The Decision Making Spiral.

A good decision is one that advance us towards where we want to be.

The decision making process isn't a straight line.

It's a circle. More a spiral.

The end of our decision process is to take us back to where we started; albeit with the benefit of the information gathered, we have a more advanced understanding of our position in relation to where we want to be - our Widget.

(Which is really a better understanding of ourselves.)

Think of a coil - like as in a spring. Follow the coil one full rotation until it's back on the same plane as where you started - although further along the horizontal axis. That's the decision making path of inquiry.

Each decision builds on the one before it and is connected to it - as it will be to the ones after it.

When we circumvent the decision making process by using positional power, or instinct, or guesswork to get directly to where we want to be, we don't lay a coil of reasoning and learning behind us that we can build upon to spring us into our next decision. We just arrive at a place, with no understanding of how we got there except that we are the boss, or high enough up HR's wire diagram, or play tennis with someone who is.

No path for anyone else to follow us, therefore no possibility of Leadership. Or of Learning.

Our decision making process is like the rifling in a gun barrel; the Five Steps are the grooves that guide the bullet into a spin on its axis as it propels along the barrel of thought, thus stabilising its flight and therefore its accuracy towards its target.

Our Widget.