Chick-fil-A   Murphy & Wylie

DECISION MAKING

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We all make lots of decisions each and every day.  In fact, research suggests that the average adult makes over 35,000 decisions through the course of their day.  Most of those decisions may have little impact on others...what you eat, what you wear, how you get to work, will you exercise, etc.  These decisions are mostly effortless, and we often make those decisions without much time or thought. However, there are also decisions we make each day that do have a greater impact on others and ourselves.  We can often spend more time thinking through those decisions and even allow ourselves to worry and stress about the outcomes of our decisions.  Having a good process for decision making can not only help ease the burden of decision making, but help us make better decisions throughout our day.

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Think through the following questions:

• What are some of the decisions that you make throughout your day?  What are the decisions you find to be fairly easy to make?  Which decisions are more difficult and maybe even cause you stress?

• Do you have a process for how you make decisions?  Do you make decisions based off your gut or what is beneficial to you or others? How much time do you spend gathering information for the decisions you make? Do you think through consequences or risks of your decisions?

• Are you usually comfortable with the out come of your decisions?  Do you ever regret your decisions or change your decisions?  Do you think decisions are final or can they be adjusted if needed?

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Not only are you faced with all the decisions you have to make daily, but as a leader, there are many times you have to make decisions which impact your team, your guests, and the business.  The decisions leaders make often have a lot more at stake, but also have a lot more impact if made with excellence.  Review the decision making process from the video.  The first step to making a great decision is to clearly define the problem or issue at hand.  Once you understand the root cause of your issue, then you can start to think through and find multiple solutions to your problem.  Having many solutions then provides you more opportunities to think through all the possible risks and rewards of your decision.  With more information, you can be more objective and make a decision based on your thought process.  Finally, take the time to evaluate your decision to see if it produces the correct results or if it needs to be adjusted in any way.  If you go through your decision making utilizing this process, you will find yourself making better decisions which bring about more desirable outcomes both within and outside of Chick-fil-A.

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Think through the following questions:

• How do you think having a well defined problem or situation can help you in the decision making process?  When you know the root cause of an issue or problem, does it help you find better solutions?

• When you brainstorm solutions for a problem or situation, do you try to seek multiple solutions?  Do you utilize others to help you with thinking through or helping you find solutions?

• Why do you think understanding the risks and rewards of your decisions can help you make better decisions?  Do you think you can make big decisions that are risk free?  Do you think you can have different decisions that all have big rewards?  How do you choose in those situations?

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TAKE ACTION

With all the decisions you have to make daily, creating a system and process to make better decisions will help you tremendously.  It will reduce your need to rely on your gut or feelings, and begin to make decisions with more thought and objectiveness.  Of course, that doesn't mean you have to always make the logical decision or abandon all intuition.  It will just provide you more information so you can explore as many possible solutions and outcomes so that you can be more confident and satisfied in the decisions you make.  and developing your perspective is not an easy thing to do.  It takes intentionality and vulnerability.  Try to implement some of the decision making process outlined above over the next month and see how it might possibly improve your decision making as a leader both in and outside of work.

• Identify a problem within the business that you believe is negatively impacting the team, our guests, or our customers.  Use the "5 Whys" worksheet below to see if you can identify the root cause of the problem.  Once you have identified the root cause, see how many different solutions you can come up with to resolve the issue.  Once you have exhausted your list, ask other team members and leaders for their solutions as well. 

• Choose your top 3 to 5 solutions and use the "5 Whys" worksheet to create a cost-benefit analysis for each solution.  Think about all the risks and resources that might be necessary for each solution.  Then think about all the benefits (obvious and not as obvious) that could come about from choosing each solution.

• Finally, if necessary, present the problem, solutions, and your recommended decision to a Director in the business.  Walk the Director through your thought process and try to move forward with a decision with your Director's support.  Track your progress over the next several weeks to see if you made a good decision.  If you feel like your decision is not producing the results you hoped, then go back and reevaluate other solutions to see if they might work.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MASTERY

Is able to clearly define problems and identify root cause of problems; is creative and innovative in finding solutions to problems; does not let external circumstances or fear of failure interfere with their decision making process; is able to evaluate multiple solutions and choose a solution which maximizes benefits and reduces risk; has a spirit of humility and willingness to admit when they have made a wrong decision and revaluate process to make a better decision.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES​

1. 5 Whys Worksheet