W3 - Discussion Question # 3

One concept that I found interesting in this past week's reading was in regards to "The Six-Step DECIDE Model of Decision Making and Problem Solving." Personally, I think it is a lot easier said than done to follow the six-step model. The reason why I say this is because of two things: 1) Most small groups that we deal with are composed of people from very diverse backgrounds, 2) When in a time crunch, it may not be feasible to go through all the six-steps as detailed as the text made it seem. I am basing this on my own personal experience, but I noticed that many times we are not able to choose our own small groups in work or in school. I understand that part of the reason for that is because in real life, specifically in our jobs, we do not get to choose we work with and so therefore we need to be able to find a way to work with people from all different backgrounds. While the differences make us who we are, they can also be a reason for conflict to arise within a group and therefore cause the group to hinder when trying to make a decision or solve a problem. Also, when you are pressed for time, going through all six steps may seem like a chore, rather than a model for effective decision-making. In my opinion, this will cause the group to either blow through the steps real quickly or skip some steps which will then make this model ineffective all together.