From WildWiki

Decision-Making Skills

It is important for students to be able to understand that decision making lies long a continuum and is not simply something that we do regardless of context. This is especially important at a place like Earlham which values consensus yet does not decide everything by this community decision making standard (despite assumptions that we do). Helping students understand situation decision making will benefit them not just when the are leader-of-the-day or are trying to decide whether to push on or camp for the night. It will help them as they grow and develop as students and leaders at Earlham as well.

Educational Goals

This talk should be introduced in the Main section of a course and typically afer students have some experience with decision making so that they can relate examples from backcountry contexts. By the end of the lesson, students should understand the different decision making styles and what contexts they generally are employed in as well as have had a general discussion about how decision are made within the group on the trip thus far.

Key Points

Use the adjacent grid outline with students to illustrate how decision making is situational and depends on the scenario you find yourself in. This is usually a good talk after the first few leader of the day opportunities when students may be feeling a little frustrated about how decisions are being made in the group.

Teach students about the leader almost decides and then consults- it is a very useful frame for LOD decisions

Place consensus in context- give students an understanding of its function in decision making (pros and cons) and why it is used at EC. Get students to give examples of decisions that could be made in each category.

See excerpt from Margaret Lechner’s article on “The Process of Consensus” at the beginning of this section for more information.