Decision-making is one of those skills that we never really get proper training for. It is one thing to make questionable decisions in our personal lives. But when the decisions involve organizations and affect the lives of the people within, and in the case of criminal justice professions, impacts the people we’re serving and must be done fast because of the time-sensitive life-or-death nature of the situation we’re facing, decision-making gets a ton more complex.

This session’s instructor is Ed Sherman. He has four decades of experience in public safety having served as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, and paramedic, and is trained in critical incident stress management. Ed is currently an organizational consultant, executive coach, and leadership development specialist providing training, assessment, team building, and process improvement facilitation for organizations’ leaders and staff at all levels.

Specifics of this webinar include:

• The stakes of decisions in organizations especially in criminal justice and public safety agencies where urgent circumstances require immediate action.
• The value of having others who can provide more data and share their perspective in decision making.
• Considerations on the reasonable amount of data we can process to make effective decision-making.
• How we learn things, decision-making included, by observing other people do it and figuring out if the decision-making methodology is actually effective.
• Sorting through the various decision-making paradigms through a four-step process of learning, implementing, repeating, and evaluating to find one that works best for you.
• The essential components that must be present in decision making.
  • Training – not necessarily for decision-making but the things we are likely to encounter in our job that requires knowledge and familiarity should decisions be based upon these.
  • Information that must be weighed in and considered to make good decisions.
  • Experience that is a product of exposure to the environment we’re operating in.
  • Time to gather the information and analyze the variables based on our training and experience.
  • Mentoring that allows the passing of information from one person to another.
  • Networking that leverages the experience of others to support and inform decision-making.
  • Communication that is required between the different sources of information and the decision-maker to come up with an effective and beneficial decision.
• How lack of information makes us default to what is comfortable and familiar which may result in ineffective decisions and poor outcomes.
• The importance of constantly gathering information and learning during the routine day-to-day tasks to be better equipped when an urgent situation comes up.
• How experience produces muscle memory and neural pathways which helps in terms of deciding what to do when presented with specific factors or situations.
• The critical element of time in decision-making in the criminal justice and public safety arena.
• How mentoring has evolved and not just refers to a senior teaching a junior but now also includes peer mentoring and even a subordinate with specialized experience/education mentoring a leader.
• The different places and means to build one’s network.
• Why those in leadership positions find it challenging to communicate with others and reasons why it is actually valuable from a decision-making and influence standpoint.
• Recommended resources on decision-making and one of Ed’s toughest decisions in his career.

Points raised by the course attendees are about:

• Ways to solicit employee feedback about their work environment.
• Encouraging mentoring for senior workers who are resistant to change.
• Sifting through conflicting information towards a decision.
• Building better rapport with subordinates.

Other Webinars with This Speaker

• June 29: The Leader’s Dilemma: How to Balance Two Important Needs
• Sept 1: Decision Making: Maximizing Best Outcomes (this webinar)
• Oct 20: Leadership Mentoring: Successful Succession Planning

Resources and Handouts

• Handout: Key points
• Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must-Reads: On Making Smart Decisions
• How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices by Annie Duke

Audience Comments

• “The compliment of experience, mentoring, and referral info like the periodical discussed.” — Chris
• “It was very informative, the most valuable thing I took away from the lesson was the confirmation to take the time to gather as much information that the time allows to make the decision.” — JoAnn
• “What a fantastic Webinar. Thank you sooo much. I always felt it was important to communicate with staff outside of the “what we did wrong”. But it very rarely happens in my workplace.” — Donna
• “The breakdown of steps to making an informed decision and explained very well.” — Brenda