STRATEGY SESSIONS #11

RULES, POLICIES, OR GUIDELINES FOR STRATEGC DECISIONS 

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

 

Plato, in explaining the views of Socrates, said that “… a life unexamined is not worth living.” 

 

It’s likely that we all examine, at least to some degree, our lives as reflected by our major life decisions and the consequences of these.  But by what measuring stick do we examine our major decisions and their consequences?  We examine or judge these probably based upon our life values and beliefs, our life goals, and any rules or policies that we have for living.   We’re more likely to do this examination when we perceive that our decisions or actions have produced negative consequences.  This process of self-examination, though, can often be quite casual or unstructured, and it can result in little clear feedback, learning, or change in future decision making.  Sometimes a poor decision and disastrous consequences also can leave us too shocked or hurt in the short run to be able to do much evaluation of the decision and to learn from these consequences.

 

A personal life philosophy and some decision rules or policies can shape our life or career goals and help guide us to beneficial life strategies and better decisions.  To what extent could you describe your life philosophy or begin to list the rules or policies by which you choose to lead your life?  Don’t be too alarmed or concerned if actually stating your life philosophy and listing your decision rules or policies would seem difficult to do.  For most of us, these insights and rules or policies are implicit ones that we seldom state or list.  We develop these decision guidelines, though, as a result of our early family experiences, the impact of our religious background and formal schooling, and the influences of friends and peers.   Our life philosophy and guidelines for making major decisions are largely shaped by the time of adolescent and early adulthood.  I know my own life philosophy and my guidelines for making major life and career decisions were heavily influenced by these mostly positive and helpful sources.  I can also remember reading literature, such as essays by Emerson, Thoreau, Montaigne, and many others, that influenced my own philosophy of living by age 21 or so.

 

Unfortunately, many young Americans do not have strongly positive or healthy role models within their families and among peers.  Many also have received limited positive learning impacts from religious, school, or reading experiences.  Children and adolescents are also more exposed than those in earlier generations to questionable or negative influences from mass communication and information sources.  Violent computer games, internet pornography, and other information sources often find business profit from shaping young audiences to consumption values and addictions that are clearly not in the long-term best interest of these youth.  Such media influence is hardly new.  Remember how early TV and film noir helped to make smoking seem a macho or stylish choice.   Recent decades have seen much more media influence toward certain lifestyle choices and values, and these messages and others that Americans receive can make it more difficult to develop healthy living philosophies and guidelines for making major decisions.     

      

Although policies, rules, or philosophies for living are often implicit and not stated or listed ones, there can be at least a few times when these decision guidelines could be made more explicit.  Trying to develop a more strategic approach for making a major career or life decision is one of these times.  Life or career goals should connect naturally to these life philosophies and guidelines.  Decision options might well need to be expanded or reduced when initially identified options strongly conflict with personal philosophies, policies, or guidelines.   Consequences of decisions can be evaluated in terms of whether these seem to further progress toward life or career goals and whether these consequences fit well into one’s philosophy, values, and guidelines for living.

 

Philosophies, values, and rules or guidelines for living then need to be somewhat specific for strategic decisions.  If these are so “mushy” or general that almost everyone would share the same ones, these are probably not as helpful as possible in offering strategic decision guidance.