A630.4.4.RB_DiazBrian

How does employee engagement correlate to decision effectiveness?  From a personal standpoint I defer to the values that were instilled in me at an early age.  I was taught to do the best I could at anything I did whether it was sports, school, or work.  In my current position the effectiveness of the decisions I make can have repercussions on the students I advise.  The same system of values and beliefs that I have are shared by my organization.  I think that has a great impact on how I conduct myself and why this position appeals to me with this particular company.  My students rely on me to provide them with information that they need in order to take the correct courses required to satisfy their degree programs.  If I cannot provide them with the information that they need or I give them misinformation it could be very costly to the student and reflect poorly on myself as well as the organization.  I do the best that I can to ensure that the information I relay to my students is accurate.  Because of my values, the nature of my work, and the standards I hold myself to, the decisions I make are calculated.  I strive to do my work as efficiently, effectively, and as professionally as possible.  There is a certain amount of trust involved.  Trust from my organization that I will do what is right, trust from my students that I am honest and diligent.  Brown (2011) wrote "When there is not trust, people will tend to be dishonest, evasive, and not authentic with one another, and communication will often be inaccurate, distorted, or incomplete." (p. 99). 

For me I know that one of the mail impediments to good decision making is adequate rest.  If I am not properly rested I do not function at my highest capacity.  With a two year old there isn't much you can do about this.  In the last two years I have become somewhat addicted to coffee.  It is somewhat of a joke these days but true.  I must drink 5-6 cups a day (recently) where I would normally consume 2 cups.  My son has recently began to experience all of the growing pains of a 2 year old.  Teething, growth spurts, colds, allergies... you name it he's been getting it.  He wakes up an average of 2-3 times a night now.  Usually around midnight, then again at 2am or 3am, and finally around 4:30-5am.  Just before daddy's alarm goes off for work.  And also when he gets up now he can't go back to sleep in his crib.  Oh no, straight to mommy and daddy's bed where he proceeds to toss and turn like the Tasmanian Devil himself.  That's been the norm for about 2 months.  Needless to say it affects my performance at work.  When 4pm comes around it's like I hit a wall.  I can no longer stare at my computer, I can no longer work on reports.  I find it a good time to make any phone calls I need to return.  This keeps me engaged in a different way.  I still need my computer but at least I am having actual human interaction and not just "talking" through email.

Another impediment to good decision making is not having all of the necessary information needed to make a good decision.  When dealing with military personnel is usually when I can become "lost".  It's one thing to be familiar with how one branch of the service operates, their protocols, their systems, their lingo.  But when you have to be efficient in every branch of military service it can be confusing.  This rank is different in the Air Force than in the Marines.  These documents are permissible for this branch and not these.  Navy tuition assistance is done a completely different way than Army.  Its enough to want to pull your hair out sometimes.  If there is one area that I wish we received more training in with respect to my organization, it would be to have greater military training.  If we had an internal practitioner that could be "responsible for changing existing patterns to obtain a more effective organizational performance" I think that would be a step in the right direction.  They would already be familiar with the culture and organizational norms.  If they could implement a change program to better help us to assist our military population (which of course is the majority of our students) then I would be 100% confident in my job as opposed to say 90%.

Blenko suggests that quality, speed, yield, and effort are the four elements to make a good decision.  If I had to add an element to that list it would be consequences.  One of my classmates, Alan Reichard wrote this week in our discussion board "I am constantly looking for ways to improve and consider the consequences of those changes from a worst case, best case and probable outcome vantage point.  I work diligently to become the agent of change but with purpose."  His post made me aware that decisions have consequences and to give thought to what those consequences might be.  To be honest its not something I gave much thought to before.  If I change "A" and "B" then "C" can be altered in an "X" way. It was very eye opening.  One of the great things about this program is the fact that we can all learn from one another and I think Alan's contribution is a prime example.

I learned that certain variables such as speed, quality, yield, and effort can positively contribute to effective decision making.  Being as analytical as I am speed was never an element I considered critical to good decision making.  To me, in my brain it was just the opposite.  Now that I reflect on it I am reminded of all the times I sat at my desk over analyzing an issue and spending a great deal of time on it.  When I first started as an academic advisor with ERAU I would find myself behind in my work daily.  It was because I was taking so long to reply to my emails.  I would analyze, over think, and second-guess myself to no end.  At the same time I was wasting my day and not able to attend to my other tasks.  It wasn't until I let myself be comfortable in my decisions that I noticed the change in my effectiveness.  I no longer fixated on over analyzing.  Little did I know that speed could actually be my friend.

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.