The Art of Decision Making

July 19, 2023
 

Our topic for July is “The Art of Decision Making.”   The decision-making process can be seen as a Venn diagram.  One circle is facts and information, the second circle is experience and listening to your mentors, and the third is asking for God’s wisdom.  Where they intersect, there is a place where you can make a decision.  The reliance and importance of asking for God’s wisdom was a topic of discussion in many Round Tables this month.

Seek the Great Counselor
We must not rely on our own understanding.  The Lord sees what’s around the corner as we deal with the immediate and the now.  He has found and believes there is wisdom in many counselors, but those counselors rely on their experience and their own understanding.   We have a great counselor that gives us wisdom and understanding from the invisible side.  The side you cannot see.  The side that could have warned us a downturn was coming or covid was going to hit.  Do we ask him for those things?  We need his word, his spirit, and his counsel.

Faith and Trust
One leader recommended “God Talks” by Ed Rush.  It has a process for making and evaluating decisions by talking to God directly.

One Round Table member knows a Christian business leader who takes part of his work week to spend time with God.  As the leader, he believes that is his most critical responsibility, so decisions are birthed out of time spent with God.  This individual’s business is growing, and he continues to influence people.

We are in the material world, and we put our trust in people, mentors, leaders, experts, and politicians.  When it doesn’t work out, we are embarrassed, disappointed, discouraged, and criticized.  Instead of faith and trust in humankind, we ought to put our faith and trust in God.  Ask, what is the right thing to do if we apply God’s will?

  1. This mindset makes decisions clearer, and easier.
  2. It will speed up decision-making and eliminate procrastination, fear, and uncertainty.
  3. Get clarity as to the situation and compare it to our purpose then make a decision and move on.

We have lost the discipline to seek God through His word, meditation, and fasting.  Your heavenly father wants to guide us.  Just start and set your timer.  Spend time with your bible and start giving thanks to God.  And trust him.

Effective Principles and Practices for Decision Making

  1. Focus on important issues, before they become urgent. One can focus on issues that are unimportant and non-urgent because they are easier to address.
  2. Take time to develop a consensus among decision-makers as to what is genuinely true in the decision-making situation.
    Don’t be so insistent on identifying the one “right” option that you become trapped in analysis paralysis and fail to make a timely decision.
  3. Make sure you are reading your Bible and praying regularly so that you can decide out of the foundation of God’s wisdom, peace, and power.
  4. Be sensitive to how your decision will affect all people involved and put your people first.
  5. Make sure your team does not fall into the trap of avoiding an option just because it may create conflict.
  6. As followers of Jesus Christ and stewards of God, we must be committed to doing what is right even though what is right is often the most difficult and personally costly option in any decision-making situation.

Upcoming Events
Please mark your calendar for our Grand Rapids Breakfast Social with Tim Hiller, owner of Chick-fil-A in Walker on Friday, September 15 at the Grand Rapids University Club.

Join us on October 20, for our Kalamazoo Breakfast Social featuring Steve Cummings, of SPC Consulting at the Kalamazoo Country Club.