Sunday, March 9, 2014

A632.8.3.RB_StevensEric



The decisions that I have made in the past considering the Cynefin Framework  and the methodology of the decision making skills have occurred on several instances where I have had to work through the issue. When you make decision using multiple contexts you have to be very careful not to misconstrue the method and meaning of your decision.  We have all maybe looked at the simple form of decision making and looked back to see if the question at hand has appeared in the past and what did we do to answer this problem.  As with any decision we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent with the same answer that we have done over and over. This may be a pitfall where the variables of the problem may have changed and we miss the warning signs. When these danger signs have been identified it is important that we ask and present this to our peers for review and suggestions.  It is very important to recognize when we are faced with a problem that we feel that may be beyond our capability to answer correctly or accurately.  When faced with this we need to outsource the issue to gain a fresh prospective on how we are going to handle this. Ultimately the final decision should remain with you since you are the one tasked to handle the issue. This can often lead into complex or chaotic type of situations where you cannot seem to find a solution to the problem. The command and control tactic may work in the short run but you can assure that this should not be a long term answer to the problem.  Remain fluid in this crisis and be ready to accept any suggestion from your peers since they may have a better idea. Don’t let pride or your ego get in the way of the correct decision.
I have faced this in the past with several decisions that I have made. The first instance is when I was supervising a squad where we responded to a call involving a missing person. I have handled many missing persons cases in the past but this call had several variables that I have not experienced before. The fact remained that I was not willing to let a junior officer take charge of the scene even though he response to the dilemma appeared to be the more prudent response. I thought of cutting corners to shave of the time on the call. Ultimately I conceded that his idea was the proper step to take and I allowed him to take over and handle the situation.
The second involved the training of a specific topic on active shooter response. The initial response that I had was to think that we have had several active shooting situations throughout this country and I would use these scenarios to base my training on. Upon closer analysis I quickly found that these specific scenarios had many differences. Even though the fundamental was the same the variables involved were not. I chose to maintain a fluid response to this training and see where the participants took the training. In essence the students trained themselves and I acted as a facilitator on this training and I was very pleased with the outcome.
The ways I feel this can improve my decision making are the fact that one I need to slow my thinking down. Two I need to look at the variables individually and   attempt to answer each variable. Three I looked at the methods that I was using to answers these issues and respond according to the issue. Four I need to gain more peer influence and not think that just because I am the supervisor it doesn’t mean I have all the answers. And finally I need to look at the way I break down the issue and try and gauge what my response is usually and anticipate changes to the variable and adapt to these changes.

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