Key Features of the 7 Decision Approaches

The Matrix Summary

Click on the name of the approach to be taken to a fuller account.

	Name	Aim	Core Process	Characteristic Feature	Emphasis	Typical Belief
L'7	Imaginist	To relieve disquiet	Developing inspiration	Internalize and confront disquiet to activate group imagination.	What enables personal growth?	Aspirations, creative potential.
L'6	Structuralist	To maximise accountability and control	Assigning accountability	Assign the right people to the right tasks.	Who is responsible?	Efficient managerial hierarchy.
L'5	Systemicist	To improve organisational effectiveness	Triggering balanced development.	Recognize and balance interrelated forces and factors.	What is a useful model of the situation?	Inter-connections enable organic evolution.
L'4	Dialectic	To resolve conflicts of interests	Finding compromises	Debate who should get what and why.	What payoff will satisfy each party?	Respect for different views and viewpoints.
L'3	Pragmatic	To get action for some gain	Seizing opportunities	Seize on easy obvious opportunities for piece-meal improvement	What can I do easily now?	Self-interest & expedience.
L'2	Empiricist	To resolve problems	Using information	Analyse underlying problems to yield the best solution.	What are the relevant facts?	Facts are certain & knowledge is essential.
L'1	Rationalist	To achieve objectives	Setting purposes	Get agreement on priorities, goals, plans and evaluation.	What are our aims?	Significance of shared values.

See the picture

The various ways of deciding differ so sharply in their focus and nature, that their processes can be difficult to compare. In the accounts found in the Table of Contents, a schema is used to help us see what is involved. The schema lets us imagine a decision process as if it were a «rational cycle» with artificial sequential segments.

The Schema

1. Start — based on some impulse or impetus to act.
2. Explore — inquiry or further examination of the issue.
3. Develop Possibilities — discover and consider alternative courses of action.
4. Resolve — the moment of decision: based on applying value.
5. Reiterate — often a more detailed repeat of some (even all) earlier phases.
6. Implement — actions that put the resolution into practice.
7. Review — inquiry that occurs during action and afterwards.
8. Handle Failure — the usual way to overcome failure.

Remember

This is an artificial division to reveal the usual terminology of the various approaches and show up differences between them. This analysis suits some decision types better than others. It is not uncommon for this process (or something quite like it) to be proposed as an actual method in itself. However, these schema elements are all concepts and each decision mentality will understand those concepts differently. See more here.

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• Now click on any one of the approaches in the Table, or look through them in turn starting here.

Originally posted: 3-Apr-2011