Today you will make hundreds, maybe thousands of choices. Some of those judgements will be more important than others, but if there is one thing that I have learned, it is that we can all be better at decision-making.

I have spent years studying and teaching decision-making. This has not been a purely academic exercise either; as a leader and entrepreneur, I have had the opportunity to practice and learn from the practical application of the theory. I have not always got it right or made the best choices, but I have improved through the process.

I started this series on decision-making with a post on the things to do to make effective decisions. You can use these as a blueprint for learning how to make better choices, following each stage in turn. Here are the 10 steps:

How to Make Effective Decisions

1. Take time out
2. Identify the type of problem
3. Apply a decision-making process or model
4. Ask questions
5. Understand what matters
6. Assess factors and constraints
7. Identify assumptions
8. Consider your options
9. Think through the consequences
10. Make your choice and act upon the decision

Here is each step in more detail with the relevant links to previous posts:

Take time out

If you have a big decision to make it is worth taking some time to think about it. If you are facing an important choice, you should invest time and effort proportionate to the scale of the problem. For example, purchasing a house will require more thought than buying a coffee. So be proactive, plan in some thinking time.

My favourite way of getting quality thinking time is taking a walk, preferably in the great outdoors. Walking is not only good for making decisions as you can read about in The Surprising Power of Going for a Walk.

Identify the type of problem

When you start to think about your choice it is worth starting by classifying the sort of challenge you are facing. That is because the solution to the issue is dependent upon the sort of problem that confronts you.

There are two very helpful models to assess the sort of problem and how to deal with them. The first one was developed by Keith Grint and I explain in the post: What Sort of Problem Do I Need to Solve?

The second is the Cynefin framework, which you can read about in, The Four Main Types of Problem You Face and How to Address Them.

Apply a decision-making process or model

Decision-making is a process. Whether or not we are conscious of how we make our choice and whatever the balance of intuition and logic in our decisions, there is always an underlying structure.

One of the simplest ways of expressing this process is the OODA loop, which is explained in Top Gun Pilots and Entrepreneurs Share This Skill.

In terms of mental models to use then check out The 36 Decision-Making Models I Continually Find Most Helpful.

Ask questions

If the choice is not an obvious one, then we need to start asking some questions. Good questions lead us to the data needed to inform our decision. When asking questions, it is good to use a framework to ensure as many bases are covered as possible. One simple approach, using interrogative words, is explained in How to Ask The Right Questions from a Bomb Disposal Officer.

Understand what matters

The more I have worked as a leader and coach, the more I appreciate the importance of values in how we make decisions. Values are the moral compass that guides our choices, as I explain in Unlock Your Values to Make Better Choices.

If you want further help in working out your personal values, then read: What Are Your Personal Values?

Assess factors and constraints

Having asked questions about your situation you will be presented with data to process. These are the factors and constraints that influence your choice. But the way we process data is not necessarily as rational as we might like. Our brains use hacks, and our neurological programming has bugs. These cognitive biases can undermine quality decision-making so you need to be aware of them, as I explain in You are More Biased Than You Think.

Identify assumptions

Another beartrap to be aware of when making decisions is poor assumptions. We frequently don’t have all the information we want when making a judgement and therefore we rely on assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions are reasonable and other times they are harmful fallacies. Learn to work out which is which in How to Identify and Disarm Wrong Assumptions.

Consider your options

Having considered all the factors and avoided the pitfalls of harmful biases and wrong assumptions, the next step is thinking about the different courses of action that you can take. Most choices have multiple options and one of the challenges of decision-making is negotiating these options. There are decision-making models to help do this, but I have found that the most important thing is to first create an environment where people can think to the best of their ability. The critical elements of this thinking environment are laid down in How to Give The Gift of Generative Thinking.

