TASK

When trying to decide on a Service Term Learning Project, my team and I got together during class to discuss potential ideas. During this meeting, it was our objective to have an idea chosen so that we would have enough time to work on and complete our Cool-PM assignment. This situation was challenging because we were stressed about the amount of time we had left to complete the Cool-PM, which was two days. However, I exercised my decision making skills, as I provided my team with all possible options and routes we could direct our project in. I also took charge by suggesting different courses of action we could take to achieve our goal in the most effective manner.

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MY ACTIONS

My first suggested course of action was that all of our team members should think of some ideas before our meeting so that we could increase our productivity. Therefore, I researched information online about on-campus groups and problems to gather a few ideas before our meeting. However, not everyone came fully prepared to discuss, so there were few ideas we had to work with. I shared my idea of working with the Random Act of Kindness club or the volunteer centre on campus, and my other group members, Valentina and Elizabeth gave ideas about working with either the cooking club or with a residence to target first year students (refer to Figure 1). Since our initial options were limited, my group built upon the idea of creating an informative off-campus living seminar for first year students. Many of my group members were keen to work on this idea because of how quickly its potential progressed; however, I voiced my concerns by telling my group that I thought it was too soon to decide on a project. I told them I felt like we did not get the chance to brainstorm and thoroughly discuss different project because we were rushing into a decision. I weighed our options and stated we could either stick with this idea or open the discussion up to have more interesting choices. Instead of settling on that idea, I suggested that we go our separate ways so that everyone could have time to do their own individual research. I asked my team if they would like to meet later again that day to discuss, and they agreed in favour of having individual time to brainstorm. I identified that the best decision was to put off the decision making until everyone had time to come up with their own ideas. Once we met up later that day, everyone had more ideas to offer to the group. Brainstorming was more effective because we were able to list all possible options. In order to pick an idea, we discussed our own experiences as university students and talked about what resources and information we would like to have. Eventually, we were able to come to a consensus on an idea because everyone had the chance to voice their opinions. Based on current on-going issues, we agreed we wanted to host an informative booth at the SLC about sexual assault. 

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RESULTS

Although we were anxious about completing the Cool-PM in the beginning, we were all in agreement of the idea of an informative booth on sexual assault. My decision making skills effectively aided this process as I advised that we each take time to brainstorm, which helped us make a more informed project choice. As a result, there was consensus and more buy-in to our new idea. For example, Elizabeth and Dana said they were glad that I proposed a new course of action because they were not completely sold on our initial idea. Everyone had shared their thoughts and we were able to discuss what would be most interesting and feasible for us to do as a team. My decision making skills helped me advise an effective strategy that benefited us all, even if it delayed our process a bit.  From this experience, I realize that if I am stuck on a problem in future projects, I can use my decision making skills to weigh different courses of action, so the most effective decision can be made. Ultimately, decision making skills are not only useful in coming to a conclusion, but they are also helpful in recognizing how to make a decision, and what obstacles may be preventing you from making the most appropriate one.