Welcome

Decisionmaking in times of crisis

national and international

Drs. Erwin van de Pol CMC RVGMERijnconsult/ACE

The issue

Leaders are faced with difficult strategic decisions affecting the public services they deliver, the electors, employees and councilors.

The question is: “How do they persuade all parties to expect less in the future?”

Psychologist Jolet Plomp on decision techniques:

Present different options in a range from 1 to 10, 1 for avery poor option, 10 for an excellent option

Present different options in money: How much am I prepared to pay for it?

Set up a tree of decisions: boughs and branches with decisions with all kinds of possible outcomes en consequences

Ask yourself how a colleague, your boss, your neighbour, your “average”citizen or someone famous you admire would decide on the matter.

“Despite these decisiontechniques, decisionmaking is and will be a complex issue. There are people who always will toil and worry, even if they have all the information available. More or less psychologists say this is due to a perfectionistic personality, more than that the amount of altenatives is not enough. So, decisionmaking is mainly done unaware. You may as well follow your feelings.”

Bad news? Pychologist Jolet Plomp:

Research by psychologist Marieke de Vries

Decisonmaking can be done in two ways: follow your feelings of follow your brains.

Some with a cheerful personality use his or her intuition, more cheerless people have a tendency of motivating their decisons more.

Making decisions, it seems as if we do this always well-considered and deliberate. Research proves over and over that less is true: human beings are at the mercy of the waves of their moods. But most people refuse to accept this fact …

Universalism Focus on rules

Persons honor word and decision

A decision is a decision

One truth

Rational arguments

Preparing legal grounds

‘Consistency’ and procedures

Particularism Focus on relationships

Persons honor changing mutualities

Relationships evolve

Several perspectives

Personal ‘meandering’ and ‘irrelevancies’

Considering personal implications

Informal networks

Intercultural aspects in decisionmaking:the UDITE perspective

Making decisions in the context of public services

The context of public services is leading

What does that mean?

How cheerful are your colleagues?

Do you think in possiblities or restrictions

Public services: glasshouse …

Am I doing right, what can I lose?

Who is checking me, who appreciates me on my decisionmaking?

Is it in the interest of the organisation or only of me and my colleagues?

What are the political issues with which I am confronted?

Every decision leads to new points of view en of course to new problems

Decisionmaking?On your own or smarter?

“classic” professionality

art

Result is difficult to be specified

(“made to measure”)

knowledge worker

handicraft

Result is to be specified

(“routine”)

Knowledge strongly structured

Knowledge weakely structured

Professionals

How do you learn your job,and were you prepared for decisionmaking?

events

trends

structures

mental models

Frame of reference: an unaware perspective to look at reality

Exchange of views, what do you think?

Most leaders in public organisations are well equiped for making difficult strategic decisions.

Decisionmaking is mainly done unaware. You may as well follow your feelings.

Every decision leads to new points of view en of course to new problems

There are people who always will toil and worry, even if they have all the information available. This is a threat to efficient government.