our final quarter of the year.  My best friend was going, as well as my portfolio teacher, who I had been with throughout the whole year.  I was really distraught on whether or not I should go because I had yet to land a job and was in the process of communicating with a few companies who seemed interested.  I struggled with the emotional conflict, as Stewart Levine discusses, with my decision to go and risk losing a potential job, or stay and risk missing out on a once in-a-lifetime opportunity.  After weighing my decisions, I decided to stay and not study abroad.  I still question my decision to do so.  I did end up getting a job during that time, which was great, but I ended up not enjoying it a year later and have sense left. 

Using the “cycle of resolution”, I would have most likely approached the situation differently and analyzed things in a way that would have made it easier for me.  First, I would have thought about what it was that I really want to get out my education, or “developing an attitude of resolution”.  The second step I would have thought about what I want my story to be.  What do I want to accomplish from my experiences?  Asking these questions would have helped me figure out how to tell my story.  I did a little bit of what Levine mentions for telling your story.  I asked many different people what their experiences were when they studied abroad and if they regret their decisions.  In almost all cases, everyone had an incredible journey and would not have changed it.  Listening to their stories now, I feel I have a completely different perspective that I didn’t take into account back then.  Next, step would be to get current and complete.  Levine notes that this step is about articulating what usually goes unexpressed.  This is an area where I tend to struggle, as I don’t express all of my thoughts fully.  If I had faced all of my thoughts at the time, I may have recognized what my real reasons for not wanting or wanting to go were.  Next, seeing vision for the future would have helped to guide me to understand what was more necessary in terms of experience; experience in a new culture and new environment, or on the job experience with a new job. 

Overall, I believe that the cycle of resolution would have helped me face some of the ideas that I ignored during my decision making process.

A632.5.5.RB - Protected Values in Decision-Making

Protected values are something I think about often without realizing it.  I have slowly started to shift my lifestyle in a way that reflect my protective values more, although some of my habits can reflect otherwise.  The protected values that I mentioned in my Brain include protecting endangered species, protecting our environment, and avoidance of products that mistreat animals.  My protected values are all very similar to one another and reflect off of each other.  They all became the values they are through experiences I have had in my life, which I will discuss further.

My first protected values, protecting endangered species, arose from my interest and love of nature and birds.  I am a “birder”, which is less common amongst young adults who are my age.  My fiancé and I go birding as often as we can.  When I was in my final year as an undergraduate I had to begin working on my portfolio. I decided to start looking at endangered species, specifically birds, and realized just how crucial they are to our ecosystem.  The more I began exploring the topic the more evident it became.  I realize it can be a difficult transition to rehabilitate animals back into an unfamiliar environment.  An example of this would be beavers.  While beavers are not endangered, they are struggling to find habitat due to overdevelopment.  A lot of people also do not like beavers, as they can be highly aggressive animals.  These are issues that can cause gray area when discussing protection of endangered species, or animals in general.  The steps I have started to take to help in this progress include attending educational events that discuss steps we can take on our own to help animals, donating to wildlife organizations specific to different animal species, and donating money for people on their birthdays and holidays to help protecting endangered animals.  While it isn’t a drastic step, these are steps I take often to ensure my protected values are valued. 

My next protected value is about protecting our environment.  These all go hand in hand, as protecting our environment also ensure healthier habitats for animals.  This became a serious issue for me when I was in high school.  I was working on a science fair project for a class and decided to look into recycling because my local high school did not recycle.  This was a school of over 3,000 students, none of which ever recycled during school hours.  What made matters worse was that our school was a local drop site for the community to bring their recyclables and the school had recycling bins, but chose to use them as trash cans instead.  This really began to bother me, so I developed a science fair project based on theories and methods for improving recycling.  My project ended up winning the local fair, which qualified me to attend and compete in the INTEL International Science Fair in Nevada at the time.  That was a life changing experience for me, as I was able to be around other students who were just as passionate about their area of interest as I was.  These experiences really changed the way I treated the environment.  I am not entirely sure what clicked for me, but ever since that period of my life, I have been an avid recycler and energy saving individual.  While I do not drive a hybrid car and use more water than I should, I try my best to do my best where and when I can.   

The final protected value that I have is avoidance of products that mistreat animals.  There are several instances in my life that led me to this belief, my love for animals being a major factor.  The more I began to educate myself about cruelty of animals in so many of our products, the more I tried to move away from it.  I became a vegetarian about 7 years ago and have slowly begun to stop using as many products as I can that use animal testing.  It’s been difficult, as a lot of products that avoid animal testing tend to be a lot more expensive.  Because of this, I have learned how to make a lot of my own products from my home, which has cut down on costs and reduced the amount of chemicals I am putting on myself.

Overall, these values have influenced a lot of my major decisions in my life.  I still have a lot of smaller decisions that they do not effect quite as strongly as some of my major life decisions, but they do have some weight on choices I make.  I have a hard time eating certain foods and putting certain things on my body because I psych myself out with it to avoid it, but there are times where it’s sometimes just easier to give in if money or time is a factor given the situation.