Problem Solving and Decision Making part 1 of 4

When faced with a difficult problem and decision to be made, how do you handle it? run and hide your head in the sand? ask a few dozen friends their opinion? call your mom or dad? make a list of pros and cons? ignore it altogether?

There are several ways to handle difficult situations. Today I will go over step one of this GFS system for problem solving and decision making.

Part One: Appraise the Situation-
Step one:
Identify the concerns (here's where that list comes into play)
*Make a list of what deviations to the status quo are taking place
*What decisions need to be made
*What changes do you anticipate are going to take place due to this deviation
*What are the possible opportunities presented by this deviation
*What bothers you about the changes and/or opportunities you have identified

Step Two: Clarify concerns
*What are the specifics of the deviation(s) – are these facts or heresay
*What exactly needs to be decided – when do the decision(s) need to be made
*What else bothers you about this problem
*Look closer at the identified opportunities – is this really a problem
*What evidence do you have that these opportunities will be positive

Step Three: Prioritize
*On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest of importance/urgency) rate each decision to be made
*On a scale of 1-10 rate each opportunity
*Consider how these will affect other people, family, business, co workers, reputation, financial situation, safety
*Make an action list of decisions to be made with the most important at the top, assign a deadline
Do I make this decision on my own, or is this a group decision to be made?
Do I need more data to make an informed decision? If so, adjust deadline accordingly.
What is the next step after my decision is made?
How will the results of my decision be measured?

Next step... problem analysis

Marie

Connections

When I say connections I'm not just talking about networking connections like "hey give me a call when you're ready to launch that product, I've got connections..." or having profiles on Facebook, Digg, MySpace etc. What I'm talking about is that personal connection you can have with another person or with an activity. What or who do you feel a connection with?
I've felt a connection to several people the last few weeks: Peter J. Sucy an amazing photographic artist from New York (check out his site!), Deb Neuman of "Back To Business" and Andrea Beaudoin - Creating Change Lifecoaching. I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to sit down and talk to each of these individuals recently. Connections are that way. You meet people all the time, literally every day at the store, the post office, on the phone... but you don't always have a personal connection like a shared viewpoint or vision, a similar childhood experience, a shared birthday :). Humans are hardwired to have personal connections with others and we should nurture them and reach beyond our comfort zone to seek these opportunities for connections out.
A connection can also be experienced with your work (career or charity type work). You'll know you have a connection when it doesn't feel like work, when you experience joy when you sit down, gear up, wake up, tune in or whatever you do- the time will fly, you will be enjoying yourself, the creative ideas will flow, the atmosphere will be one of free flowing ease and it will NOT feel like work at all.
I recommend to anyone, find a connection daily its good for the soul! :)