(soft) Skills
for
(hard) Decisions

The “Skills for Decisions” tool has a broad spectrum of applications, but it is in the areas associated with the human resources of organizations that it finds its privileged application territory. In particular, it has excellent potential in conflict mediation contexts, in stimulating divergent thinking or in managing teams and projects.

It is also particularly useful in developing practitioners' soft skills, mostly in:

• creative problem-solving;

• building higher levels of self-confidence;

• the ability to set priorities;

• developing a sensitivity to the signs of change;

• improving adaptability;

• increasing the quality of interpersonal relationships.

“Skills for Decisions” is a process and a tool that has the potential to make us more resistant and resilient to the impacts of significant changes, whether on the macro scale of society, the intermediate level of a community or company, or the micro-scale of interpersonal relationships. It acts as a “simulator of events” and its practice stimulates and develops a sharper and more attentive sensitivity to the world and encourages the ability to (re)discover our patterns and habits so that we can, when necessary, inhibit them, and thus finding new circuits and alternative ways to solve the problems we face.

The “Skills for Decisions” tool comes in the form of a cooperative game. It starts out and adapts to the issues identified as central to its activity / practice by each group of participants, complementing them with other crosscutting challenges to any organization/community, such as:

• not seeking only the information that confirms what we already believe or think;

• slow down to decrease errors and precipitation;

• do not overuse the past as a point of reference;

• be prepared to change course as well as to maintain course;

• give value to the flexibility of decisions;

• decide responsibly, recognizing the impact waves of decisions.

Participants develop hands-on laboratory work that allows the identification and experimentation of individual decision patterns and reflection on them. The “Skills for Decisions” practice acts as a “simulator of events”, adopting the table game device as a privileged “training” territory, where the operations involved in the tension-relations we have with each other and with ourselves daily are replicated. That is why it is a game that, even without knowing it, we play every day, every time we approach a problem in a context of uncertainty, on imperfect and provisional information and, most importantly, within a team, organization, or community.

This game is played with everyday objects, such as office supplies - tape, sheets of paper, paper clips - or "props" that are "handy", like a water bottle, a garment, or a chair. The moves made by each player create relationships that act as the participant's "behavioural impressions", revealing their patterns and habits. The ability to identify and (re)discover our own patterns and habits is crucial so that, when necessary, we can inhibit them. This way, we can find alternative routes, decisions, and actions, and develop the ability to adapt to the present moment.

We call this aptitude CREATIVITY.

We propose a workshop divided by four modules that enable the practice of this work tool in various configurations and intensities:

It's an opportunity to get to know teammates from other services and programs better. Interact genuinely and "without a grid".

It's an excellent methodology that allows creating a simultaneous individual and collective reflection on the way of acting, taking into account the common objectives.

It's a training that raises positive attitudes awareness and individual skills awakening that helps in interpersonal relationships and improve teamwork.

It's a training that uses innovative methods that are very stimulating for trainees, allowing them not only to develop personal skills (with particular emphasis on the decision-making process) but also to establish team-building.