Think through the consequences

Once a preferred option is identified then it is worth considering the consequences of embarking on the course of action. Before fully committing you can try and assess what the obstacles and outcomes are likely to be. Most importantly you can work out whether a decision is reversible and what is the impact of going back once a decision is made. If we fail to do this final check on our decision then we can end up in trouble, as seen in How a Heuristic Nearly Killed Me.

Make your choice and act upon the decision

Finally, we need to act. A decision is only really a decision when we take the first step. That is the first challenge as the first steps are often the hardest. The next issue is keeping going as many choices – such as big life goals or changes – requires determination to see them through. The trick here is to make a discipline of incremental progress. To do this we have to change our behaviours and we do this by building effective habits. One tried and tested way of building habits is explained in How to Build Supreme Habits and Compound Good Decisions.

Putting it all together

So, there you go. You are now equipped with the psychology, steps, and models that you need to make better choices. And as with any other skill, we improve through deliberate practice so apply the knowledge, review what you have learned, and apply those lessons to your next decision.

For reference I have created a list of these and other helpful Medium articles called Effective Decision-Making.

What choices do you need to make today? Pick one and start to work through the steps. Let me know how you do!

This article was first published on Medium.

I am fascinated by the concept of values and their different types; particularly how they affect our character, decision-making and leadership. The more I explore this topic and implement the lessons, the more I am convinced of the importance of understanding values at every level, from the individual to the global.

In my own learning journey, I have discovered the impact of knowing my core values and applying that to my life choices. As a coach, I have witnessed the transformation that exploring personal values can have; seeing people gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others.  As a leader, I have seen the impact of leading authentically, by my principles, and the transformation of groups into high-performing teams, when they properly understand and behave according to their shared values.

I have also witnessed first-hand the friction when people breach universal values on the international stage and the terrible conflict that results. Now, as we live through yet another terrible war in Ukraine, it is important to reflect on what these values are and how we should respond. Not only that, there are other crises, such as environmental change – wicked problems – that require a principled approach if we are ever going to tackle them.

An overview of what values are

This specific post looks at the different levels of values and brings together the differing perspectives, paradigms, and insights that I have shared in the most recent ten articles in my Leadership Unlocked column. This post provides an overview of the topic as well as embedded hyperlinks to help you explore in more depth any area that particularly piques your interest.

The different types of values

Firstly, we should ask the question, what are values? Among other things, values are principles, standards, judgements, beliefs, and priorities. They are things we give worth, a concept that is explored in How We All Worship Something (and Why That’s Important).

Broadly, values can be categorised into three types:

• Personal values
• Corporate values
• Universal values

These different types of values tend to overlap and have some commonalities but the way these values are expressed and prioritised is often subtly different at each level. These can be visualised as overlapping spheres or ellipses, as in the diagram below.

Different typoes of values and how they overlap

Let’s look at each type of value in turn:

Personal values

Personal values are the specific combination of values that best reflect our character and preferences. For example, these could be compassion, courage, honesty, or any number of other virtues. For me, adventure and inquisitiveness are core personal values.

Finding your personal values is an important part of self-awareness. As the Greek philosophers said, the starting point of wisdom is to know thyself. Self-inquiry is the start of self-improvement, as explained in Why Socrates is the Father of Self Improvement.

Our values reflect our sense of identity. If we are not true to our values we become inauthentic – an imposter – as explored in How to Smash Imposter Syndrome: Don’t Be a Job Title.

Understanding our personal values is also important in terms of mental health and physical wellbeing. Our values help us to gauge our performance and energy levels, as seen in Burnout Prevention: How to Monitor the Essentials.

And once we find our personal values, we become better at achieving things; we align ourselves to our values to achieve our targets. In other words, to achieve your aim you need to know and apply your principles.

But it does not stop there. We need to constantly re-examine our values. We change and our situation changes. These changes can cause misalignments between ourselves and these actions. This can lead to feelings of frustration and unhappiness, as I have experienced and shared in My Mid-life Crisis and How to Re-find Happiness.

Corporate values

Corporate values are the precepts we hold in common within a family, team, organisation, or people group. These are the principles that bind a group of people together for a particular purpose.

