Demystifying the Art of Group Decision Making - Mountaineers Seattle Program Center

6:30-8:30pm in Cascade A/B

Decisions, decisions, decisions. There are many decisions to make on trips and the “right” decision is not always obvious. As a leader, there are many ways for you to make decisions on trips. You can make them yourself, you can throw them to the group for democratic decision, or you can use some style in-between. For a given decision, one style may be more appropriate than others. Over the years, I’ve developed a process for collaborative group decisions which I’ve come to prefer because it has some nice features:

• It gets people’s opinions out in the open
• It encourages discussion
• It comes to a definite decision in a finite amount of time (usually)
• Everyone understands how the decision was made and buys into it

I’ll present my group decision process, then we will practice it with decision-making scenarios. I hope this will form the basis of a general discussion about group decision making on trips.  My goal is that you leave with a new tool you think worth trying and some new thoughts about the role of a leader.

In order to provide good feedback and inclusive discussion, space in this workshop is limited. Please attend or cancel so others may attend. 

In addition, attendees should expect to review a few short reading materials to prepare for this workshop. These will be sent out several days in advance.