A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
Toolset 1
Using PrOACT To Help Make Decisions
(Based on the book, Smart Choices, by John S Hammond, Ralph L Keeney and Howard Raiffa)
Lesson 1 – Problem: Defining the Decision Problem
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A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
Introduction
Understanding why we need to make a decision is important if we’re going to make good
choices. In our impatience to get started, we run the risk of not adequately defining the
problem that is causing us to make the decision.
If we are to make good choices, we must define the decision problem, the problem that is
forcing us to make a decision.
This lesson describes 5 ways to define the decision problem, covers the benefits of asking
others how they see our situation and reviews the importance of revisiting our decision
problem while working through the PrOACT process.
Defining Your Decision Problem
What’s the problem?
Answering the above question can prove a challenge for some of us. When asked what’s on
our mind, it is not always easy to put our thoughts into words. To make matters worse, as we
answer questions about the problem, we might find that our answers do not exactly match
the original problem in our head.
To be clear about what the problem is you will need to write down your thoughts to check
whether you really understand them. Be creative in the way that you state the problem, since
this will help you with the next step of the PrOACT process, Objectives.
For instance, rather than describing a weight loss problem this way,
I need to find a new diet to help me lose weight,
A little creativity introduces a new angle to the problem:
I need to find ways of making myself look and feel healthier.
There are 5 techniques that you can use to help you define your decision problem:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Understand what triggered it,
Identify any constraints,
Break down your situation into its constituent pieces,
Understand how your current problem is affected by previous decisions and how
the decision you will make can affect future ones, and
Decide whether the scope of your decision is either too broad or too narrow.
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A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
1. Triggers
This approach involves finding what happened, the trigger, that led to the problem. A trigger
might be a conversation, an event or perhaps a request, something that initiated the
problem.
Having identified the trigger, you need to check that it is not limiting your perception of the
problem.
2. Constraints
Imagine that you are trying to decide when to hold an off-site, 2-day planning meeting for
your work colleagues. Your problem’s constrains are that it:
a) Involves a meeting,
b) Is off-site, and
c) Lasts 2 days.
In order to get the planning done, must it occur off-site? Does it require a meeting? Must it
last 2 days?
Losing one or more of these constraints, especially when they are not necessary or important
creates a whole new set of options that you may not have considered.
While constraints can be useful, check to see if they are misinforming you about the nature of
the problem.
3. Constituents
Breaking your problem down into pieces helps you to identify what is at its core, which will
then help you to reach a decision that meets your needs.
Finding those parts of the problem that are important to you makes the problem more
specific, which can then be leveraged in the next step of the PrOACT process, Objectives.
4. Previous and Future Decisions
Decisions rarely exist in isolation. The decision we want to make today is a consequence of
decisions made in the past, while whatever we decide on in the present will influence the
decisions we will face tomorrow. While it is almost impossible to anticipate all the
consequences of a decision, it is a good idea to consider those that we are certain will
influence decisions later on.
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A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
5. Scope
A problem that is either too broad or too narrow will not help your decision-making.
You know that the scope of your problem is too broad when you realise that it involves having
to make more than one decision.
On the other hand, be careful when defining a problem that is too narrow in scope, since the
decision you make creates a solution that might not resolve a broader issue.
Talk To Others About Your Situation
Talking to someone whom you trust and respect about your decision problem can help provide
fresh insights through the questions they ask and the clarification they seek. Even if they are
unable to offer new ideas, just describing the decision problem to them will help clarify it for
you.
When it is not possible to talk to anyone, ask yourself how someone you admire might see the
problem and go about defining it. Seeing the problem through another’s eyes, adopting their
persona, helps you to see the problem from a different perspective and might identify gaps in
your thinking.
Revisiting Your Decision Problem
As you work through the PrOACT process it is important to revisit your decision problem to
check whether it is still relevant to you.
Your situation may change and as a consequence your decision problem may change or may no
longer be relevant, so it is important to regularly ask yourself,
Am I working on the right problem?
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A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
Case Study
Note: Since case studies are described in the video lessons covering Consequences and Trade-offs, I
thought it would be useful to include a case study in the Lesson Guides for the first 3 steps of the
PrOACT process, Problem, Objectives and Alternative.
Background
It has taken Archie a week to come to grips with the news that he has been made redundant.
At 35 and having worked for the same publishing firm for 10 years as a web designer, the
news that 3 months from now he will be out of a job was a shock, even though he knew the
firm was struggling to cope with a fall in business.
Still feeling dazed and a bit depressed, Archie feels that he needs to take back control of his
situation by making a decision about what he will do next.
What follows is a description of how Archie work on his decision using the first 3 steps of the
PrOACT decision-making process.
Problem
Archie’s first step is to define the problem behind the decision he needs to make.
After watching the lesson on Problem, he works through each of the 5 techniques for defining
his problem, and writes down the following,
Trigger:
Constraints:
Constituents:
Redundancy

My savings and redundancy money

I want to continue working in web development

3 months of paid work remain

I earn enough to support my future family

Whatever I do must create security for me and my future
family

I want to continue web developing
Previous and 
Julie and I agreed that we want to start a family in the
future
next 2 years (previous)
decisions:

Me supporting the family if Julie decides to spend more
time with the children (future)
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A Decision-Making Toolkit Lesson Guide
Scope:
I only have the one decision to make, what do I do next?
Whatever I come up with must provide me with stability
over the next 5 years, so that Julie and I can start a
family. The scope of this decision is just right!
Although he feels a bit down he agrees to spend the weekend with his brother’s family in the
Cotswolds. While on a walk to the pub, he tells his brother, John, about his bad news. When
John asks him, ‘so what are you going to do?’ Archie describes what he wrote down to help
him define his decision problem.
‘From the way you describe things,’ says John, ‘it sounds to me as though, whatever you end
up doing, you’ll want it to prevent anything from getting in the way of you and Julie starting
a family.’
On the drive home, with Julie asleep in the passenger seat, Archie thinks about what John
said:
Whatever you end up doing, you’ll want it to prevent anything from getting in the way of
you and Julie starting a family.
It’s not just about what I’m going to do next that’s the problem, he thinks to himself, but
rather what am I going to do that will allow me to start and support a family.
When Archie gets home, and before he forgets it, he grabs a piece of paper and writes the
following decision problem:
What kind of work will I do to provide Julie and me with sufficient
security to start and support a family?
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