Many organisations have statements that include values such as integrity, creativity, and collaboration. These values should be visible in the behaviour of an organisation, as explained by the Iceberg Model of culture.

If organisations don’t take their values and culture into account then things can go very wrong, especially when they are implementing change programmes, as explained in How to Stop Culture Eating Your Strategy for Breakfast.

Universal values

Universal values are core virtues that transcend individuals, organisations, and national borders. Examples of these would include those enshrined in the United Nations Charter, such as peace, freedom, equal rights, and human dignity.

We often examine values through a very personal lens, and this is important, but this can often limit our ideas of success, both in time and level of impact. Values or virtues should help us define what achievement really means. This success goes beyond just us as individuals as none of us can live a life without interacting with and influencing others. Therefore, we cannot examine values in isolation. Personal values are nothing without the context of corporate and universal values.

There can often be a difference between how we try to sell ourselves – through our CV or on social media – and what really matters when we consider the perspective of universal values. What does success actually mean in this life? The author David Brooks challenges the question “what do I want from life?” and asks another question, “what does life ask of me?” This challenging idea is explored further in What is the Difference Between Eulogy Virtues and Resume Values.

How values can reveal your personal purpose

Here is another way to look at the three types of values (personal, corporate, and universal) intersect. This time we have three overlapping circles.

Where values overlap can give us insight to our purpose

Each of us has a unique expression of how and where these circles meet. When you have explored and understood each different sphere you should have a better idea of where and how the values overlap.

Why is that important? Well, this intersection can give us a great insight into the specific role we can play, and the special impact that we can bring to the world. We may not feel we can change the whole world, but we can certainly change our world; the environment and the community we live in. This opportunity, where our values align and can bring the greatest impact, can reveal our personal or life purpose.

So, what is that place for you?

When I was about ten years old, I decided to run away from home and ran (unexpectedly) into an ethical issue. I can’t remember exactly why I wanted to run away (as my life wasn’t exactly bad) but I do remember that I strolled out of the house carrying nothing but a penknife. I was obviously confident in my survival skills and overly trusting that warm weather would continue!

With my elementary school logic, I decided that a hole in the ground – in the woods not far from my house – was the obvious place to start my new life. As this den was also known to my friends it was not long before one stumbled across me as I cleared the twigs from my future bed space.

“What are you doing?” My friend asked me. “Making camp.” I replied, “I have run away from home so don’t tell anyone!”

My friend wandered off and I continued working. Then, about twenty minutes later my friend arrived back. Behind him stood my dad. I remember looking into my friend’s eyes, feeling betrayed but also knowing they had done the right thing. I was outraged and relieved all at the same time.

What are ethics and why are they important?

At that stage in life, I had no idea what ethics was, but I did intuitively know that my friend made a courageous moral decision that day. Ethics is simply that; it is making good or right choices. That includes big ethical dilemmas, such should we limit artificial intelligence or genetic engineering, right through to more everyday choices, such as whether you help yourself to extra stationery at the office for personal use at home.

Making good decisions is not easy. We might have an intuitive feel of what is right or wrong but sometimes the answer is not obvious. This is particularly the case when various values come under tension.

Taking my running away as an example, my friend had to balance the value of loyalty against that of care. Loyalty might have persuaded them to keep quiet as I had shared something in confidence, but out of care for me they knew the right thing was to tell my parents.

Therefore, sometimes values on their own are not sufficient. In these moments, where good values are in tension, we can employ a decision-making tool to help make the best ethical choice.

How to make ethical decisions

One such technique has been developed by The Ethics Centre in Australia. The Ethics Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the use of ethics in everyday life and decision-making. They suggest a decision-making model based on considering values, principles, and purpose.

In this context (and using the wording of The Ethics Centre):

• Values tell us what’s good – they’re the things we strive for, desire, and seek to protect.
• Principles tell us what’s right – outlining how we may or may not achieve our values.
• Purpose is your reason for being – it gives life to your values and principles.

