632.7.3.RB - Collaborative Decision Making

Collaboration is almost always a great factor when seeking to arrive at a resolution. Even in cases where you think you are the only one being impacted by your own decision, think again and you will be surprised. An example being deciding what your next path is in your career, or where to live, even though these decisions primarily impact yourself they are bound to impact others like your family and loved ones.

An example of the collaboration that was involved with a big decision of my own, that in most cases I would have thought was only impacting me, was my own decision to move either move closer to my family in Florida or stay put in Massachusetts. I began this decision process by building a vision of the possible outcome with my boyfriend, we discussed what the outcome of moving would look like not only for us but for our careers, our families, and our future. This stage was critical to even beginning to form a decision on the subject and I would say that it was a perfect fit with Levine’s first two questions “does the preliminary vision fit everyone’s view of the outcome” and “does the preliminary vision take care of all specific concerns in the situation” (Levine, 2009). Next my boyfriend and I discussed potential fears, like our move having a negative impact on our careers, for example I was unsure if my employer would allow me to work remotely from Florida, so this was something that could have a big impact on the current stage of my career. This phase of discussion aligns well with Levine’s “what concerns or fears does your preliminary vision bring”, and this allowed us to really analyze the weight of the potential decision to move. The last prominent stage of the decision that we went though was analyzing what other stakeholders think about our potential decision, for example my employer, our families, and our friends. This part of the collaboration aligns perfectly with “who else has suggestions or insights about anything anyone has said” (Levine, 2009).

Through this exercise I learned that without much organized intent we were fortunate enough to make the decision to move to Florida with much thought and collaboration, similar to what Levine recommends when seeking out a resolution. In the future I will apply Levine’s questions to effectively arrive at a strong resolution. Additionally, I will also take this exercise as reassurance that naturally my partner and I seek out a a great deal of collaboration and thought that go into making decisions together.

Reference

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.