Discernment

The current issue of the Harvard Business Review looks at decision making. That most complicated, most reviled and most respected process in any organization. Those of us who fail to recognize when a decision is required do not function long in management. Sometimes making the wrong decision is better than making no decision at all. We all have worked for managers incapable of providing clear direction. For any of our actions to be efficient, we need a sense of direction, a sense of purpose. We need to see and desire the goal.

"Decisions are the coin of the realm of business" say Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko "but even in highly respected companies, decisions can get stuck inside the organization like loose change." "When we make decisions, we're not always in charge." says Gardiner Morse, "one moment we hotheadedly let our emotions get the better of us; the next, we're paralyzed by uncertainty. Then we'll pull a brilliant decision out of thin air - and wonder how we did it." But he says neuroscientists tell us that "we have dog brains, basically, with human cortexes stuck on top".

I guess that explains why I feel like running :-)


Decisions pitch freedom and safety against each other. A decision, once made, closes off avenues and opens up new vistas.





As a "P" personality type, I don't like decisions. I don't like their finality. As a manager, I constantly make decisions and enjoy making them. What a funny bunch of contradictions we are. Luckily, the Scientific American tells me that being a mom has made me smarter. So I guess some of my decisions may be the right ones.

Discernment is the process of finding out what God desires of us. I listen for God's voice. I just hope there's no heavenly coin toss. Or worse. A decision by committee :-)

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.
-- Janis Joplin