Of course, to employ this methodology you must first know what your values, principles and purpose are, so let’s take some time to consider each in turn.

Values

Values are things we give worth, things we prioritise. The values (or virtues) we aspire to come in different forms, such as:

• Personal values (the ones we prioritise as an individual)
• Corporate values (the ones we hold in a community or organization such as a company’s values)
• Universal values (ones that are held in common more globally such as the UN Charter of Human Rights)

Therefore, the starting point, when making a decision, is working out which values are the most important ones in the circumstance. If you have never properly identified your values, then I would recommend you discover your top 3 personal values.

Principles

Principles help us think about what is right or wrong and, in this way, they complement values. These principles are essentially algorithms for behaviour. For example, when working in the British Army and considering a course of action the principles I was taught to apply can be summed up in the following question:

“Is this action lawful, appropriate, and professional?”

Many of our principles have a basis in religion. For example, one of the principles I (like many) try to live by is the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is the idea of treating others as we would like to be treated and this precept is reflected in various spiritual traditions. For example, the Hindu Mahabharata states:

“One should never do something to others that one would regard as an injury to one’s own self.”

Mahābhārata 13.114.8

Or in the teachings of the Buddha:

“Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Udanavarga 5:18

And similarly, Jesus of Nazareth said:

“Do to others what you want them to do to you.”

Matthew 7:12

So, as with values, there are some common themes, but it is also worth reflecting upon the specific principles you hold to. This can be done systematically if you take time to reflect on how you make decisions. This reflective process will start to reveal the underlying principles you use.

If you would like to explore more on identifying and developing principles, then I recommend reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles where you can see how this process can be done on both a personal and organisational level.

Purpose

Similarly, to values and principles, there can be overlapping ideas of purpose. These might be:

• Individual purpose – your own sense of personal purpose
• Professional purpose – the specific purpose we have in a given work role
• Organisational purpose – the mission statement of a team or business your work for

To understand purpose and make it measurable it is advisable to create a clear and concise mission statement. A good purpose statement is a definition of success, within a given context.

For example, my own mission statement is:

 “To serve people by helping them unlock their leadership, in order to support them on their adventure.”

In this case, my personal purpose statement also encompasses my top three values of service, leadership, and adventure (but this does not have to be the case). For example, Oprah Winfrey’s purpose statement is:

“To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.”

What I find useful about this (and good purpose statements in general) is they can give a measure of success against different time scales. Both the mission statements above can be used to consider achievement in a day, week, year, or lifetime. These statements also help to analyse whether decisions have worked towards the good and successful outcome of the stated purpose.

Factors that impact good decision-making and ethical choices

Even after identifying our values, principles, and purpose, or those specific to a given ethical problem, there are still factors that can impact making a good choice. Most of these factors relate to cognitive bias, the subconscious rules of thumb we use to help us make quick decisions.

To minimise the negative impacts of cognitive bias it is worth considering the following:

• Education and training. Learn about decision-making and the different types of cognitive bias
• Diversity of thought. Bring different perspectives to a team or decision
• Build a culture that allows challenge. Create a culture around you where people are more likely to challenge or call out bad behaviour and decisions (even if that is just a good friend who will be brutally honest with you)

The three things to help you make good ethical decisions

Therefore, if you want to make ethical decisions you need to first know your values, principles, and purpose. Then, while allowing for cognitive bias, you can then balance these three elements against each other to make your choice.

This does not mean you will immediately come up with an answer. If you are new to exploring values, principles, and purpose then that will likely throw up challenges and questions to work through before you even get back to the ethical problem you are facing!

But don’t despair. The search for good outcomes and truth is a journey, not a single destination. It should inspire personal reflection, critical thinking, and the sort of discourse that Socrates would be proud of. And that quality thinking leads to good actions, and as Martin Luther King said:

“The time is always right, to do what is right.”