TABLE OF CONTENTS In the last chapter I put considerable emphasis on the importance of values-based decision making. This chapter explains why values-based decision making is essential for creating successful, healthy, and sustainable cultures. Before exploring values-based decision making, we need to understand the underlying dynamics of decision making.
There are four components to decision making (vectors of consciousness) that apply to all individuals and groups: data gathering, information processing, meaning making, and decision making (deciding on a course of action).
We use our five senses to gather data from the outside world data gathering. We use our brain to integrate the data from the five senses into information packages information processing. The mind then compares the incoming information package with the information packages stored in memory to find a match meaning making. When it finds a match, it releases the instructions attached to the memory along with any emotional charge associated with the memory, which results in actions and behaviors decision making. If the mind does not find a match, it uses reason and logic to formulate a response to the situation that seeks to exploit the situation to satisfy whatever motivations are currently occupying the mind. The response will be determined by many factors, the most important of which are the level of consciousness the mind is operating from and its predominant drivers.
The instructions that are attached to memory are learned from previous experiences. The most deeply engrained instructions are those we learned during childhood when our...
