TregoED Blog — Decision Making

What could choosing transportation fuel options, planning a billion dollar bond referendum, and selecting a new math curriculum series possibly have in common?  If you said, “they are all issues TregoED clients are currently working on” – you’d be right!  But in addition, they each: involve major decisions aimed at addressing existing problems have a Read the full article…

In a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, the headline reads “How to Make a Big Decision-Have no fear. An emerging science can now help you choose.”  In fact, the science of making better decisions emerged in the 1950’s when Dr. Charles Kepner and Dr. Benjamin Tregoe, while working for the Rand Corporation, Read the full article…

It is sometimes (but not always) easy to quantify the cost of mistakes – purchases or investments made that did not pay off, initiatives that were poorly executed, budgets that are underfunded. But what about the very real – but often less evident – costs of people-related problems? An article in the Harvard Business Review Read the full article…

  “As decision-making shifts away from the federal government, it is more important than ever that our nation’s schools be led by individuals who possess the skills and technical prowess to design and adopt school improvement strategies that truly make a difference for kids.”  Alison Welcher U.S. Senate Education Committee Testimony   Beyond the Ripple Read the full article…

December is full of decisions – personal as well as professional! From selecting the perfect gift to staffing and budget choices. Some decisions can be made quickly with little consequence, others require time, data, criteria, and careful evaluation to avoid BIG consequences. Leadership style often plays a part in how decisions are made and who Read the full article…

I remember reading about a teacher who started each school year by giving her students a simple questionnaire that asked about their lives outside of school – where do you live & with whom?  How do you get to school? What responsibilities do you have outside of school?  All of the sudden, you see the Read the full article…

Simple Steps provide Decision Protection Insurance

  I saw a tweet the other day, a photo of a new administrative dream team out celebrating their first round of administrative decisions (with the best hot dogs they could find).  I wondered whether they had taken out any Decision Protection Insurance, so that their first set of decisions would not be met with Read the full article…

Don’t you love the pharmaceutical commercials these days, the drug relieves pain, but there is a long, long list of dreadful side effects that goes by in a flash.  Not all side effects, however, are bad.  I cannot imagine that the side effects of sharing leadership skills with anyone can be anything but positive.  The Read the full article…

We talk a lot about collaboration these days… it is even identified as one of the 5 C’s required for all kids to succeed.  We know it is important, we’ve been saying “two heads are better than one” for decades, but are we practicing what we preach?  I bet that there are some fine examples Read the full article…

Soft Skills: Evidence shows: Spend a Little, Gain a Lot!

There’s something about the term “soft” skills that sounds “less than” – something less important or real than that which is “hard” – think evidence, news, work, etc. But this is a misconception -it’s often the “soft skills” (e.g. teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, communication, self-awareness) that differentiate leaders and allow them to excel. When a leader Read the full article…