Decision-making tower or pyramid
- The pyramid model guides wise decision-making,
progressing from understanding the situation to considering how values, principles, and external
factors can and should shape decisions.
- Utilize four levels of the pyramid to make sound choices:
facts, personal values, guiding principles, and external influences.
- Decision-making pyramid: Descend through levels from facts to personality, acknowledging
influences and making wiser choices.
"Wise living gets rewarded with honor; stupid living gets the booby prize." -- Proverbs
3:35, The Message
How to exercise wise judgment and make good choices
This tower or pyramid illustrates how problem-solving in the situations of life can unfold
as we move from the facts of a situation to the factors that can guide us in decision-making.
- At level one, we ask: "What happened to bring us to this point?"
- At level two, we should ask: "In what direction am I being pointed by values that I personally
hold?"
- At level three, we should ask: "What principles should guide me in making decisions like
this? How do the theological positions I hold help me make decisions on issues like this
one?"
- At level four, we should ask: "How does my personality factor into the way I interpret
events?
Are there external factors (life situation, political environment, people to whom I am accountable
at work or in social organizations, my close friends, and so on) that are influencing me?"
- Finally, some options will emerge from which a choice can be made
Note: This pyramid starts at the top and works toward the bottom. Other
decision-making/problem-solving pyramids start at the bottom and work up.
-- Howard Culbertson,
"I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart." -- 1 Kings
3:12
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