Decison Making
1. Briefly summarize the article. What is the main point or key concept in the article and how do you think it affects or influences you as a current or future employee?
The article “Decision Making” It’s not what you think” (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001) is about making decisions, but using different approaches. When making decisions as stated in the article (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 89), you have to: Define the problem, diagnose causes, design possible solutions, decide what’s best, and then implement the choice. Most of us are taught to use these basics when making decisions. However, Mintzberg & Westley (2001) found that most people do not follow this process known as the “thinking first” model so they introduced two new models of decision making called,”seeing first” and “doing first”. These three models are categorized by their characteristics (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 91), which are as follows: A. Thinking First: science, planning programming, verbal, and facts B. Seeing First: art, visioning, imagining, visual, and ideas C. Doing First: craft, venturing, learning, visceral, and experience
Ultimately, Mintzberg and Westley purpose is not to suspend the “thinking first” model all together, but to open our minds to making decisions in various ways. They suggest that the best way is to combine all three models using the positive aspect of each (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 93), therefore creating the best possible solution. This influences me as an employee because my entire life I have made my decisions mostly by “thinking first” and “doing first”. After reading this article I can’t help but wonder how some of my decisions may have differed if I had known about the third model “seeing first” and implemented all three models. Of course not every decision we make as human beings will go as planned, but personally I feel that using these three models together can decrease the amount of regretful decisions we make.
The article “Decision Making” It’s not what you think” (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001) is about making decisions, but using different approaches. When making decisions as stated in the article (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 89), you have to: Define the problem, diagnose causes, design possible solutions, decide what’s best, and then implement the choice. Most of us are taught to use these basics when making decisions. However, Mintzberg & Westley (2001) found that most people do not follow this process known as the “thinking first” model so they introduced two new models of decision making called,”seeing first” and “doing first”. These three models are categorized by their characteristics (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 91), which are as follows: A. Thinking First: science, planning programming, verbal, and facts B. Seeing First: art, visioning, imagining, visual, and ideas C. Doing First: craft, venturing, learning, visceral, and experience
Ultimately, Mintzberg and Westley purpose is not to suspend the “thinking first” model all together, but to open our minds to making decisions in various ways. They suggest that the best way is to combine all three models using the positive aspect of each (Mintzberg & Westley, 2001 p. 93), therefore creating the best possible solution. This influences me as an employee because my entire life I have made my decisions mostly by “thinking first” and “doing first”. After reading this article I can’t help but wonder how some of my decisions may have differed if I had known about the third model “seeing first” and implemented all three models. Of course not every decision we make as human beings will go as planned, but personally I feel that using these three models together can decrease the amount of regretful decisions we make.
References: Mintzberg, Henry, Westley, Frances (2001). Decision Making: It’s Not What You Think (pp. 89-93). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.