In addition to running our own workshops at Paddocks Farm it is also thriving as a venue for small conferences, retreats and simply a suite of meeting rooms for clients seeking a different and unique back drop for their events. Please ring for more information on a venue only package. (44) 07879 662666.

"It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do" Elbert Hubbard

How do you make a decision? Researchers note that some of the biggest personal decisions we make – choice of partner and house purchases – can be made in a matter of seconds, "you just know it is right". By contrast, making a business decision can be an enterprise in stakeholder engagement, communications, politics, facilitation and more.

Launching into making the decision without pre decision making preparation can be fatal for the ultimate quality and ownership of the decision reached. Below are ten tips, extracted from our Decision Making Workshop, on what good preparation involves.

1. Write a decision statement – so that everyone responsible for, or interested in the decision, can see exactly what the decision to be made is really about. Keep this decision statement visible and referenced throughout the process, so that ongoing focus and clarity is consciously managed.
2. Identify who needs to be actively engaged in making the decision and who will be impacted by the decision made. Overlook someone at your peril.
3. Be explicit about the decision making process before you start. For example, will the decision be made through consensus reaching, majority vote or will the experts/leader have the final say after taking inputs from others. Commitment to a decision will be undermined if people enter the decision process under the mistaken belief about their level of influence.
4. Understand the decision context. A decision can rarely be made in isolation. What are the influences and constraints that need to be taken into account? What about legislation, core values, time lines, budgets, expertise, other decisions already made?
5. Decision making criteria – a great way to manage group decisions is to gain agreement on the criteria against which the options will be evaluated against. This can help to manage the emotions and politics that can suddenly surface when the decision making process starts.
6. Decision tools – use them if you believe that conversation alone will be hard to contain and structure. In the right context tools, like Priorities Grid, give everyone a voice and rapidly surface information. If you are interested email and I will send a couple of tools with worked examples.
7. Capture 1) the facts you have at your disposal 2) the gaps in knowledge and 3) the assumptions being made. These 3 categories prevent people treating opinion as fact and letting untested assumptions remain untested!
8. Focus on facts but listen to and acknowledge the emotions, these can give a powerful steer on the direction to take and the impact of a decision.
9. Bank your decisions – be explicit and formal when a decision has been made. Without formal confirmation you run the risk of people feeling it is okay to try and undo and remake it, or are simply unclear if they can now act on it.
10. Before planning to act on the decision reached explore the intended and possible unintended consequences of the decision, both short and long term. This understanding can then be taken into account and possible consequences better managed when the decision is acted on.

Spring always brings back into focus the fierce tenacity of life. Some of our trees and shrubs that looked dead for so long are offering up plump buds and unfurling leaves. Lambs and calves play within minutes of birth. I love it. As we wear ourselves out concluding some final touches to the farm the animals hang around watching us or simply "sunbath" and roll in the dust.

Our Kune Kune pig will, I hope, farrow (have piglets) within the week and is enjoying the run of the farm until that time. She has taken to coming on my feed rounds and going nose to nose with every occupant on the farm, except the bull!

Still trying to work out how to keep the Emus from being able to help themselves to food from the barbecue; without moving the barbecue too far from its ideal spot.

The geese have moved to their spring and summer quarters – a big field. One got so excited she leapt into the water trough and had to be fished out!