DM

Decision Making
(Extracted from the book "Airmanship")

Developed By: Abdullah Al-Helow

Doc.435 69 09
How to make better decisions
 What is decision making?

It is a conscious mental process that we use to

choose the best option for a given situation, even
though much of the process may be sub
conscious. The decision becomes apparent to
others when we take an action based on the
choice we make. When they make poor decisions
it is often for the following reasons:
They have used the wrong process for the
situation.
They have used the right process but
incorrectly.
 Expert and a Novice

Decision making is the area where the

greatest distinction between an expert and a
novice is noticed. Experienced pilots tend to
have a large database of prior decisions to
access, which is almost impossible to transfer
to someone else verbally. Also experts know
which decision making process to use, the
importance of getting correct and adequate
information before making the decision and
where to get it; and finally how to use the
time available. Although not part of the
decision making process, decisions can also
 Decision Making Process (1/3)

Before going on to the specific choice

processes, there is an overall process that can
be used, which is familiar in different forms to
many pilots. The first step is to determine
how much time is available to make the
decision and how important it is. The more
time and importance, the more effort and
care should be put into the decision. Then
there is normally a mnemonic associated with
 Decision Making Process
(2/3)
D Diagnose G Gather
information
O Options R Review
information
D Decide A Analyse
A Assign &Action D Decide
R Review decision E Evaluate
decision
 Decision Making Process (3/3)
In practice these checklist type decision tools are not often
consciously used, particularly by experts who have
probably made the decision several times before in various
forms. Nevertheless, they are useful in new situations,
doubt or pressure to help the crew think in a structured
manner, and also to explain the intuitive decision to
someone less experienced after the event. These normally
include an information-gathering step, then an analytical
step, a decision step, an action step and then finally a
review step to monitor if the decision was correct. The
process is also circular in that after review you go through
it again. However, on all of these the key step, that of
DECIDE, is not developed into much detail and it is this
step where the main decision making processes take
 Decision making constants (1/6)
There are some constants that surround the
subject of decision making.
1. Information collection
2. Judgment
3. Risk
4. Review
5. Experience
 Decision making constants (2/6)

Information collection
In all the processes the correct information
must be used whether this is done
consciously or unconsciously. Using
communications, situation awareness and
techniques for minimising fatigue or other
physiological effects will ensure that the
correct information is obtained.
 Decision making constants (3/6)
Judgment
At various stages in all the decision making processes
a person is making an assessment of the information
they have and estimating the outcome. In other
words, they will have to use their basic judgment of
the facts in front of them. It is not unusual for people
of equal intellect and experience, using the same
decision making process, to come to opposite
conclusions. It is why we can never know who will win
the 3.30 race at Ascot, or who will be elected, or
what the stock market will do next week.
 Decision making constants (4/6)
Risk
Similarly people with the same information,
decision making process and even judgment
can often have a different attitude towards
risk. In other words, I might agree with my
friend that 5-1 are the correct odds for the
horse, but still feel the best decision would be
not to invest my 10 JOD.
 Decision making constants (5/6)

Review
All decisions should be subject to continual
review and of course further decision making
if necessary.
 Decision making constants (6/6)

Experience
This is always going to have an influence on the way we
make decisions and it is an area that is not easily
understood. Experience is the sum total of everything we
have seen, heard, smelled, tasted or felt, and thus it is a
massive database of information. There are theories that
all this information is still in our heads, somewhere,
because unlike computers we do not have a delete
function or the ability to reformat the brain. The problem
that most of us have is trying to remember which file the
information is stored in, and how we can retrieve it when
needed. Nevertheless, experience assists us in strange
ways, as we are able to make sound decisions with no
more guidance than a feeling we have. Yet sometimes as
 Group decision making (1/4)
It is often easier to make decisions on your
own rather than having to agree with
someone else, but joint decision making is a
skill that crews must develop.

One of the essential things for groups to

agree on first is which process they should
use.

Often the cause of conflict in group decision

making is that the participants are using
different processes.
 Group decision making (2/4)

Another key factor in group decision making is

the validity of assumptions.

Many disagreements between people occur

because the assumptions they are working
from are different and they do not realise this
is happening.
 Group decision making (3/4)

Once the argument is in full swing and the

interpersonal conflict has overtaken any rational
thought, it is often too late to get any agreement.
It is therefore essential when trying to make
group decisions that the participants also agree
on the validity of their assumptions.
These assumptions are generally based on facts
that can be verified, or judgements that the
participants can more easily agree.
 Group decision making (4/4)

The final factor in group decision making is

differing attitudes to risk. Even though all parties
agree on the assumptions supporting each
option, they may be less or more willing to take
risks.
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