For Friday, here’s “Seven Distinct Paths of Decision and Action” [7MB PDF] by Warren Kinston and Jimmy Algie from 1989.

This paper describes the seven different approaches to decision-making, but note that it’s really about action, since decisions without action aren’t really decisions for managers.

They clarified this model of many years. Algie started developing it back in the 1970s, and I think that Kinston was developing something along these lines independently. Coming together at Brunel in the 1980s, they formed a fruitful partnership in teasing out the details of the seven different approaches to deciding and acting.

If people are to gain increased control over their own actions, they need a framework which encompasses the possible distinctive approaches to decisive action from their own practical standpoint. The main questions we have sought to clarify, therefore, are: (a) what distinct approaches exist in practice, and (b) when should each be used or avoided. Our research has resulted in a framework of distinct approaches which model the different ways that people can and do act. In any particular case. the issue. the individuals concerned and the circumstances determine what actually occurs. [pp. 117]

Their emphasis is on how managers can make better decisions. They were practicing this in their consulting and commercial short courses, especially but not exclusively in the healthcare industry in the U.K. (They also did extensive work in other areas, including government.)

For that reason, it’s worth spending the time to get through. They show how each different approach leads to a very different path to action. [Read more →]